I was once acquainted with 2 billionaires (one was a relative of a neighbor, the other a parent of a student at my D’s school). We don’t really see them anymore. But both were University of Texas at Austin undergrads. One never went to grad school; the other got his MBA from USC (California).
We are acquainted with other people who, while not making billions, have many many millions. The vast majority were educated at schools in Texas (UT, SMU, Baylor, TTU, Texas A & M). A handful went to some of the prestigious grad schools. Many, however, never went beyond the Bachelors level.
smartest and now a 1%er - Franklin & Marshall, undergrad degree only…no masters
The next two most financially successful people I know never went to college. One owns and operates franchises in a major restaurant business and the other is self-employed in agriculture and real estate.
The only Fulbright scholar I’ve ever met is from SUNY Plattsburgh, which is also the alma mater of Anthony Weiner, who is an intelligent man bedeviled by addiction, IMHO.
The smartest person I’ve ever worked with - Brown UG, BU JD.
The smartest person who ever worked for my H - Princeton UG, UC Berkeley - master’s in math and comp sci, JD from Columbia.
I would say that the richest people I’ve ever met were probably Charles Wang and Halston (the fashion designer). I also met Harry Belafonte, but I’m not sure how rich he is.
Oops, Halston attended University of Indiana and University of the Arts in Chicago. In looking him up, I realized that he died at the age I am now!
Charles Wang - Queens College (a CUNY school). I was accepted to Queens but couldn’t attend because it was a two fare zone and I couldn’t afford two bus fares.
Richest - very small, mid level LAC, mid level B school graduate (international investment banker)
Smartest - Rhode Island School of Design (Art Director)
One is a family member, the other is a fraternity brother from my class
Considering his age and assuming he attended undergrad straight out from BTech HS, he attended Queens College when it and the other 4-year CUNY colleges were still considered academically elite and exceedingly competitive for admission(Before 1969).
Incidentally, the distinction some NYC area employers between those who attended/were admitted before and after the implementation of open admissions in 1969 were such I knew of many pre-'69 alums/admits who would include their graduation year on their resume/job applications/professional bios to ensure their college education and reputation were placed in the proper context.
The word “prestige” to me means the person with the accomplishment that benefited the most people. So, from a tech world perspective, it has to be the guy from Princeton/MIT (he was one of the precursors to the infamous “21” group). You’d never know the guy was loaded yet his work impacted billions of people worldwide. Then MIT, Princeton, CMU, Utah, and a couple of dropouts. I was just a peon.
You are correct, most likely, that Wang attended Queens before it went open admissions. I began college in 1976, when QC was still considered academically rigorous. Although there was open admissions, the system mandated that you list the schools you were interested in in order that you wanted to attend and then you were assigned. Open admissions didn’t mean that the top schools were no longer selective, what it meant was that everyone had the right to attend at least one of the CUNY schools, either a two year or a four year. It didn’t mean that someone with a 72 average could go to Queens College just because they wanted to. You couldn’t get into Queens when I applied unless you had at least an 88 average. I was accepted into the honors program at Queens, but couldn’t afford to attend, so I switched to my second choice, the honors program at the college in the borough where I lived.
When I first began working, I listed the fact that I was in the honors program on my resume. That, combined with my home address being in the same borough as my college, often led to my being asked why I went there and not Queens, at which point I would explain.
By the time I was graduating from Stuy in the mid-'90s, the academic reputations of 4 year CUNY schools including Queens reached such a low point that most of the classmates who overlapped with my graduating class who ended up going to Queens or other 4-year CUNY colleges were folks with 72 or lower GPAs, exceedingly lowish SATs for our HS, and no other options.
And that low rep extended outside of the Specialized HS kids as most of the neighborhood kids in my old working-class NYC neighborhood were also told by teachers and older adults with higher ed experience to work hard academically so they wouldn’t have to attend the CUNYs.
You are 20 years younger than I am so it is possible that things changed in the intervening time.
I will say that the reputation of the CUNY’s have improved since the recession. Many kids who ordinarily would have gone to SUNY’s wound up at CUNY’s and the quality improved.
My D would have gone to Queens in 2009 but for the fact that she earned merit scholarships to a SUNY school. When we lived in Queens, my D was in a gifted program. Many of the kids she attended with went to CUNY schools and not all were Macauley students. Several had attended specialized HS’s as well.
The improvement in CUNY’s rep took place well before the recession due to policy changes in the late '90s/early '00s which raised admission/academic standards and an effort to move all remedial instruction/admission to the 2-year community colleges.
Interestingly, some HS classmates with low-mid '70s averages who were admitted to respectable OOS and/or private colleges such as UWISC-Madison when I graduated who wouldn’t have considered a 4-year CUNY when we graduated would have done so if they had graduated a decade later…even if financial considerations weren’t an issue.
Two of the most impressive people I know never finished college. One is a Hollywood producer and never went at all. The other dropped out after one year. Both are brilliant, one is also extremely wealthy.
Another brilliant person I met couple of months ago (a “family friend,” so to speak):
USC Business Administration undergrad, served a stint in the army, worked in many different states, finished an MBA at a local state U, and completed a master’s in theology from Loyola University (New Orleans).
I have known a lot of prestigious people, but my favorite…he went to…brace for this… U of South Dakota. He was very influential in government and ended up working on the international side for the US government and played a huge role in things.
Now, I have known people who graduated from Rice, U of Chicago, Wash U, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Carleton, Oberlin, Juilliard, etc etc etc. But the one who ended up the most influential graduated from USD.
So how close is “know?”-- the First Lady was behind me in law school, and attended Princeton. A Supreme Court Justice was my year in law school, and also went to Princeton. In both cases, we weren’t friends, but knew the same people.
I once worked for a guy, who was the CFO of a company many people would know the name of, and one time he confided in me "most people don’t know, so don’t say anything, I didn’t go to college. He took a few classes in college but never lived at or enrolled full time. He made millions. One of the nicest guys I’ve ever met as well.