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| The Billionaire Universities by Andrew Farrell |
For every one opening at Harvard's undergraduate college, there
were 14 hopeful high school applicants. Despite the daunting
odds, there's good reason to try to win one of those coveted
acceptance letters.
Harvard is consistently ranked as one of the top schools in the
country. Its $35 billion endowment makes it the best-funded
college in the United States.
Oh, and there's this: Harvard students are more likely to become
billionaires than graduates of any other college.
Of the 469 Americans on Forbes' most recent list of the world's
billionaires, 50 received at least one degree from Harvard. The
school has produced 20 more current American billionaires than
No. 2 on our list, Stanford University.
Harvard's billionaire alumni are an accomplished group. They
include Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, New York City
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and media tycoon Sumner Redstone.
Stanford University trails Harvard, but still boasts 30 billionaire
alumni. These include Nike co-founder Philip Knight and discount
brokerage mogul Charles Schwab.
Fittingly, the California university, which has produced so many
ultra-wealthy businesspeople, was founded by one. The grieving
railroad tycoon Leland Stanford decided to found a university after
his only son died of typhoid fever. With considerable land and
money donations from the Californian, the school opened its
doors in 1891.
Following Stanford is the University of Pennsylvania, with 27
graduates. Notable members of the group include real estate king
Donald Trump and SAC Capital founder Steven Cohen.
Rounding out the top five are Yale, with 19 billionaire graduates,
and Columbia University, with 15. The top school from the Midwest
is the University of Chicago, ranked seventh, with 10 grads. No. 1
from the south is Duke, with eight.
A dubious distinction goes to New York University. The school has
five dropouts who have gone on to become billionaires, including
Carl Icahn. After receiving a degree in philosophy from Princeton,
Icahn enrolled in NYU's medical school. Bored by all the
memorization required, he jumped ship to be a stockbroker.
It proved a profitable career change. The Queens, N.Y., native is
now the 46th wealthiest person in the world with a fortune of $14
billion. He could rack up another $300 million in profits if he can
push Yahoo! to reconsider a sale to Microsoft.
A small group of schools account for a disproportionate amount of
billionaire education. Just 20 universities and colleges account for
52% of the billionaire graduates while 182 schools count for the
remainder.
What makes certain schools billionaire factories? For one thing,
they offer excellent educations. But they also offer networking,
which in many cases amounts to a ticket to the old-boys network,
still very much in existence these days.
Some programs, like business schools, are more likely to
produce super-high earners. Of Penn's 27 billionaire graduates,
20 attended its prestigious Wharton business school.
Strong research programs in developing areas of tech are
important too. Sergey Brin and Larry Page met at Stanford's
storied computer science program. The Google co-founders are
now worth nearly $19 billion each.
Selectivity also helps. The best schools are overwhelmed by
applicants each fall. Acceptance rates for nearly all of the top
billionaire-producing schools are below 30%.
The low acceptance rates ensure that incoming classes are
exceptionally smart. They're full of people whose resumes already
point to great successes ahead.
Future billionaire Patrick McGovern caught MIT's attention as a
teenager after building a computer that was unbeatable at
tic-tac-toe, a remarkable feat in the 1950s. After attending MIT on a
scholarship, McGovern began publishing magazines covering the
growing computing world. Today, his tech media empire now puts
his net worth at $4.7 billion.
were 14 hopeful high school applicants. Despite the daunting
odds, there's good reason to try to win one of those coveted
acceptance letters.
Harvard is consistently ranked as one of the top schools in the
country. Its $35 billion endowment makes it the best-funded
college in the United States.
Oh, and there's this: Harvard students are more likely to become
billionaires than graduates of any other college.
Of the 469 Americans on Forbes' most recent list of the world's
billionaires, 50 received at least one degree from Harvard. The
school has produced 20 more current American billionaires than
No. 2 on our list, Stanford University.
Harvard's billionaire alumni are an accomplished group. They
include Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, New York City
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and media tycoon Sumner Redstone.
Stanford University trails Harvard, but still boasts 30 billionaire
alumni. These include Nike co-founder Philip Knight and discount
brokerage mogul Charles Schwab.
Fittingly, the California university, which has produced so many
ultra-wealthy businesspeople, was founded by one. The grieving
railroad tycoon Leland Stanford decided to found a university after
his only son died of typhoid fever. With considerable land and
money donations from the Californian, the school opened its
doors in 1891.
Following Stanford is the University of Pennsylvania, with 27
graduates. Notable members of the group include real estate king
Donald Trump and SAC Capital founder Steven Cohen.
Rounding out the top five are Yale, with 19 billionaire graduates,
and Columbia University, with 15. The top school from the Midwest
is the University of Chicago, ranked seventh, with 10 grads. No. 1
from the south is Duke, with eight.
A dubious distinction goes to New York University. The school has
five dropouts who have gone on to become billionaires, including
Carl Icahn. After receiving a degree in philosophy from Princeton,
Icahn enrolled in NYU's medical school. Bored by all the
memorization required, he jumped ship to be a stockbroker.
It proved a profitable career change. The Queens, N.Y., native is
now the 46th wealthiest person in the world with a fortune of $14
billion. He could rack up another $300 million in profits if he can
push Yahoo! to reconsider a sale to Microsoft.
A small group of schools account for a disproportionate amount of
billionaire education. Just 20 universities and colleges account for
52% of the billionaire graduates while 182 schools count for the
remainder.
What makes certain schools billionaire factories? For one thing,
they offer excellent educations. But they also offer networking,
which in many cases amounts to a ticket to the old-boys network,
still very much in existence these days.
Some programs, like business schools, are more likely to
produce super-high earners. Of Penn's 27 billionaire graduates,
20 attended its prestigious Wharton business school.
Strong research programs in developing areas of tech are
important too. Sergey Brin and Larry Page met at Stanford's
storied computer science program. The Google co-founders are
now worth nearly $19 billion each.
Selectivity also helps. The best schools are overwhelmed by
applicants each fall. Acceptance rates for nearly all of the top
billionaire-producing schools are below 30%.
The low acceptance rates ensure that incoming classes are
exceptionally smart. They're full of people whose resumes already
point to great successes ahead.
Future billionaire Patrick McGovern caught MIT's attention as a
teenager after building a computer that was unbeatable at
tic-tac-toe, a remarkable feat in the 1950s. After attending MIT on a
scholarship, McGovern began publishing magazines covering the
growing computing world. Today, his tech media empire now puts
his net worth at $4.7 billion.
| Colleges and Universities |