<p>SheenR, in answer to your question and as an example only, three of the people that I know that are making the most money per year, usually between $200 million and $3.0 billion per year each, founded their own hedge funds and started as follows:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>NYU undergraduate, straight to Harvard B school then Boston Consulting Group then M&A at a big investment bank before he started his hedge fund.</p></li>
<li><p>Virginia undergraduate, no graduate school, straight to being a futures trader for a big wall street firm before he started his hedge fund.</p></li>
<li><p>Middlebury undergraduate, straight to Columbia b school then as a futures trader for a big wall street firm before he started his hedge fund.</p></li>
</ol>