How are non target alumni F500 CEOs?

You want "huge multi billion dollar companies" to pick CEOs based on their SAT score? Talk about peaking in high school. 

School really stops mattering once you get your first or second job. Once you're in the bullpen, being from Harvard doesn't matter one bit. Especially at a senior level when sales ability and relationships are all that matter.

This is probably a troll post, but there are a few reasons regardless:

1. As to how these people managed to get there in the first place, the world was just a lot less competitive back then. College enrollment was lower, globalization hadn't yet taken off, and a West Bumfuck State alum could party all throughout college, flip burgers over the summer and still land a solid gig with nowhere near the amount of effort it takes today. This allowed people from less prestigious institutions to gradually climb up the corporate ladder since...

2. Your work performance matters a lot more than your pedigree after a few years into the job. A hard-working non-target employee with a knack for the job who produces clear results will rise up faster than an Ivy guy lacking some or all of these traits.

3. On a similar note, EQ is disproportionately more important than IQ the higher up you go. It's all sales and relationship management. Don't need a fancy degree to be charismatic.

You have a 3.3 GPA and go to a state school based on your past post. Smart people exist everywhere and I would not be throwing stones from a glass house if I were you

Personal experience - got into multiple lower tier Ivy's but was given a full ride + additional for a top tier state school. My parents didn't have the money to send me to a school that would have been ~$50K a year and at 16 years old (late birthday and skipped a grade) I had to make an adult decision to not bury myself in debt. This was almost 15 years ago now and I am happy with my decision. I didn't apply to HSWP but had I gotten into one of those I probably would've taken the debt. 

Long story short, there are bright, hardworking people at state schools - alma mater > intelligence even if it's correlated. 

Recently came out that University of Wisconsin passed Harvard for the most CEOs

This is such a funny post. My dad went to a government engineering college in South Asia, his classmates are a now F500 CEO, several Partners at MBB, Big 4, two own separate hedge funds. 

Going to a semi-target myself now, hopefully stuff like this makes you realise, its not the end of the world.

Because intelligence is not strictly correlated to studying at a target uni, and many F500 are painfully political. I personally have close insights into 2 F500s, all extremely well known, and getting promotions is rather a matter who you know than how well you do in your job, especially at senior levels. This is why some people at leadership levels are taken out of nowehere to lead the divisions, get into very senior roles... This is not fair at all, but this is how it works. Even the promotions are often given at other basis than pure performance. Nothing new, but that is also why rather non-target folks become CEOs/senior leadership. 

Guessing OP is still in high school..likely from the northeast if I were to guess but could be elsewhere. I was pretty damn ignorant / oblivious to how the real world worked when I was that age, and tbh I kinda thought the same thing as OP here - i.e. I thought your undergrad pedigree was the be-all and end-all of your career trajectory..I was fortunate enough to get into a prestigious undergrad, but 10 years later I have plenty of classmates who haven't leveraged the degree for shit, and I know plenty of people who went to average state schools who are doing very well for themselves.

Bottom line is that going to a top undergrad will absolutely open doors for you, your professional network certainly matters. When you're networking for your first job, lateraling to another firm, or maybe pivoting to a new career field, any role in business will require you to do some degree of networking, and people are more inclined to do a coffee chat with you if you fall within their network. The school you go to will also influence your social networks (your friend circles, the friends of friends you meet, etc, which might tangentially lead to professional opportunities). In terms of climbing the corporate ladder though after you start your job, people care a lot more about how personable you are and how good you actually are at your job.

Finance is prob the most prestige obsessed career field, other industries don't really care as much. That being said though, a prestigious undergrad / MBA will def give you instant credibility and will likely pay dividends the rest of your professional career, assuming you have solid emotional / social IQ and are good at your job. 

Del