Universities in the United States ranked by number of Fortune 500 CEO alumni in 2020
Harvard - 25
Stanford - 11
Penn - 8
MIT - 7
Yale - 6
Columbia - 6
Northwestern - 6
Cornell - 6
Chicago - 6
USC - 4
NYU - 4
SMU - 4
Princeton - 3
Texas A&M - 3
Notre Dame - 3
Honors? No. But certainly limiting recruiting to a list of top schools, with GPA cutoffs at those schools.
Is this data undergrad institution only?
When comparing supposedly prestigious positions in industries or academia, one has to keep in mind that far, far fewer graduates come from elite colleges than from the rest. The results have to be scaled appropriately for the comparison to be valid.
It may be hard for them to cut costs, but even if they do, itās unlikely that most schools will drop discounting because it seems that more college applicants find a $20K scholarship on $40K tuition more appealing than just straight $20K tuition.
Pretty certain that isnāt undergrad only.
It depends on what you are using the comparison for. For bragging rights, sure. But when you are trying to ascertain whether School A or School B is better for a high-caliber kid, itās actually pretty tough to tell whether it matters if School B is much bigger and has a lower floor on the range of student body quality than School A.
Ha! Thatās what I love about your posts, your inability to analyze the data you yourself post.
Letās assume that A&M, NYU, SMU and Notre Dame are worthy of undergraduate elite status (they arenāt, but weāll give them the benefit of the doubt). That means almost 80% of Fortune 500 CEOs DID NOT go to said elite institutions.
Youāve done a fabulous job at proving my point! Thanks!!! 
Now, we have to assume that the data posted says what you think it says, but it might not. Is that CURRENT F500 CEOs or all time F500 CEOs? You canāt tell because Statista wonāt let you see their methodology without paying.
This report has the top undergraduate schools for current CEOās and CFOās.
https://www.cristkolder.com/media/2697/volatility-report-2020-americas-leading-companies.pdf
There are certain internships or programs only for Honors. Iāll tell you this tho as Iām moving my son in right now for his internshipā¦of the many company profiles he did through downloading resumes, not a single one has a place to incorporate honors.
Thatās a nice report. Iāll sit down and digest all of it later. The interesting thing is that The Big 10 has more CEOs and CFOs than The Ivy League. Also interesting, Iowa State has the same number of CEOs as Stanford. Ten percent of the CEOs are from the Ivy League.
Can we stop worrying about the percentage of Fortune 500 CEOs and where they come from? When it comes to that, the disproportionate number from elite colleges can be explained by a higher level of talent concentration, and not some magic effect due to the brand name.
That explains how Harvard might have so many as an individual institution.
The point I was making is that there are not a disproportionate number of Fortune 500 CEOs from elite colleges. According to the data supplied by @Eeyore123, the Ivy League only accounts for 12% of the Fortune 500 CEOs.
Too many kids think they are āthatā person and itās why they apply to these schools. In total, few are these high level people.
I strongly disagree. There are MANY who are indeed qualified to be āthatā person. Iāve been around the ones that got in and the ones that didnāt. Thereās no external rhyme or reason to explain who got in and why. They were all good. Sure, there is an internal reason, but itās an intangible that has nothing to do with the quality of their record per se. There are far more of āthatā person than the contrived system created by specious rankings has spots for. Thatās the problem.
Now there are also students with no clue as how competitive it is that based on the record theyāve amassed have no chance, but theyāre different. They arenāt fully qualified.
Once you are in an organization, those who are liked And no how to connect and impress those leaders. Iām simply saying of the thousands of top 20 grads, percentage wise few will make it to senior leadership per capita. Yes it will be higher than a state school. But it is not the holy grail. Itās not automatic. Thereās a lot more needed. All Iām saying.
Harvardās 2020-21 tuition was $49,653. Knoxās 2020-21 tuition was $49,185 ā roughly the same. There is a more significant difference in the cost of room + board, which may primarily relate to the general difference in cost of housing in Boston vs Galesburg. However, comparing sticker price at 2 colleges where most students do not pay sticker price is not particularly meaningful. If you instead compare average price that students pay after FA + non-need based scholarships (as listed in IPEDS), Harvard is notably less expensive than Knox. If you control for income level, Harvard is far less expensive than Knox for all but wealthy kids.
Thatās not a good comparison. Harvard meets need but Knox doesnāt. Knox offers āmeritā scholarships, which are effectively tuition discounts as @PurpleTitan suggested. And Harvard doesnāt.
According to the CDS, Knox offered $35 million in need based aid vs a far smaller $6 million in non-need based aid. Including the $6 million doesnāt change anything in my post. Harvard is still has a notably lower average net cost than Knox.
An elite college is a premium brand. All premium brands rely on exclusivity, not just quality. Like all other businesses, colleges are the in business to build up their brands, not in their dilution.