The Billionare Universities

Alexandre
Tue, 28 Oct 2008 01:57:29 +0000

In this case, I just think Forbes’ analysis lacked depth. I actually went through the enitre list of Billionaires when the publication came out 3 months ago. Here are my findings (although they are obviously not 100% correct, they are certainly far more accurate than Forbes# findings):

TOP 10 ACCORDING TO UNDERGRADUATE ALUMS:

1. Harvard University (20 billionaires)

1. University of Pennsylvania (20 billionaires)

3. Yale University (19 billionaires)

4. Princeton University (13 bilionaires)

5. Stanford University (12 billionaires)

6. University of Texas-Austin (11 billionaires)

7. New York University (10 billionaires)

7. University of Southern California (10 billionaires)

9. Cornell University (9 billionaires)

9. University of California-Berkeley (9 billionaires)

9. University of California-Los Angeles (9 billionaires)

9. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (9 billionaires)

TOP 10 ACCORDING TO GRADUATE ALUMS (if an alum received his/her undergraduate degree and graduate degree from the same institution, I did not double count):

1. Harvard University (47 billionaires)

2. Stanford University (27 billionaires)

3. Columbia University (12 billionaires)

4. University of Chicago (10 billionaires)

5. University of Pennsylvania (9 billionaires)

6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (6 billionaires)

6. New York University (6 billionaires)

6. Northwestern University (6 billionaires)

6. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (6 billionaires)

10. University of Virginia (4 billionaires)

TOP 10 ACCORDING TO TOTAL ALUMS (no double counting for alums who got their undergraduate and graduate degree from the same university):

1. Harvard University (67 billionaires)

2. Stanford University (39 billionaires)

3. University of Pennsylvania (29 billionaires)

4. Columbia University (20 billionaires)

5. Yale University (19 billionaires)

6. New York University (16 billionaires)

7. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (15 billionaires)

8. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (14 billionaires)

8. Princeton University (14 billionaires)

10. University of Chicago (13 billionaires)

TOP 10 ACCORDING TO TOTAL WORTH OF BILLIONAIRE ALUMS:

1. Harvard University ($277 billion)

2. Stanford University ($197 billion)

3. Columbia University ($124 billion)

4. University of Pennsylvania ($112 billion)

5. Yale University ($79 billion)

6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology ($70 billion)

7. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor ($57 billion)

8. University of Texas-Austin ($53 billion)

9. University of Chicago ($52 billion)

10. Princeton University ($46 billion)

Billionaires, like Nobel Prize winners and Rhodes Scholars, are so rare, they should not be used as an indication of insitutional excellence. With the exception of perhaps Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Yale, fewer than 0.001% of alums of any university will become a billionaire.

One important thing to note is the concept of self-made billionaires as opposed to billionaires who inhereted their fortune. Many of the Ivy League billionaires inherited their money. I would not be surprised if Stanford produced more self-made billionaires than Harvard.