@Hunt It’s also a statistic I’d like to see motivational speakers append to every address they deliver.
I’ve lost track of the number of TED talks or speakers at my school with a message that’s tantamount to “Don’t be afraid to take monumental risks, like I did. Go ahead, quit your job and do what you love. It worked for me.” What they fail to mention is that, 99 times out of 100, and without several strokes of luck, they would’ve failed. But nobody’s asking the 99 who saw their plans go awry to go on Oprah and dispense advice.
Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, to their credit, don’t go about preaching the virtues of dropping out of college simply because it worked for them.
Not that many kids attending Ivies have parents with 1 billion dollars net worth.
There are only 1645 billionaires in the WORLD.
I would say most of the people we think of as “wealthy” are in the tens of millions range. A million net worth is not that impressive here near NYC. 5 million is probably the borderline between upper middle class and rich, depending on lifestyle.
I would like to see a study that focused on the college educations of all people who have an arbitrary income level or net worth that is considered “upper middle class” or “upper class.” Billionaires as a data set are too small, eccentric, and out-of-reach to give data that is applicable to the group who would be interested in this study (parents and children who want to ensure economic success). Most parents aren’t naive enough to aspire for their kid to adhere to the sort of “magic billionaire formula” this study is attempting to derive that somehow includes a Harvard or Stanford degree.
"I also don’t think the middle-class or low SES students at these schools are hurt by their acquaintance with a billionaire/heir to a multibillion dollar fortune when they need $5-10 million in seed money for a startup. "
This is a complete fantasy, that people at that level of wealth are just slinging around a few million here and there to their kid’s college roommate because what the heck, their kid liked him alright.
“Outliers aside, you aren’t likely to make such acquaintances at Rutgers, and most school’s don’t have the ability to wow a certain prestige-oriented segment of the population.”
People at that level don’t NEED to impress anybody by where their kid goes to school. They are beyond that. If kid wants to go to Party State U, he does.
Having graduated from HBS in the early 90s as a Baker scholar and joining the most renowned consulting org, I was surrounded by folks from the likes of my alma mater as well as Sloan, Wharton,…and my first boss, a grad of Ohio Univ and he was a damn fine one !
Agree… This is not getting reported enough when talking about the elite schools. My son is being offered almost a full ride to go to an elite school. If he went to his own state’s main campus he would actually be paying more. Plus, graduation rate at his state school is 55% (and that is not bad for a state school), whereas at his ‘fancy’ elite school is 93%. Which school is a better value? Parents and students need to look at graduation rates more than they often do. That tells you if kids are happy there, if they feel the education is worth it once they start taking classes, etc…
The best of the best will always be a target. Looking at that article, and especially the bar chart, it is clear that if you want to do certain things, having a degree from an elite college APPEARS to be beneficial. Part of the problem of course is that those who can legitimately apply to those elite colleges have more going for them than those who can not; they are smarter or work harder or are more driven or a combination of all of those things. A common mantra is that it doesn’t matter what college you go to as long as you apply yourself. Well, that is true to some degree. Want to be a teacher or a social worker or a CPA? Shouldn’t matter too much then if you went to Harvard or Kansas State. Want to land a job where connections and elitism pave the way? Well, then an elite college is a worthy goal.
As the risk of grossly generalizing, two major categories of people attend Ivy League and other highly selective institutions: Those whose families are wealthy and well-connected, and those who have already shown the fortitude to excel despite lacking a silver-spoon upbringing. On rare occasions, they are both.
Not coincidently, money, connections and hard work may be the most important indicators of ultimate success. No wonder so many Ivy League grads go on to succeed. It’s telling to recognize WHERE even the successful dropouts (Gates, Zuck, et al dropped out FROM.) And, yes, I do understand that the article posits 45% as a “low” number, but from the small universe of Ivy graduates, it’s not.
In short, it’s not the diploma per se that leads to success, it’s the environment they’re in.
No you don’t have to, but I do believe you have to go to a college that is well known. You don’t want to get to an interview and have the interviewer say, “Where did you say you went to college? Where’s that, I don’t believe I’ve heard about it before?” The top U.S. Billionaire have attended elite schools, whether they got their degrees or not. They got enough knowledge or inspiration to move into greater ventures. If you go to an unknown school, you will have to work 10X harder and be mobile. Here’s what I found:
Bill gates – Harvard drop out.
Warren Buffett – University of Nebraska….MS from Columbia
Larry Ellison – University of Illinois and University of Chicago drop out
Jeff Bezos – Princeton University
Charles Koch – MIT
Mark Zuckerberg – Harvard
Michael Bloomberg – Johns Hopkins and Harvard
Larry Page – Varsity of Michigan…….MS from Stanford