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For many of us, it seems that going to college was only good for sexual exploration, damaging our livers, and amassing an insurmountable amount of debt. Well worth it.
But, for some, the “driven,” going to a top school can help provide them with the tools to do world-changing things. The education company QS recently released its annual ranking of the world’s best universities, broken down by subject. It’s amazing to see how many global icons started out as piss ant students at these universities.
According to Business Insider, rankings for the Business and Management discipline are determined “based on the institution’s reputation among academics and employers, as well as the number of research citations the school gets per paper published in a specific discipline.”
The United States and the UK each have four universities in the top 10, and Italy and France round out the list of 10. You can check out the entire list of top 25 schools here, and the top 10 below.
10. Bocconi University, Italy
Bocconi, based in Milan, provides the second-best business and management degree program of any university in a country whose primary language is not English. [via Business Insider]
Notable alum: Mario Monti, former Italian Prime Minister. Nina Senicar, model. Vittorio Colao, CEO of Vodafone Group. Alberto Alesina, Harvard professor. Nouriel Roubini – former senior economist at the United States Department of the Treasury.
9. London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
Though LSE is better known for producing politicians and economists (about a quarter of all Nobel Memorial Prizes in Economic Sciences have been awarded or jointly awarded to LSE alumni, current staff members, or former staffers), its business school is also hugely successful. [via]
Notable alum: Oscar Arias Sanchez, former President of Costa Rica (and Nobel Peace Prize winner). Lee Kuan Yew, former Prime Minister of Singapore. Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. Jomo Kenyatta, namesake of Kenya, former President of Kenya. Pierre Trudeau, former Prime Minister of Canada
8. University of Oxford, UK
Britain’s best university overall in numerous rankings, Oxford is a favorite venue for students seeking to make it big in UK business. [via]
Notable alum: Claire Diaz Ortiz – Social Innovation at Twitter, Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (MBA) – USA Olympic Rowers and Facebook founders (maybe?).
7. University of Cambridge, UK
Leapfrogging its archrival Oxford, Cambridge, specifically its Judge Business School, is the UK’s second-best. [via]
Notable alum: Tom Ransley, British rower and Olympic gold medalist. Diezani Alison-Madueke, politician and former President of OPEC. Amit Burman, billionaire and Vice Chairman of Dabur.
6. Stanford University, US
Stanford’s Graduate School of Business is one of the most prestigious institutions in the US, and that prestige filters through to its degrees in business and management. [via]
Notable alum: Joe Coulombe, founder of Trader Joes. Charles Schwab, Charles Schwab. Phil Knight, founder of Nike. Nolan Bushnell, founder Atari and Chuck E. Cheese. Jeffrey Bewkes, CEO Time Warner.
5. University of Pennsylvania, US
The university’s Wharton School boasts former students like Warren Buffett, who dropped out before completing his degree, and President Donald Trump. [via]
Notable alum: Edmund T. Pratt Jr., former CEO of Pfizer Inc. J.D. Power, J.D. Power & Associates founder. John Sculley, Pepsi and Apple. Peter Nicholas, cofounded Boston Scientific. Alfred R. Berkeley III, former president of NASDAQ.
4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US
Generally better known for science, MIT also excels in business-related subjects, staying at fourth in QS’s rankings for a second consecutive year. [via]
Notable alum: John S. Reed, former CEO of Citigroup and the chair of the New York Stock Exchange. Philip Condit, former CEO of Boeing. Keiji Tachikawa, President of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Japan’s version of NASA).
3. London Business School, UK
The highest-rated business school in the UK, London Business School has long been an elite institution. [via]
Notable alum: Timothy Kopra, NASA Astronaut. Nigel Morris – Co-founder, Capital One Financial Services. Sir John Egan – Former CEO of Jaguar Cars. Sir John Jenning– former CEO, Shell.
2. Insead, France
Europe’s top university for the study of business management, Insead, south of Paris in Fontainebleau, climbed one place in this year’s rankings. [via]
Notable alum: Tom Adams, Former Chairman & CEO, Rosetta Stone Inc. Tidjane Thiam, CEO, Credit Suisse. Andrew Large, Former Deputy Governor, Bank of England. Jeff Goldstein, President, PriceGrabber.
1. Harvard University, US
Basically every executive, billionaire, or US president.
Notable alum: Michael Bloomberg, Bloomberg Founder. Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer at Facebook. Robert Kraft, Owner of the New England Patriots. George W. Bush, Former President of the U-S-of-A.
Check out the whole list here.