While top-ranked business schools such as Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and Northwestern University had the highest number of graduates in C-suite roles on the Fortune 1000, public institutions also graduate a lot of alumni who go on to lead some of the world’s largest companies.

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Business schools at public universities account for six of the top 15 schools with the most alumni in C-suite roles—CEO, CFO (chief financial officer), and CTO (chief technology officer)—on the 2022 Fortune 1000 list, according to proprietary research conducted by Fortune. These schools are: the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia, Indiana University, the University of Minnesota, the University of California-Los Angeles, and the University of Texas at Austin.

“Large publics serve a really important role, especially as we look at their mission of serving the public good in a broad way,” says Sharon Matusik, dean of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. “That’s more important now than ever, so I think it’s really wonderful to shed a little bit of a spotlight on them.”

The University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business boasts more than 30 alumni who now occupy C-suite roles at large, publicly-traded companies, including Vivek Sankaran, CEO of Albertsons, a Boise-based grocery giant. Meanwhile, more than one dozen graduates of the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management have found success in executive roles, such as Andrew J. Cecere, CEO of U.S. Bancorp.

The four other public schools rounding out the list each graduated more than 12 executives at Fortune 1000 companies. That list includes Robert M. Blue, a University of Virginia MBA grad who is now president and CEO of Dominion Energy, Indiana University alum David A. Ricks, who is the CEO of Eli Lilly, Domenic J. Dell’Osso Jr., a UT-Austin graduate and the current CEO of Chesapeake Energy, and UCLA grad John T. Stankey, the CEO of AT&T. 

Here’s what the deans of the business schools at two of these public universities told Fortune about why their programs yield such successful grads.

Leadership is a focus of MBA programs at public universities

Successful leaders must learn how to lead. And Matusik credits the success of alumni from Michigan’s MBA programs to the way in which Ross faculty teach leadership and the school’s general management orientation in the curriculum. 

“We want to create the people who are leading the Fortune 1000 companies into the future,” Matusik tells Fortune. “It’s not so much about that first job when they finish their MBA, but about preparing them for long-term success, both professionally as well as personally.”

At Minnesota, leadership skills are also key. “We really want to develop leaders who can think about business as a force for good,” says Sri Zaheer, dean of the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. “Our program is primarily a general management focus, but it has a strong element of leadership development—leading yourself, leading teams, leading organizations.”

As a public institution, the business school curriculum at Minnesota keys in on this “force for good” mentality, with an emphasis on creating future leaders who are ethical, Zaheer notes. “We’ve helped them become leaders and CEOs, not only of Fortune 500 companies or Fortune 1000 companies, and so many others, but also leaders worldwide.”

Many public schools aim to provide unique educational experiences that offer hands-on experiential learning. At Michigan, students can participate in the multidisciplinary action program, a fully immersive strategic project designed to feature a reflection and mentorship period with professors and board members. At Minnesota, MBA students are required to participate in two semester-long enterprise assignments and can select from four key enterprise disciplines: brand, consulting, funds, and ventures.

The size of public institutions is an advantage for MBA students

As a large public institution, the University of Michigan offers students the opportunity to learn across numerous disciplines, and to take advantage of dual-degree offerings, expansive major and minor offerings, and joint faculty appointments. This exposure can help prepare leaders for the reality of working in large corporations, according to Matusik.

“In terms of our people being able to make an impact through their career, a big piece of that is: Can you work with people from across different kinds of areas who bring different kinds of knowledge and ideas to the table?” she adds. “That orientation towards making an impact and being able to work across different areas of excellence is a really central part of what we do here.”

What’s more, MBA programs at large, public schools can leverage their expansive alumni networks.

“Michigan does community in a way that very, very few schools do,” Matusik says. “And that translates into our alumni being really great at reaching back out and helping the students coming along—that action, impact, and community are the things that really helped to set our students up for long-term success.”

Thanks to their size, public institutions may also be able to offer an array of MBA programs—and that’s the case at Minnesota. Carlson has nine “flavors of the MBA,” as Zaheer tells Fortune, which offers flexibility for students and the ability for the school to reach more individuals through their programming than other institutions. 

Finally, public universities typically have more affordable tuition than their private counterparts, while also offering competitive scholarships, and this can attract an even larger number of diverse students. 

“The ability to offer a financially accessible pathway to business education is something that’s much more part of our mission as a public institution. And so it’s a different kind of dynamic than you might get in a private school,” Matusik says. 

Public universities offer a competitive ROI for MBA grads

Thanks to a more affordable price tag coupled with solid salary prospects for graduates, public institutions can provide a competitive return on investment (ROI). In 2022, the average starting salary for MBA graduates was $115,000, more than 53% higher than the $75,000 average for people who only have a bachelor’s degree, according to Graduate Management Admission Council data. 

For the class of 2022, Michigan MBA students had a median salary package of more than $192,000 and over 99% of students were offered a job within three months of graduation. At Minnesota, 98% of the 2022 full-time MBA graduates received job offers within three months and the average starting salary was $121,882, with an average signing bonus of $27,290. 

“If you look at the starting salary packages, that is a really great ROI in terms of the immediate outcomes, but I think more than that, is giving our graduates those skills to be leaders in whatever field they go,” Matusik says, adding that many alumni enter into consulting and financial services, though some pursue careers in areas like sustainability and social impact. “That general management and leadership orientation prepares them to be successful as they move up in organizations, not just in those kinds of earlier career analyst type positions.”

While ROI can be relative, and depends on an individual’s experience, Zaheer notes that Carlson focuses on giving students the opportunity to grow as leaders in any field. 

“It’s a very hands-on experience, combined with a global take,” Zaheer says. “The exposure that students get—this wide variety of industries, not only in the Twin Cities but across the country and across the world—gives them the confidence to go out and know that they can lead in any sector. They can be leaders in nonprofits, they can be leaders in industries, they can lead us in tech—wherever they want to go, they have the confidence that they can do it.” 

A mix of small-town college, proximity to large corporations

MBA programs at large public schools may offer the advantages of proximity to large cities, along with a quaint college-town feel, as Matusik describes the University of Michigan’s location. Ann Arbor is less than an hour from Detroit—and combined, both cities are home to six Fortune 1000 companies.

Meanwhile, the University of Minnesota is based in Minneapolis, which is headquarters for eight companies on the Fortune 1000 list, and the University of Texas at Austin is based in the state with the most Fortune 500 companies in 2023.

Michigan’s proximity to Detroit helps in not-so-obvious ways, in that the challenges and opportunities in the state have global implications, Matusik says. But being based in a college town allows students to build solid and long-lasting relationships.

“People tend to get very close to those that are in their cohort in a way that I think you don’t see in a major urban area,” she adds. “Oftentimes those relationships within the cohort and with the school are very tight, because you’re spending most of your time with your cohort and with alums who are coming back and engaging with the school.”

Finally, public schools are often centered around large hubs of economic and corporate diversity, and even socio-economic diversity among the student body. While some schools may benefit from a mass of similar companies clustered in one area, such as Big Tech brands in Silicon Valley, Minnesota has a variety of successful corporations across different industries ready for students to tap into, Zaheer adds. And there are 15 Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Minnesota, along with another 11 rounding out the Fortune 1000 list.

“There’s a great opportunity to get our students working with companies on real projects, even as they’re doing their MBA,” Zaheer says.

Check out all of Fortune’s rankings of degree programs, and learn more about specific career paths.