Education and Skills

This map shows the best US feeder schools into the top tech careers

Carnegie Mellon University takes the top spot among feeder schools, and the top 10 is not dominated by the Ivy League.

Carnegie Mellon University takes the top spot among feeder schools, and the top 10 is not dominated by the Ivy League. Image: Unsplash/priscilladupreez

Stephanie Cristea
Graduate, University of Toronto
  • Silicon Valley is one of the largest and most prominent tech hubs in the world – but what’s the best route for getting there?
  • This interactive map shows the top feeder schools to some of the largest companies in Silicon Valley.
  • Carnegie Mellon University takes the top spot, and the top 10 is not dominated by the Ivy League.

Visualized: The Top Feeder Schools into Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley is one of the largest and most prominent tech hubs in the world. It accounts for about one-third of America’s national investment capital and it houses the headquarters of over 30 companies in the Fortune 1000.

Given its world-class reputation, it’s the dream of many tech workers to land a job in a Silicon Valley company. But what’s the best route for getting there?

While there is certainly no clear-cut path, one way to try and answer this question is by looking at the universities and colleges that Silicon Valley employees graduate from.

This interactive map by ​Stephanie Cristea shows the top feeder schools to some of the largest companies in Silicon Valley.

A Look at The Top 30 Schools

The data for this graphic comes from a study by College Transitions, which looks at the top feeder schools for 12 different companies with employees in Silicon Valley, including Twitter, Alphabet, DocuSign, Meta, and eight other large businesses.

Using publicly available data from LinkedIn, the study looked at more than 70,000 entry level engineers and IT employees at these 12 different companies, and identified where they received their undergraduate degree.

Here are the findings of the top 30 feeder schools across all 12 companies:

The top 10 feeder schools
The top 10 feeder schools. Carnegie Mellon University ranks as the highest employed feeder school. Image: Visual Capitalist
Feeder schools ranked from 11-20.
Feeder schools ranked from 11-20. New York University is ranked at number 20. Image: Visual Capitalist
Feeder schools ranked from 21-30.
Feeder schools ranked from 21-30. Brown University ranks as the lowest feeder school. Image: Visual Capitalist

While this research is far from exhaustive, it provides a glimpse of where 12 of the largest companies in Silicon Valley source their talent, and what it takes to make it into the big leagues.

Adjusted Proportional Rankings

Next, let’s look at the ranking after being adjusted proportionally for each school’s undergraduate enrollment numbers (so smaller schools can be fairly represented in the data):

The top 10 feeder schools after adjusting for undergraduate enrolment numbers
The top 10 feeder schools after adjusting for undergraduate enrolment numbers. Image: Visual Capitalist
Ranked 11-20: Feeder schools after adjusting for undergraduate enrolment numbers.
Ranked 11-20: Feeder schools after adjusting for undergraduate enrolment numbers. Image: Visual Capitalist
Ranked 21-30: Feeder schools after adjusting for undergraduate enrolment numbers.
Ranked 21-30: Feeder schools after adjusting for undergraduate enrolment numbers. Image: Visual Capitalist

Interestingly, when looking at the adjusted figures, only two of the top 10 feeder schools are Ivy League institutions: Columbia, which comes second on the list, and Harvard, which just makes the cut at number 10.

Carnegie Mellon takes first place, with over 1,300 hired graduates across all 12 companies. While the Pittsburgh-based university is not an Ivy League school, it still has a great reputation—in a recent study by U.S. News & World Report, it ranked as one of the best universities in America.

Even with its excellent reputation, Carnegie Mellon’s acceptance rate is relatively high at 17%, especially when compared to its Ivy League counterparts like Columbia (6%) and Harvard (4%).

It’s worth mentioning that, while Ivy League didn’t dominate the top 10 list, all eight schools made it into the top 30. So, while this data shows that Silicon Valley isn’t exclusively hiring from Ivy League schools, it does indicate that these prestigious institutions have a seat at the table.

Have you read?
Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

Education

Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Education is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

Skills for the future: 4 ways to help workers transition to the digital economy

Simon Torkington

October 21, 2024

From herding to coding: the Mongolian NGO bridging the digital divide

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum