<p>nor Leonardo Da Vinci</p>
<p>Jack Welch, CEO General Electric, U Mass Amherst
Bill Cosby, U Mass Amherst PhD</p>
<p><em>waits for coureur any minute now</em></p>
<p>As he would point out, of course, most successful people didn't attend top colleges because there are only a few of these colleges. </p>
<p>But still, why didn't those famous people manage to get in (if they even applied) when they were younger?</p>
<p>Marilee Jones tops the list.</p>
<p>Pop N' Fresh</p>
<p>W00h00!</p>
<p>Sir Isaac Newton, Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, and a lot of other European scientists never went to the Ivy League schools.</p>
<p>Also, what do you define as successful? Because a lot of wealthy athletes, such as MJ, Shaq, Tiger Woods, etc. never went Ivy League.</p>
<p>"But still, why didn't those famous people manage to get in (if they even applied) when they were younger?"</p>
<p>They may have had bad grades or scores. For instance, many people who are excellent entrepreneurs didn't do well in their academics. They didn't like others to tell them what to do. They liked to be in charge and to march to their own drummers.</p>
<p>They didn't want to go to places like Ivies. They may have even selected their college for -- gasp -- the social life the college offered. Many successful people are highly gregarious.</p>
<p>I bet that if you look at people who are "successful" in business -- defining "success" as meaning they either make lots of money or have top positions in corporations -- went to large public institutions.</p>
<p>When it comes to things like doing well as scientists and others who get doctorates, many of those people went to LACs, including many LACs like Earlham that aren't ranked as top tier. LACs attract people who love academics, research, intellectual stimulation -- the type of people who are likely to get doctorates and have academic careers doing research.</p>
<p>Tiger Woods doesn't belong on this list of very successful folks who didn't go to Ivies and similar colleges. He went to Stanford.</p>
<p>I thought we were just discussing people who didn't go to the Ivies as implied by the title. In the case of including Ivy-like schools, you can take Tiger as well as all the scientists off my list, since they all went to similar colleges (like Cambridge and stuff). </p>
<p>But most wealthy athletes didn't go Ivy League. Also, I was going to say Thomas Friedman, but then I remembered he went to either Oxford or Cambridge after Brandeis, so much for that.</p>
<p>Everyone has left Bill Gates off the list. I'd say he's been mildly successful without a college degree....</p>
<p>Bill Gates doesn't belong on this list because he went to Harvard. He was a Harvard drop-out, but still went there.</p>
<p>Wasn't the guy who started Dell a UT dropout too?</p>
<p>Oh, and how can we forget one of my most favorite presidents (not only because of his policies, but because of his kick ass duels and temper)--Andrew Jackson. Jackson didn't go to college at all. </p>
<p>And another one of my favorites, Lyndon B. Johnson (yeah, the guy who urinated on someone and said "that's my prerogative son" and also slept with all his female guests at the white house and also had important policy discussions in his bathroom while he was but-naked...yeah, he was crazy.) He went to what is now Texas State University--San Marcos.</p>
<p>My father. He went to Temple U. because he couldn't afford UPenn. Turned out pretty well :P</p>
<p>One of the cofounders of Yahoo went to Tulane.</p>
<p>George Bush went to Yale and is an unsuccessful person if that counts.</p>
<p>Did you really have to mention that?</p>
<p>How about Jack Welch? He went to UMass, and look at him today.</p>
<p>Howard Schultz of CEO Starbucks attended Northern Michigan University in Michigan's Upper Peninsula!</p>
<p>Google Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin dropped out of Stanford</p>
<p>Also, I hate the president, but can you really say he's an unsuccessful person? He is the president, thats a success no matter where you go from there.</p>
<p>(Just realized this is an old thread, but what ever, its still featured)</p>
<p>Patricia Woertz - CEO of Archer Daniels Midland - the $35.9 billion agribusiness giant. Penn State.
OK, so she's not a household name yet - but she IS # 7 on Forbes list of the 100 Most Powerful Women!</p>
<p>I! (lol! just kidding!) </p>
<p>Nobel Peace Prize Winner Dr. Yunus (went to Vanderbilt, hold up, I believe Vanderbilt isn't top 20 right?)</p>
<p>Yeah HYP doesn't mean crap.. look at George W Bush, the worst president ever.</p>