<p>Steve Ballmer, billionaire chief of Microsoft. Dropped out of the Stanford MBA program to join Microsoft</p>
<p>Warren Buffett, billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. Dropped out of the University of Pennsylvania after two years. But later he did get his bachelor’s degree and MBA.</p>
<p>Andrew Carnegie</p>
<p>Winston Churchill, British prime minister</p>
<p>Thomas Edison</p>
<p>Disclaimer - Dropping out is not for everyone - if one kowns and have a passion what they want to pursue.</p>
<p>^^How can Abigail Adams be held up as an example of the college dropout who dropped out to do what she wanted to, when back then there were exactly zero colleges in North America that accepted women in the first place? She would have been college age in the early 1760s, and there were only about 8 American colonial colleges in total back then - all of them all male.</p>
<p>I would say that Abigail Adams is a much better example of someone who (based on her political insights expressed in her letters) was very smart but who was limited by the fact that she was born female in the 18th century and thus received very little formal schooling of any kind.</p>
<p>My take on Harvard vs. Wharton for business jobs (based on first hand experience and friendships with a bunch of Wharton + Harvard students) is the following.</p>
<p>Wharton has a slight edge over Harvard for really quantitative finance, including PE out of undergraduate.
Harvard and Wharton are a toss up for IBD/IMD (investment banking/investment management).
Harvard has an edge over Wharton for consulting.</p>
<p>In the end, the difference is really marginal – I don’t believe there are any significant job opportunities that are available <em>only</em> at Wharton, or <em>only</em> at Harvard.</p>
<p>The real difference is, like I said earlier, do you want to spend your time in school studying business at Wharton, or do you want to spend it studying something else (Math, Bio, Econ, Psych…) at Harvard? Companies won’t really punish or reward you for your choice, so think truly about what <em>you</em> want to do.</p>
<p>Collegeinusa brings up the point, that at Harvard you do need to do some homework - read the Vault guide to finance interviews or whatnot - to prepare yourself if you’ve had a liberal arts education. This is an incredibly easy step to take and there are clubs/groups/etc that can help you if you’re finding it challenging.</p>
<p>what do you mean by i need to do hw. and what is a vault guide? could you explain this further, "Collegeinusa brings up the point, that at Harvard you do need to do some homework - read the Vault guide to finance interviews or whatnot - to prepare yourself if you’ve had a liberal arts education. This is an incredibly easy step to take and there are clubs/groups/etc that can help you if you’re finding it challenging. " ??? Thanks.</p>
<p>@pyrojet27 If you want to interview for a job in finance (for example, an analyst at an investment bank), there is no class at Harvard to prepare you for this kind of interview.</p>