I researched a bit on successful and influential people (entertainers and athletes don’t count) and I found that nearly all of them graduated from top-tier colleges in the world. Jack Ma is an exception.
CAN I BE SUCCESSFUL (PROFESSIONALLY) IN LIFE IF I AM UNABLE TO ATTEND SUCH PRESTIGIOUS UNIVERSITIES?
Bill Gates and Mark Z. don’t count. They got accepted to Harvard.
Thanks
Of course!
Not sure what professions you’re researching, but successful people come from many different places. How exactly are you defining “successful” and in what area?
Well, success in entrepreneurship. Like, starting a really influential business. Is that possible?
In Robotics and Artifical Intelligence. Nerd Stuff type business. heehehaaa
Entrepreneurship and starting a business - yes, yes, yes. My husband and I are both from very poor backgrounds, put ourselves through college (one went to such a no-name college even if I named it you wouldn’t recognize it, the other went to a mid-tier college) and after having good professional careers started our own business (electronics for an industrial application).
We aren’t Bill Gates level wealthy, but we’re in the same tax bracket as he is. I now race sailboats and we’ll be paying full price for our childrens’ college. Not a bad life. No complaints.
You do not need to go to a prestigious uni to be successful and have a good life. Not sure about the “influential” part, though. Both DH and I are low key people who have zero interest in fame. In fact if I had to be famous to be wealthy I’d choose poor and anonymous every single time.
That was a powerful answer. College applications have my self-esteem crushed. Haha
i mean, warren buffett transferred OUT of penn because he didn’t like it. mark cuban went to indiana university’s kelley school of business, and before that, he went to the university of pittsburgh. they’re both billionaires. you don’t need to attend an ivy league university to be successful, lol. i promise you.
That’s understandable. It’s easy to get sucked into the idea that only the top schools are worthy and if you don’t go to a top school you’re not worthy, either. Totally untrue.
The best part is that you’re interested in an area where your success will be all about what you produce. If you’re an AI or robotics wizard, nobody will care where you went to school. If you can invent the next innovation in those fields, you can be incredibly wealthy. People will care about the quality of what you make, not what is printed on your degree.
Steve Jobs
Richard Branson
Dave Thomas
David Green
Larry Ellison
Kevin Rose
Michael Dell
Rachel Ray… no college at all for any of them.
Yes. Remember that those people who achieved great things with an Elite U diploma in hand likely got admitted to their respective institutions for a good reason. Thus, they already showed great promise from the start and probably would have fared just fine if they had gone to a lesser-ranked school or perhaps even no school at all. That’s not to say that those top-tier institutions did not help them in some way. They might well have had access to resources that might not have been available to them elsewhere. They also likely made meaningful connections with peers they might not have met at other schools.
That said, the traits that adcoms at these schools seek out in potential students—passion, work ethic, flexibility—also are quite essential in achieving the sort of big things the people you’re thinking of managed to achieve. So in that sense, it’s very unlikely that their education alone made them who are they are. It might have helped refine innate talent and pointed them in the right direction. But it did not chart their destiny for them. You do that by learning and growing and holding to the skills and qualities that got you admitted in the first place. No degree promises that to anyone.
Take a look at Frank Bruni’s book, “Where you go is not who you’ll be”. There are tons of examples of successful people who did not go to name brand or elite universities.
Well, I’m not making millions.
But I have a job I love, three great kids and the husband of the year. We go on vacation most years, and each of the 4 drivers in my house has a car-- though my daughter inherited my 2007 minivan and we bought my son a used car.
I teach wonderful kids in a school that fully supports its teachers.
My mom is still kicking at 87, and my siblings are all happy and healthy.
So, by my definition, I’m “successful in life.”
I went to community college, then got my Bachelor’s and Master’s at a local university.
I think the point you are missing is that it’s likely those people you view as successful were going to be successful whether they went to an elite school or not. Those schools get their pick of the litter and get to choose the candidates who are more likely to be successful as alums.
So for you to be admitted to one of those schools, you need to demonstrate why you are going to be successful whether you go there or not. If you don’t need them to be successful, then they want you. If you feel you need a school like that to be successful, then you won’t get in.
Entrepreneurs succeed because of their work ethic, understanding of the(ir) market, and other fundamental business principles. If your definition of successful equates to affluence, then you absolutely don’t need to attend an Ivy League university to do well as an entrepreneur. I personally feel that colleges only serve as foundation/stepping stone into the real world of enterprise and that even attending institutions such as USC does not at all guarantee success as an businessman.
I researched a bit on successful and influential people (entertainers and athletes don’t count) and I found that nearly all of them graduated from top-tier colleges in the world. Jack Ma is an exception.
CAN I BE SUCCESSFUL (PROFESSIONALLY) IN LIFE IF I AM UNABLE TO ATTEND SUCH PRESTIGIOUS UNIVERSITIES?
Bill Gates and Mark Z. don’t count. They got accepted to Harvard.
Thanks
Aside from a few elite investment banking type companies, hardly any employers require going to prestigious universities. In surveys employers as a whole say they favor state flagship type colleges over elite universities. Entrepreneurship is a broad category, but in general the product is key, rather than what college you attended. For example, I started a small Internet company. The website was successful because it offered useful information and services, not because website visitors cared about which college I attended.
I got my masters degree at a state directional university. My husband go his degree at a very low tier school that happened to have an excellent engineering program and good local connections.
We think we have been mighty successful in life.
You know…you don’t have to be famous to be successful in life.
Be careful not to “select” your data to support your argument. Co-founders of Google went to UMich (Larry Page) and UMaryland (Sergei Bryn). It’s true they both then went to Stanford, but they had humble roots and attended good undergraduate schools but not the elite of which the OP speaks.
Also Travis Kalanick (cofounder of Uber) attended UCLA but didn’t graduate. Co-founder Garrett Camp attended University of Calgary.
I know several people who started very successful companies. Most were in “Nerd Stuff” type of businesses (either high tech or engineering). Most of them went to in-state public universities.
On the flip side, I know several people who went to Big Name Schools who turned out not as successful in life. They went to please their parents, most of the time. One in particular is now doing quite fine but was in a great deal of financial distress for over a decade before he became a roadie for a big name rock band. Now he’s doing well for himself, but his college had nothing to do with that.
Make sure you’re going to college and business because you want to be there. It’s a very expensive mistake if it’s not the right place or fit.