Our first list is aimed at those students who have an interest in business. As you examine this list, which is of CEOs and presidents of 100 of the most recognizable US companies, keep in mind that extremely few people ever make it to this position in a major company. Many people have long, productive, happy careers that culminate in a position just below or even significantly below this, and the lists of where they went to college would be very similar.

Note that not only are some of their alma maters not among the most selective, they’re schools that you might never have guessed would produce such leaders and may never even have heard of. Why is this? Well, there’s not one answer to that.

Some blossomed late. Some aren’t strong with testing but are excellent with people. Some are excellent with testing but chose to stay close to home for college for some reason. Some went to the college they could best afford rather than the one that was the most selective. Some wanted a specific program only offered at less selective schools. Some really wanted to go to the college where their friends or boyfriend/girlfriend were going. For some, going to a less selective college allowed them to shine in a way that gave them the confidence they needed to become a leader. Quite a few did apply to one or more MC25 colleges, but weren’t admitted because those colleges have far fewer seats than qualified applicants, and they just barely missed making the cut. And so on.

There are as many stories as there are people on this list. What seems clear, though–with 74% of CEOs having not attended an MC25 college–is that if your kids end up going into business for a career, they will have similar options open to them whether they attend an MC25 school or one that’s less selective.

Company

Abercrombie and Fitch

Airbnb

Allstate

Alphabet

Amazon

American Airlines

American Express

Apple

AT&T

Bank of America

Berkshire Hathaway

Boeing

BoozAllenHamilton

Capital One

CBS News

Cigna

Cisco

Comcast

Corning

Costco

Cray Supercomputers

CVS Health

Dell Computers

Domino’s

Duke Energy

eBay

Etsy

Exxon Mobil

Facebook

Fannie Mae

Fedex

Ford

General Electric

General Motors

Goldman Sachs

H+R Block

Halliburton

Hershey

Hertz

Hilton

Home Depot

Honeywell

Intel

Intuit

JPMorgan Chase

Johnson and Johnson

Kaiser Permanente

Kroger Grocery

Liberty Mutual

LinkedIn

LL Bean

Lockheed Martin

Lowe’s

McAfee

McDonald’s

Merck

MetLife

MGM Resorts International

NBC Universal

Netflix

Nike

Northrop Grumman

Nvidia

Office Depot

Pepsi

Pinterest

Pitney Bowes

Pixar

PriceWaterhouseCoopers

Procter and Gamble

Raytheon

ReMax

Rite Aid

Rosetta Stone

SAIC

salesforce.com

Sirius XM

Sony Pictures

Sotheby’s

Southwest Airlines

Starbucks

State Farm

Sunoco

Target

Tesla

Texas Instruments

Tyson Foods

Unisys

United Airlines

UPS

US News and World Report

US Steel

Vanguard Group

Visa

Walmart

Walt Disney

Wayfair

Wells Fargo

Yelp

Zillow

College CEO/President Attended

Lafayette College

Rhode Island School of Design

U Michigan

Villanova U

Princeton

Albion College

Manhattan College

Auburn

Loyola Marymount U

Brown

U Nebraska

Virginia Tech

U Wisconsin–Eau Claire

Stanford

Ohio State

Texas A+M

U North Carolina Chapel Hill

U Pennsylvania

Lehigh

San Diego State

Washington State

Boston College

U Texas–Austin (dropped out)

Cornell

Miami U of Ohio

Princeton

Brown

Texas A+M

Harvard

UC Los Angeles

Yale

Georgetown

Washington College

Kettering U

Hamilton College

U Dayton

McNeese State

Shippensburg U

Princeton

U Virginia

William and Mary

Michigan State

Santa Clara U

U Central Florida

Tufts

US Military Academy

Oglethorpe U

U Kentucky

Hartwick College

UC Davis (dropped out)

Dickinson College

US Air Force Academy

U Memphis

US Air Force Academy

Duke

Miami U Of Ohio

Syracuse

U Nevada Las Vegas

UC Berkeley

Bowdoin College

Dartmouth

James Madison U

Oregon State

Pacific Lutheran U

Arizona State

U Louisville

Denison U

Syracuse

SUNY Oswego

Cornell

Purdue

U Virginia

U Virginia

U Illinois

U Arizona

U Southern California

U Pennsylvania

SUNY Albany

Yale

Texas A+M

Northern Michigan U

Illinois Wesleyan

Trinity U

UC Los Angeles

U Pennsylvania

Union College

U Arkansas–Monticello

U Chicago

US Air Force Academy

U Wyoming

Springfield College

Bradley U

Harvard

Iona College

U Arkansas

Indiana University

Cornell

Johns Hopkins

U Illinois

Stanford

Sources: Corporate websites, Bloomberg News, Wikipedia

(last updated 10/05/22)