Can I be successful in LIFE without going to an Ivy or MIT, Carnegie, Georgia Tech?

I remember a post earlier this year about chances at Yale. The poster was a double legacy. They were going to need financial aid.

You will never hear about the most successful people, most of who shun publicity. You success is more about your drive, abilities, and harnessing your individual talents more than any university. The top universities excel at one thing more than any other- selecting successful people - but they are hardly all encompassing.

Or, there is this side of the coin
http://www.educatetoadvance.com/12-ivy-leaguers-who-committed-horrible-crimes/

Ivy league is not the only path to success, nor is it the only path to prison.

Successful in life to me does not mean being famous or making a ton of money. It means that you are a person of integrity. Kind, caring, generous, hardworking. Able to pay your bills. Happy.

Dean Kamen (inventor of the segway and some medical stuff and founder of FIRST robotics) dropped out of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (which is a good school but isn’t as well regarded as HYPSM) and he lives in a giant mansion if that’s you’re definition of success…

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3201481

Absolutely, my Dad went to a state school and ended up becoming a CFO of a top company. He always told me it’s not about where you go, but it’s about gaining experience in your profession.

No, just give up. All the millions of people in the world that did not attend these elite institutions of higher learning are all leading absolutely meaningless and miserable lives.

Vince McMahon went to East Carolina.

Had to laugh at the above post. So true.

As an entrepreneur and one who knows many others who do quite well I assure you, they (and I) would rather field a question regarding the relevance of college for the entrepreneur vs. can I be successful if I don’t go to …A major character trait of successful entrepreneurs is defining your own future, not being told what you can and can’t do. Although some colleges have courses in entrepreneurism, the skills required to be one come from within. Defintely helpful to take business classes to learn certain technical skills. Also helpful to become better educated across the board to become a more useful human. Most successful entrepreneurs will have the same level of success regardless of where they attend college.

When in doubt, get the best education you can afford without taking on ridiculous debt. If you can afford it, it’s worth it. If you can’t, it’s not.

Isn’t this more of an issue of kids with SAT 1500+ are more likely to be successful rather than the college itself? HYPSM are relatively small and mostly take in 1500+ kids, so naturally they’re going to be higher on the list of schools of successful people. The thousands of other 1500+ kids will be spread out to hundreds or thousands of other colleges.

The only caveat is that HYPSM people “know” each other and will be more likely to pull together to start companies, get consultations, etc. You see the same effect in tech companies (the semiconductor companies in Silicon Valley were notorious in the 1960s and 1970s).

The most wealthy guy I know told me something in confidence one time “most people don’t know, I never went to college” He said he took a few classes at a community college. He was the CFO of one of the largest 100 companies in the US.

It is very sad that so many people automatically view success as wealth.

There are many flaws in your argument, but I’ll only focus on one. The colleges with the most SAT 1500+ kids are not HYPSM… type colleges. A list of US colleges with the largest estimated number of 1500+ SAT (or equivalent ACT) kids is below, based on the 2016-17 reported 25th & 75th percentile scores and undergrad population, as listed in IPEDS.:

  1. UCB -- 1963 students above 1500 SAT
  2. Michigan -- 1672 students above 1500 SAT
  3. UIUC -- 1580 students above 1500 SAT
  4. UCLA -- 1377 students above 1500 SAT
  5. NYU -- 1314 students above 1500 SAT

Thanks for pointing out the flaws in my argument. Now factor in the background of the kids in the various schools and how that affects the outcomes (connections, money, etc).

OP- you have a very flawed idea of success. Over time you gain knowledge and maturity and keep refining your definitions. For example, many of us do not care at all about the business world and don’t value those successes like we do other fields. Thinking of academics/Nobel prize winners/medicine… as examples.

The above said since you seem to think money is a marker of success I need to mention that the U of Wisconsin has many who lead Fortune 500 companies. Those people are not necessarily the most educated or smartest of those with UW degrees. You seem most interested in business school grads.

Success does not need to be well known, as pointed out by others. Also- there are many other facets of life. Not all want to live where the big names do, nor live their lifestyle. You do not need to be among the top 10 (or even higher)percent to be successful. Also- who cares besides yourself? None of your peers do.

Here’s something else. Consider where the professors who teach you at one of your mentioned, or other, elite/top tier schools. Look at faculty lists for their undergrad and grad schools. Look at the authors of the textbooks used. You might get a world renounced professor in a subject at a “lesser” school who then gets a better offer and moves to another school.

Being parents with two or three times as much time living than you have has taught a many things. Life experiences have shown us many different paths we ended up on because of decisions made as teens. We also learn we can have successful lives without making it into HYPSM or those other schools on your radar (but not everyone’s). We also know that many top executives lead an unsatisfactory lifestyle- they give up a lot to be a top CEO. Or, in the world of medicine, the top physician in his/her field often gets away from patient care and doesn’t get to enjoy those aspects of the profession.

So many variables. Think of the old board game LIFE. Three ways to divide up one’s success- pursue money, fame or happiness (someone else can help with the exact words). Players need to choose which fraction goes to each of the three areas and wins (is most successful) if they meet the goals set. You can be wildly successful at running a business but a failure in your personal life. You can be viewed as highly successful but not meet your personal goals and be very unhappy. Your skills may be great in a given field but not matter in others. And, again, you live your life and frankly, no one else in the world really cares.

post 35, I think you meant “renowned” rather than “renounced”. Funny typo, though.

Where the top 10 CEOs of the 2015 Fortune 500 went to college:

Doug McMillon (Wal-Mart Stores) — University of Arkansas
Rex Tillerson (Exxon Mobil) — University of Texas at Austin
John S. Watson (Chevron) — University of California, Davis
Warren E. Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway) — University of Nebraska
Tim Cook (Apple) — Auburn University
Greg C. Garland (Phillips 66) — Texas A&M University
Mary Barra (General Motors) — General Motors Institute/Kettering University
Mark Fields (Ford Motor) — Rutgers University
Jeff Immelt (General Electric) — Dartmouth College
Joe Gorder (Valero Energy) — University of Missouri-St. Louis

Charlie Ergen (satellite TV entrepreneur) 30th richest man in US… University of Tennessee

Hopefully by now you see that one can be quite successful regardless of the college they attended. If we define success as being a business leader (certainly one definition), you’ll see that it takes A LOT more than intelligence. Business acumen, leadership, risk comfort and yes, luck, all play a part (among other things).

All that said, better is better. When it’s all said and done, you should go to the best school you get admitted to that you can afford. Best should be defined by meeting as many of your personal criteria as possible (the fit thing). It’s not about going to HYPSM, but rather going to the best school that you can without being crushed with 100k debt. Maybe your parents can afford an expensive school. Maybe you’ll get in to a top school. If so, great. Go there. If they can’t or you don’t, I think it’s been made clear that you can do well from anywhere.

Per the list above, GE CEO Jeff Immelt is the only Ivy school undergrad kid and shareholders of GE would take Jack Welch (U of Illinois) any day of the week.