<p>US corporation, largest client of DH - interesting how few have grad degrees and no Ivies</p>
<p>Baylor Univ
Towson Univ
Univ Illinois CHampaign Urbana, MBA WUSTL
Notre Dame Univ, JD Villanova
Ohio State
Univ North Carolina, MBA Stanford
Univ of Arkansas
Catholic Univ of CHile
Univ of Utah BA, MBA
Carnegie Mellon BS, MS</p>
<p>industry leading Fortune 500 company</p>
<p>CEO- LSU and Northwestern State U<br>
(MBA) (La.)</p>
<p>CFO- UCLA undergrad and MBA</p>
<p>EVP- Missouri- undergrad and MBA</p>
<p>EVP- Humboldt State</p>
<p>VP- Maine</p>
<p>Others- Ohio State, Lewis and Clark (General Counsel), Willamette Law (
GC), Maryville (TN), Kennedy Western, Humboldt State, West Point, MBA-Northwestern, Humboldt State, Western State (CO), Florida Atlantic, U of Georgia</p>
<p>Small law firm executive committee:</p>
<p>Princeton/Chicago
Brandeis/Penn
Cornell/Penn</p>
<p>medium non-profit museum:</p>
<p>Staff senior management team:
Boston University undergrad/George Washington University Masters
Hartwick College undergrad/Cooperstown Museum Studies Masters
Clark undergrad/NYU masters
Michigan State University undergrad (no advanced degree)
University of Illinois undergrad (no advanced degree)</p>
<p>Chairman of the board of trustees:
Pepperdine</p>
<p>That was fun! H's very large manufacturing company:</p>
<p>Tippytop management:
undergrad degrees --- Duke, U Mich-2, General Motors Institute (now Kettering U)-3, UC Berkeley, Stockholm U, Bonn U, Victoria College-U Toronto, US Naval Academy, Cambridge, U Missouri at Rolla. </p>
<p>Grad degrees for this group: Harvard-4, MIT, UC Berkeley, U Mich, U Toronto, U Texas, 4 no grad degrees (USNA, Cambridge, Bonn U & U Mich undergrad).</p>
<p>VP layer, those for whom I could find a bio:<br>
General Motors Institute (9), U VA, MSU (3), U MI (2), U Chicago, Purdue (2), Eastern MI, USC, Howard, US Naval Academy, Kent State, U Western Ontario, Melbourne, U Texas-Austin, Darmstadt Technological U, U British Columbia, Virginia Commonwealth U, St. Bonaventure U, Acadia U, TN State U, IN U, Nottingham U.</p>
<p>Grad degrees for this group: MIT (4), Duke, Central MI U (2), Stanford (3), MI State U (2), U Chicago (2), Purdue (2), U MI (2), Pacific Lutheran U, U Rochester, U Texas, York U, Northeastern U, USC, Harvard, National Defense U. One PhD, from UC Berkeley. A couple had no grad degree. Many had completed executive management programs at Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, and Tuck.</p>
<p>I think alot has changed in the past 30 yrs so I think looking at their schools is a bit misleading. I wonder how many of these same individuals would get hired today... I was lucky to be hired as a computer programmer in the early 80s with a business degree (marketing & management) and a few computer programming courses (my college prof hired me for her day job). Within 5-10 years, the environment had changed and I wouldn't have been hired given my background. The company was expecting computer science majors and for some depts (finance), they had to have attended specific (top) schools to even be granted interviews.</p>
<p>Dig--great thread. However, I'm afraid jerzgrlmom is probably right. (it's sort of like the "Would Einstein be accepted" question for college apps.) Back in the stone age, I too was hired as a computer programmer out of college -- with a major in Psychology! I found that being able to read and write was a big benefit in an area overrun with technical gurus who couldn't put a decent sentence together. I don't think there's any way that I would have been hired into that very large company today with the same background. </p>
<p>But, shear numbers will probably prevail in the top exec positions....there's only so many so-called "elite" colleges and universities---most of the college graduates in the U.S. still are graduating from the thousands of colleges that do not frequent the top of the USNWR rankings.</p>
<p>You may not need a top degree to get to the top, but it sure helps get your foot in the door!!</p>
<p>Harvard teaching hospital-Medical Clinic Staff-MDs/RNs:
Professional staff: BA/BS from--
Brandeis
Williams
Tufts
Michigan
Hiram College
U Penn
Northeastern
UMass Boston
Boston College
U Mass Amherst
McGill
CWRU
Dartmouth
Carleton College
Baylor
U Mass Dartmouth</p>
<p>Reading the above early returns, I conclude that the prestige/quality of the school matters chiefly for lawyers. From looking at earlier posts in other threads, it also seems to be that the prestige and quality of the undergraduate school matters a lot for getting into a top law school.</p>
<p>And money to pay for it (actually, for both).</p>
<p>Commenting on the observations that it might not be the same today:</p>
<p>As I said previously, looking at the top jobs in my H's company, it seems if you want to get there, you should go into sales. Most of the top dogs seemed to be younger than my H, and there were a few who looked MUCH younger. My H was sitting nearby when I was looking, and he is the one who pointed out the sales factor (which he was already aware of.) Although it is an engineering company, the number of engineers in the top echelon who actually did design or development were next to nil.</p>
<p>Which explains a lot of the problems that trickle down. But that's another thread.</p>
<p>Binx, I would agree on the sales aspect, also operations if it's applicable to your field. Jobs that have direct connection to income or EBIT or relative markers to the individuals particular industry lead to senior ranks and/or a very highly placed mentor. Diversity also plays a huge role these days. I don't agree that "things are different now than 30 years ago". I think those posters are younger and may be trying to justify "name brand colleges", unless the ages of all these exec are posted you can't really generalize about how many years ago it has been since they did undergrad. On the other hand, I don't disagree that there may be a "grad school" glow that can enhance a resume or at least a career path.</p>
<p>No doubt it's very regionalized (where companies recruit) and there is probably more heavy in the state Us. The northeast may be different but I would guess the state Us are not "under recruited" in favor of the privates. Also no doubt there are regionalized industry favorites for banking, manufacturing, the petroleum industry, technology industries.</p>
<p>Here's a related link from the archives: <a href="http://www.collegeconfidential.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?4/16073%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeconfidential.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?4/16073</a></p>
<p>I particularly like the list of famous college drop outs...and there's some small beauty in knowing that Jackie Kennedy transferred out of Vassar to attend GWU. :)</p>
<p>Perhaps the fact that there may be few engineers in the upper echelons of an engineering company reflects the fact that great engineers often make lousy managers! Technically oriented people often are less people oriented (not always, but often). That may be why the sales people are at the top ... they are in sales because they are more people oriented. </p>
<p>The top leaders at H's company are mainly engineers, and many went to the same small, not-so-well-known engineering school. What they have in common, though, is that many went to elite schools for MBAs. I think the combination of technical & business is the deal-maker.</p>
<p>I think the reality today is that people will need masters degrees to rise in organizations. The "name" will often make a difference ... but I think that the name recognition of grad school will be more important than the name recognition of the undergrad school. A bright, motivated student who takes advantage of the opportunities at his/her undergrad school --- and who gets some real work experience, such as co-op or internship --- will have a good chance of getting into a top grad program. So if it's a question of where to spend money --- elite undergrad or elite grad --- I would suggest grad school.</p>
<p>Agreed, an advanced degree is almost essential to move up beyond a supervisor or manager level. It's not essential that it fall right on the heels of the BS or BA and for some it's better to get a few years under the belt before going after that MBA or other advanced degree with the exception of a medical degree. These days the receptionist has a BS or a BA and in many of the highly technical plants the line people have BS or BA. I've always joked that the BS/BA is the "new" high school degree, but in the real world where you get that BA/BS is less important than getting it done and the bonus points go to the advanced degree school. I have an MBA but I had to work to pay for it and "picked" a cheaper, less reknowned program even though I had the GMAT and BA GPA to get into much more prestigious programs, I do think I would have advanced father and faster in the all important 30s with a more pretigous MBA. My BA was from a CTCL school. I have no regrets at all about my career path and life is good, but those things became illuminated for me as I went along the way.</p>
<p>The Leadership Team of my H's company (defense contractor) earned degrees from:</p>
<p>Air Force Institute of Technology
American University
Fordham University (NY)
Howard University
Naval Postgraduate School (CA)
NC State
Northwestern
Norfolk State (VA)
New York University
Pace University (NY)
Purdue University
Stanford
University of Chicago
University of Illinois
University of Miami (FL)
University of Michigan
University of Missouri
University of Notre Dame 2 people
University of Oklahoma
University of Rochester
USAFA
USMA 2 people
USNA
Wichita State
National War College</p>
<p>At least for lawyers who become judges, not all come from the "tippy top" schools...
California Supreme Court:
Fresno State/Hastings
USC/USC
USF/USF
UC Berkeley/George Washington
Holy Names College/Hastings
Princeton/Stanford
Stanford/Yale</p>
<p>The most recent appointee went to Holy Names, a small Catholic college in Oakland, California of no particular note.</p>
<p>"I don't agree that "things are different now than 30 years ago".</p>
<p>Oh, I think they are! I think, percentagewise, there are far fewer corporate leaders coming from the elite schools as undergrads than 30 years ago. I think this is primarily a function of the declining dominance of "old money". You still find an unusually high concentration among I-bankers, and the lawyers that serve them, but that might be more a function of the families they came from before they went to college, and college was just part of the package. As corporatism has shifted westward, the schools represented among leaderships have changed fairly rapidly.</p>
<p>One thing I do note is that, while most of the prestige schools went co-ed 30 or more years ago (with the women now in their fifties), the number of women in places of corporate or governmental power that came out of these schools (as undergrads) seems to me significantly underrepresented, relative to what they needed to do/be to get into those schools to begin with. The "old boys" networks, shrinking in importance, still seem to have remained all (or mostly) boys.</p>