Or maybe not. This article by Carol Hymowitz in today’s Wall Street Journal points out that the CEOs of many very large and successful companies graduated from schools that are nowhere near the pinnacle of the famous US News rankings. Hymowitz writes, “Getting to the corner office has more to do with leadership talent and a drive for success than it does with having an undergraduate degree from a prestigious university.”
The CEO of Accenture, for example, went to Dean College, a two-year community school, where he was fortunate enough to encounter a professor of economics who really turned his mind on. Would that have happened at a big research university where the professors largely avoid the undergraduates? Probably not.
