Best Degree for CEO: What Actually Gets You to the Top

When people ask what the best degree for CEO, a formal educational path that prepares individuals to lead large organizations. Also known as executive leadership qualification, it is, they’re usually thinking about an MBA. And sure, many CEOs have one. But the real answer? It’s not the degree itself—it’s what you did after you got it. The MBA, a graduate degree focused on business management, strategy, and leadership. Also known as Master of Business Administration, it is common among top leaders, but so are engineers, doctors, and even self-taught founders. What ties them together isn’t a diploma—it’s the ability to solve hard problems, lead teams under pressure, and make decisions with incomplete data.

Think about it: the highest-paid doctor in India, a medical professional who turned clinical expertise into a scalable healthcare business didn’t become a CEO because they studied medicine. They became one because they built systems, hired talent, and understood markets. Same with IIT graduates, engineers from India’s top technical institutes who often rise to leadership roles in tech and startups. Their degrees gave them technical credibility, but their climb to the top came from learning how to manage people, money, and risk. The MBA salary boost, the increase in earnings typically seen after completing a business administration degree is real—but only if you use the program to build networks, not just grades. Many CEOs skipped business school entirely and learned leadership by doing: running projects, failing fast, and fixing what broke.

So what should you study if you want to be a CEO? If you’re early in your career, pick something that teaches you how to think critically—engineering, economics, computer science. These fields force you to solve real problems, not just memorize theories. Later, if you need structure, an MBA can help you systemize what you’ve learned. But don’t wait for a degree to start leading. Start leading now—manage a team, launch a side project, fix a broken process. The best CEO degrees aren’t on paper. They’re in the daily grind of making things better, even when no one’s watching. Below, you’ll find real stories and data on how people actually reach the top—not just the degrees they held, but the choices they made along the way.