Why Frank Bruni Is Dead Wrong

Harvard Business School across the Charles River

Harvard Business School across the Charles River

SURPRISE: HARVARD, WHARTON, STANFORD, CHICAGO & KELLOGG LEAD ALL SCHOOLS WITH FORTUNE 500 CEOS

And what of Bruni’s “evidence” that only 30 of Fortune’s top 100 CEOs have elite degrees? First off, 30% is not a number to easily dismiss. After all, no more than 2% to 5% of all college graduates in the U.S. have gone to one of these elite schools. So even a 30% number is six to 15 times the representation of undergrads who have graduated from elite undergraduate schools. Add in those who have elite graduate degrees and the numbers disprove Bruni’s point even more.

Some 340 of the Fortune 500 CEOs have graduate degrees among their academic credentials, with about 200 of them holding MBAs, according to a 2012 study. Guess which schools claim the most top executives? It’s a parade of elite institutions led by none other than Harvard Business School with 40 of the top 500 CEOs. Indeed, one in every five Fortune 500 CEOs with an MBA earned it at HBS, including the chief executives of General Electric, Procter & Gamble and JPMorgan Chase. The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School was next, with 13 CEOs, while Stanford was third, with ten.

It didn’t get any more egalitarian after that. Following the big three was the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with 7, Chicago metro rival Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management is right behind Booth with six Fortune 500 CEOs, tied with Indiana University’s Kelley School with six as well. Then came Columbia Business School and the University of Virginia’s Darden School, each with four Fortune 500 CEO alums.

NEARLY 45% OF BILLIONAIRES ATTENDED AN ELITE COLLEGE

So forget about Bruni’s 30% estimate for elite undergrads. In fact, another analysis by Jonathan Wai of Duke University of the entire Fortune 500 from 1996 to 2014 found that roughly 38% attended elite schools. Yet another broader study of people who have obtained power and influence in their careers shows even greater overwhelming evidence that Bruni is dead wrong. When you look at the backgrounds of federal judges, members of Congress, attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and the most powerful men and women according to Forbes show just the value of prestige education. Some 44.8% of billionaires, 55.9% of powerful women, 63.7% of Davos attendees, 85.2% of powerful men attended elite schools, and 55.6% of the journalists who attended Davos went to elite schools.

So why is Bruni getting so much attention for his book? It’s because we all want to believe we live in a world that is a meritocracy, that gives a chance to everyone, regardless of their educational background. In truth, elitism is alive and well in the U.S. and the rest of the world. Just take a look at the feeder colleges to the MBA programs at Harvard, Stanford or Wharton.

In fact, students who earn their undergraduate degrees from state schools are decidedly underrepresented at the top three business schools. In a recent graduating class at Wharton, the only public schools in the top 25 are all prestige institutions: Berkeley, the University of Virginia, Michigan, UCLA, and the University of Texas at Austin. Those five universities account for an estimated 7.7% of the class. Of the 592 students in the Poets&Quants sample (out of an enrolled class of 845), there’s not a single student from Arizona State, Ohio State, Michigan State, or Penn State–three of the country’s largest public universities. Outside of Berkeley and UCLA, there’s just one student in the sample–with a U.C. San Diego degree–from California’s massive and highly regarded public education system.

So it’s easy to take a rather cynical view of Bruni’s conclusions, even though all of us want to believe him.

“You could predict a book like this the way you could predict Haley’s Comet,” quips Kreisberg. “There is just a tremendous anxiety and there is a need for someone to tell you it doesn’t matter. This is a book people buy for other people. No one believes it. This is a feel good book. All his cherry picked stories are bullshit, too.”

DON’T MISS: THE MBAS WHO LEAD THE WORLD’S MOST VALUABLE COMPANIES or BUSINESS SCHOOLS WITH THE MOST CEO ALUMS IN THE FORTUNE 500

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