Billionaires according to Alma Matter

College Search & Lists
1

<p>I sorted through the 1,000+ Billionaires listed in the March Forbes “Richest People”. I found a suspecious number (over 100) of Russian billionaires aged between 35 and 55. </p>

<p>At any rate, I figured I might as well breakdown the numbers according to university affiliation. Nothing too shocking really. </p>

<p>I broke it down into four groups:</p>

<p>1) By the number who pursued their undergraduate studies at the institution.
2) By the number who pursued their graduate studies at the institution
3) By the total number
4) By the total net worth of the individuals who attended the institution</p>

<p>If one of the lucky souls completed both undergraduate and graduate studies at the same university, I only count them in the undergraduate figures. There are no double-dippers!</p>

<p>Please keep in mind that some (many!) of those did not graduate and like any other list, it is not 100% accurate, so if any of you have corrections to make, please do so.</p>

<p>One must remember that the numbers below do not really speak to a university’s ability to “produce” a billionaire. The odds of one of us ever making that much money in our lifetime is microscopic. The purpose of this little exercise (tell it to the guy who spent the better part of three days sorting through the profiles of over 1,000 billionaires!) is purely "academic. </p>

<p>Enjoy!</p>

<p>UNDERGRADUATE:

  1. Harvard University 20
  2. University of Pennsylvania 20
  3. Yale University 19
  4. Princeton University 13
  5. Stanford University 12
  6. University of Texas-Austin 11
  7. New York University 10
  8. University of Southern California 11
  9. Cornell University 9
  10. University of California-Berkeley 9
  11. University of California-Los Angeles 9
  12. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 9
  13. Columbia University 8
  14. Dartmouth College 8
  15. Duke University 8
  16. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 8
  17. Michigan State University 5
  18. Northwestern University 5
  19. Baylor University 4
  20. Claremont McKenna College 4
  21. University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign 4
  22. University of Virginia 4
  23. Amherst College 3
  24. Babson College 3
  25. Boston College 3
  26. Georgetown University 3
  27. Lehigh University 3
  28. Louisiana State University 3
  29. Syracuse University 3
  30. Tufts University 3
  31. University of Chicago 3
  32. University of Oklahoma 3
  33. University of Toronto 3
  34. University of Utah 3
  35. Williams College 3</p>

<p>GRADUATE:

  1. Harvard University 47
  2. Stanford University 27
  3. Columbia University 12
  4. University of Chicago 10
  5. University of Pennsylvania 9
  6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 6
  7. New York University 6
  8. Northwestern University 6
  9. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 6
  10. University of Virginia 4
  11. University of California-Berkeley 3
  12. Cornell University 2
  13. Johns Hopkins University 2
  14. University of California-Los Angeles 2
  15. University of Southern California 2</p>

<p>TOTAL:

  1. Harvard University 67
  2. Stanford University 39
  3. University of Pennsylvania 29
  4. Columbia University 20
  5. Yale University 19
  6. New York University 16
  7. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 15
  8. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 14
  9. Princeton University 14
  10. University of Chicago 13
  11. University of California-Berkeley 12
  12. University of Southern California 12
  13. Cornell University 11
  14. Northwestern University 11
  15. University of California-Los Angeles
  16. University of Texas-Austin
  17. Duke University 9
  18. Dartmouth College 8
  19. University of Virginia 8
  20. Michigan State University 6
  21. Baylor University 4
  22. Claremont McKenna College 4
  23. Johns Hopkins University 4
  24. University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign 4
  25. University of Utah 4
  26. Amherst College 3
  27. Babson College 3
  28. Boston College 3
  29. Fordham University 3
  30. Georgetown University 3
  31. Lehigh University 3
  32. Louisiana State University 3
  33. Syracuse University 3
  34. Tufts University 3
  35. University of Oklahoma 3
  36. University of Toronto 3
  37. Williams College 3</p>

<p>TOTAL NET WORTH OF ABOVE ALUMS BY INSTITUTION:

  1. Harvard University $277,500,000,000
  2. Stanford University $197,000,000,000
  3. Columbia University $124,500,000,000
  4. University of Pennsylvania $112,000,000,000
  5. Yale University $79,000,000,000
  6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology $70,500,000,000
  7. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor $57,000,000,000
  8. University of Texas-Austin $53,000,000,000
  9. University of Chicago $52,500,000,000
  10. Princeton University $46,000,000,000
  11. University of California-Berkeley $37,000,000,000
  12. New York University $36,500,000,000
  13. Northwestern University $28,500,000,000
  14. University of Southern California $25,500,000,000
  15. University of California-Los Angeles $25,000,000,000
  16. Cornell University $21,500,000,000
  17. University of Virginia $19,500,000,000
  18. Johns Hopkins University $18,500,000,000
  19. Dartmouth College $18,000,000,000
  20. Duke University $17,500,000,000
  21. Tufts University $15,500,000,000
  22. Claremont McKenna University $15,000,000,000
  23. Michigan State University $14,500,000,000
  24. Syracuse University $12,000,000,000
  25. University of Toronto $10,500,000,000
  26. Fordham University $10,000,000,000
  27. University of Utah $9,500,000,000
  28. University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign 8,500,000,000
  29. Georgetown University $7,500,000,000
  30. Amherst College $7,000,000,000
  31. Baylor University $6,000,000,000
  32. University of Oklahoma $6,000,000,000
  33. Lehigh University $5,500,000,000
  34. Boston College $5,000,000,000
  35. Williams College $5,000,000,000
  36. Louisiana State University $4,000,000,000</p>
2

<p>love the list…I guess Ivys are the greatest…Mwahahahaaa</p>

3

<p>funny list!</p>

4

<p>

Only going to get more Russian billionaires in the future with $105/bbl oil. The commodities bubble has replaced the US housing bubble.</p>

5

<p>Interesting.</p>

6

<p>alexandre,
Just out of curiosity, do you have the industry data as well? I suspect that many schools will have a proclivity to send graduates into certain industries, eg, finance/VC, technology, etc. In particular, I wonder how many of these are tied to areas that have been hot recently, like Wall Street/hedge fund/private equity, energy-related, commodity-related ,etc. Also, do you have a further breakdown by home country, eg, of the 20 from Harvard, how many are American, how many European, how many Asian, etc?</p>

7

<p>breakdown by undergrad size, or # of alumni would be nice too, like what % chance a graduate of each school has of being a billionaire</p>

8

<p>Of course, now it’s time to bust out the per-capita analysis.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Becoming a billionaire according to school is an independent event: it isn’t affected by the previous person’s becoming a billionaire. (Or at least, not in any significant way – if you wanted to get into economics.) Thus, determining the % chance of becoming a billionaire from going to a certain school is far beyond the scope of this thread. =p</p>

9

<p>What about Paul Allen and Washington State University?</p>

10

<p>SHS_Spartan, there are many other schools that have billionaire alums, but I only focused on those that have 3 or more. </p>

<p>Elsijfdl, like I said, one should not read too much into those numbers. Billionaires are so rare, that any attempt to link their success to the school would be pointless.</p>

11

<p>yea, where these guys went to school probably had little effect on their billionaire status. If you do a 30 year out of school Salary ranking, it’d be pretty interesting, but I don’t think there’s data for that.</p>

12

<p>Hawkette, I do have a breakdown by country, but not by industry, although most Stanford and Cal billionaires are obviously tied to the tech industry whereas most East Coast billionaires are tied to the financial sector. And many of the Texas and Oklahoma biollionaires are tied to the oil & gas industry. Another interesting thing to look at is the number of “self made” billionaires vs the number of billionaires that merely inherited their billions.</p>

<p>Anyway, here’s a breakdown by nationality. I don’t think there are enough international billionaires to draw any kind of conclusion:</p>

<p>Amherst College:
US, 3</p>

<p>Babson College:
US, 2
Venezuela, 1</p>

<p>Boston College:
US, 2
Turkey, 1</p>

<p>Georgetown:
US, 1
Lebanon, 2</p>

<p>Lehigh University:
US, 3 </p>

<p>Louisiana State University:
US, 3</p>

<p>Syracuse University:
US, 3</p>

<p>Tufts University:
US, 2
Switzerland, 1</p>

<p>University of Chicago:
US, 11
Russia, 2</p>

<p>University of Oklahoma:
US, 3</p>

<p>University of Toronto:
Canada, 3</p>

<p>University of Utah:
US, 4</p>

<p>University of Washington:
US, 3</p>

<p>Williams College:
US, 3</p>

<p>Baylor University:
US, 4</p>

<p>Claremont McKenna College:
US, 4</p>

<p>University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign:
US, 4</p>

<p>University of Virginia:
US, 7
Colombia, 1</p>

<p>Michigan State University:
US, 5
Japan, 1</p>

<p>Northwestern University:
US, 9
Brazil, 1
Japan, 1</p>

<p>Columbia University:
US, 16
South Korea, 1
Turkey, 2
UK, 1</p>

<p>Dartmouth College:
US, 8</p>

<p>Duke University:
US, 8</p>

<p>Massachusetts Institute of Technology:
US, 9
Greece, 1
India, 2
Turkey, 1
Venezuela, 1</p>

<p>Cornell University:
US, 10
South Korea, 1</p>

<p>University of California-Berkeley:
US, 9
Kuwait, 2
Japan, 1</p>

<p>University of California-Los Angeles:
US, 10
Japan, 1</p>

<p>University of Michigan-Ann Arbor:
US, 14
Sweden, 1</p>

<p>New York University:
US, 15
Iceland, 1</p>

<p>University of Southern California:
US, 12</p>

<p>University of Texas-Austin:
US, 10
Germany, 1</p>

<p>Stanford University:
US, 35
India, 2
Turkey, 2</p>

<p>Princeton University:
US, 12
China, 2</p>

<p>Yale University:
US, 19</p>

<p>Harvard University:
US, 60
Brazil, 1
Chile, 1
China, 1
Norway, 1
Russia, 1
Sweden, 1
Switzerland, 1</p>

<p>University of Pennsylvania:
US, 28
India, 1</p>

13

<p>I find it interesting that the total acounts comes up to 397. So out of 1000 billionaires, there are only 397 with affiliations from North American Universities.(Mostly USA, but there was that University of Toronto thrown in there…) And I’m guessing there is a little double dipping there, say undergrad at Cal, graduate degree at Stanford type thing, so the number is probably under 397. (And exactly what is the number of those that didn’t graduate from those Universities, other than say, Bill Gates?) So, where did the other 60+% go to school? </p>

<p>And how much of that money is money they inherited, versus money they made themselves? It wouldn’t surprise me that families with money could send their offspring to prestigious schools.</p>

<p>And the real key for those self made billionaires. Did the schools make them, or were the schools able to pick them out of the hoards of kids that applied. I suspect many of the people who are self made billionaires could have done so with or without a prestigious degree. (See again, Bill Gates.)</p>

14

<p>welll…like he said there were like 100 russians who probably never came to america…and stufff</p>

15

<p>Most of the Russians never studied in the US. I think only 3 or 4 did. Most of the rest attended schools in Moscow.</p>

16

<p>Not too shabby for my school (Duke) - only became a big academic name in the past three decades, and is top 15 on the undergrad list.</p>

<p>Out of curiosity, would you count Melinda Gates as a billionaire (she went to Duke GSB).</p>

17

<p>You all should keep in mind that schools like Harvard and Yale are the breeding grounds of the ruling class. People who are already in the top 1% income bracket send their children to such schools and some use that financial / social leverage to make their own money in a way that they never could had they come from working / middle class backgrounds. </p>

<p>Money begets money. It has very little to do with the quality of the school itself and far more to do with class. Just look at our politicians. Aside from exceptions like Obama, Bill Clinton, and McCain (what a great election year for the people!), most in the top tier have the leverage of a silver spoon to begin funding their expensive political aspirations.</p>

18

<p>

</p>

<p>Paul Allen, Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Mark Zuckerberg…</p>

19

<p>

</p>

<p>To that, I always come back to the example of Steve Ballmer. Sure, he’d probably be a successful businessman no matter where he went to college. But the reason he’s CEO of Microsoft and a billionaire is simple - he was Bill Gates’s old poker-playing pal at Harvard. If that wasn’t the case, he would never have even been offered the job because Gates would have no idea who he was.</p>

20

<p>Older and larger schools will obviously be more likely to have billionaires. Find the ratio number of billionaires to number of people graduated in a certain time frame (maybe 30 years) and give that as a percentage.</p>