jhkim176

man i wish i was rich

iman123194

You may say that only a few of these people got undergrads from top schools, but if you look at their percentage here vs. the percentage of top school undergrads out of all college students, the difference would be staggering. These guys were extraordinarily smart. Smart people go to top schools. Obviously top schools are going to have a correlation to the ultra-rich!

iman123194

Frankly, I'd be more interested to see the correlation between top schools and the top 1%. I'm sure the data would be more accurate and we would see a closer correlation.

bamboobanga

wanna know Oprah's SAT scores?

sakky

True enough. But the natural counterargument is that, let's face it, most people don't exactly have a shrewd business sense, and never will. If you're one of those people, then you're probably better off with a Harvard degree.

sakky

I'm not sure about that - I think it's fair to say that none of them is thinking of returning to college anymore. But let's face it - if Microsoft or Facebook had failed miserably, it seems highly likely that Gates/Zuck would have returned to Harvard to finish their degrees.

Indeed, that's why starting a company for them was a relatively low-risk affair. What do you have to really lose? If the company fails, oh well, you're simply relegated to a consolation prize of a degree from Harvard. Boo hoo, such epic tragedy, cue the world's smallest violin.

amtc

Some of these guys are old and the colleges they attended are not what they are today - for better or worse. NYU was a joke in the 60's-80's, until the city gentrified. City College was a much better school in the past before everyone had to be admitted.

Oh, and btw, I know some of the people on the list and many came from lower income families, living in small apartments in poor neighborhoods - and some of them were friends as kids (talk about early networking!).

The Bill Gates story is quite true - his private prep school gave him computer skills that few kids had the opportunity to develop in college let alone high school.

Silly conversation, but interesting.

Marsden

The error here is supposing that a desire to become extremely wealthy is what drives the desire to attend a good school. Thank God, for most of us it is not.

Proudpatriot

This conversation only makes sense if you are going to define success as being one of the 50 richest people in the world.

madbean

If anything, Harvard's good showing among top earners is a testament to their admissions committee's ability to spot top motivation and talent. In fact, many selective U's can spot such brilliant and driven standout applicants, but when the admissions packets come in, perhaps the choice of Harvard beats out the others. So, once again, it is less likely that attending Harvard makes the billionaire and more likely that the future billionaire selects Harvard as their (temporary) school of choice... until it's time to skedaddle and make that billion.