<p>truth123, I do not think school affiliation to Nobel Prize winners, Rhodes scholars, billionaires, CEOs etc… are an indicator of undergraduate academic excellence. They are noteworthy from a school pride point of view, but the fact is, they number at fewer than 1 in 1,000 (except perhaps for Harvard), a number too insignificant to effectively draw any conclusion. A far more accurate indicator of academic efficacity is what the remaining 999 students go on to do with their lives. In the regard, I doubt Chicago would edge Duke…or vice versa. Although Chicago is admittedly one of a handful of non-HYPSM universities that are better than Duke in pure academic terms (the others being Cal, Caltech and Columbia), it is hard to make a case that it is better than Duke as a undergraduate institution. In terms of undergraduate education, I would say both are roughly equal.</p>
<p>By the way, Forbes’ numbers are definitely incorrect…as they usually are. Nothing published by Forbes is quote-worthy, especially not their university/MBA rankings. For example, there are at least 12 living University of Michigan alumni that are billionaires:</p>
<p>John Robert Beyster: $1.5 billion
Bharat Desai: $2 billion
Bradley Keywell: $1 billion
Eric Paul Leftofsky: $1.5 billion
Charles Thomas Munger: $1 billion
Larry Page: $20 billion
Jorge M. Perez: $1 billion
Stephen Ross: $3 billion
Kavitark Ram Shriram: $1.5 billion
Joan Tisch: $3 billion
Samuel Wyly: $1 billion
Samuel Zell: $5 billion</p>
<p>According to the link you provided, Michigan should be #7 and yet, it is not mentioned among the 14 universities listed.</p>
<p>By the way, I do not include unconfirmed billionaires or billionaires that attended but did not receive an actual degree like:</p>
<p>Stanley Druckenmiller (never graduasted: $2.5 billion
Thomas Stephen Monaghan (never graduated): $3 billion
Adolf Alfred Taubman (never graduated): $2.5 billion
Niklas Zennstrom (1-year exchange student): $2 billion</p>
<p>This is just an illustration. I am sure the billionaire count at other universities was also faulty.</p>