Apple’s Tim Cook, JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon, and General Motors’ Mary Barra each took different routes climbing to the corner office—but they all share one thing: an MBA.
At a time when young people are increasingly questioning the value of higher education—especially a graduate degree that can cost more than $250,000—the idea of following in the footsteps of top CEOs may not seem appealing. Still, LinkedIn’s newest ranking of the best global business schools highlights programs that could make the investment worthwhile.
Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, Harvard Business School, and INSEAD were named the best schools in part for having high job placement rates, promotion opportunities, and gender diversity. University of Pennsylvania’s The Wharton School and the Indian School of Business round out the top five.
According to Laura Lorenzetti, senior director and executive editor at LinkedIn, MBAs remain a highly-sought after credential. Consulting firms like McKinsey, BCG, Deloitte, and EY as well as big tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are increasingly hiring graduates to fill roles in product management, operations, and business development.
“For an increasing number of professionals, an MBA has become a way to navigate uncertainty, and programs are evolving to meet the demands of our rapidly changing world, including embedding AI literacy, a top skill in demand this year, into the curriculum,” Lorenzetti tells Fortune.
“Ultimately, an MBA is less about a single job and more about future-proofing your career by building versatile skills and strong networks that’ll help you throughout your career.
In the last 15 years, the share of senior leaders with an MBA has grown by 32%, she added. Among entrepreneurs, it’s up 87%.
Stanford is minting graduates with $185,000 salaries
While many of the notoriously prestigious and competitive “Magnificent 7″ or M7 business schools often exchange accolades, Stanford has topped both LinkedIn and Bloomberg’s latest business school rankings—something that may come as no surprise among its recent graduates.
Of the 249 graduates from its class of 2024 seeking employment, 88% received a job offer within three months after graduating, with finance, technology and consulting the top destination industries. The median base salary of graduates is $185,000, according to the school’s most recent employment report.
Dozens of other graduates go on to pursue entrepreneurship, and this week exhibited a great example with the initial public offering of StubHub. The ticket exchange company was founded by Stanford Business School students Eric Baker and Jeff Fluhr while they were still enrolled. It’s now worth over $7 billion.
Other notable Stanford alumni include General Motors CEO Mary Barra, Capital One CEO Richard Fairbank, and Ebay CEO Jamie Iannone.
Barra in particular has expressed how being a Stanford student continues to shape her to this day as an automobile CEO: “GSB helped me cultivate a learning mindset, which is something that resonates with me to this day,” she said in 2024.
Harvard still takes the crown for having the most alumni now serving as top CEOs; according to a Fortune analysis last year, nearly 6% of all Fortune 1000 CEOs have a Harvard MBA.
The top 10 best global business schools to grow your career
According to LinkedIn
- Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business
- Harvard Business School
- INSEAD
- University of Pennsylvania’s The Wharton School
- Indian School of Business
- Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management
- MIT’s Sloan School of Management
- Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business
- Columbia Business School
- London Business School
An MBA is just one path
While obtaining an MBA has long been a tried-and-true path to landing a coveted leadership role, some Gen Zers are turning to other paths.
For example, obtaining a master’s degree in management can be one way to develop core management and leadership skills—at a fraction of the cost of an MBA and without the need for previous work experience. Nearly 70% of universities globally reported an increase in applications to their master’s in management programs in the 2024–25 academic year, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC).
But for many young people, an even larger question remains whether to attend college at all. Afterall, many of the world’s most successful people, the likes of Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates do not have a degree to their name at all.
And considering that nearly one in five LinkedIn job postings no longer list a degree requirement, Lorenzetti says that employers are increasingly prioritizing skills over academic credentials—a stark reminder that career success is no longer tied to a traditional academic path.
