The Colleges That Have Produced The Most Billionaires

Forbes

You don’t have to be an Ivy Leaguer to make Forbes’ billionaires list—but it sure helps.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardjchang/2024/06/09/top-colleges-for-billionaires/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, Top Colleges for Billionaires.

00:05Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots, says, quote,

00:10I owe Columbia a lot.

00:12Kraft announced in April he would stop donating to his alma mater

00:15amid the student protests spreading across college campuses.

00:18He says, quote, Columbia gave me a full scholarship when I really needed it,

00:22and I'm loyal.

00:24But the protesters are not held accountable for their words or actions,

00:27and the university is letting them get away with it.

00:31Columbia might lose millions from Kraft's decision,

00:34considering he has given at least $8 million to the university over his lifetime.

00:38Luckily, the New York City school has plenty of other deep-pocketed alumni,

00:42including cable magnate Rocco Camiso,

00:45who tells Forbes he doesn't plan to sit on his wallet.

00:48He says, quote, I think now is the time to give more, not less.

00:52As alumni and wealthy people, we should commit ourselves to help Columbia grow.

00:56This is the school that gave me money and opportunity.

01:00Camiso and Kraft are two of 11 billionaires who got an undergraduate degree from Columbia,

01:04making it one of the most elite schools in the world when it comes to educating billionaires.

01:09America's richest people hail from colleges all across the country,

01:13from small liberal arts schools like Hobart and William Smith Colleges,

01:17where Fidelity Investments CEO Abigail Johnson studied art history,

01:21to major public research universities like Indiana University Bloomington,

01:25where Mark Cuban graduated with a business degree.

01:28But a quarter of the 813 American citizens on Forbes' billionaires list

01:33got their undergraduate degree from one of just a dozen schools.

01:37This elite group includes two major California private colleges,

01:40two state schools, and seven of the eight Ivies, including the University of Pennsylvania,

01:45by far the school with the most billionaire undergraduates, with 36.

01:50About two-thirds of them studied at the esteemed Wharton School, the business school at UPenn.

01:56Such deep-pocketed alumni networks can mean big bucks for a school's endowment

02:00and big benefits for students.

02:02Of course, fundraising from the ultra-wealthy

02:04can also place schools' budgets at the whims of a small group of donors.

02:08When billionaires are displeased with how a school is run,

02:11they might just pull their checkbooks all together.

02:14Kraft isn't the only wealthy donor halting his giving these days.

02:17So are others, such as hedge fund billionaire Leon Cooperman,

02:20real estate investor Barry Sternlich, and Len Blavatnik,

02:24who got his wealth from both chemicals and the music industry.

02:28Here are the top three universities with the most American billionaire undergraduate alumni.

02:33Not that you have to go to college to get ultra-rich.

02:35Just ask dropouts like Mark Zuckerberg and designer Tom Ford,

02:39or never-wents like Taylor Swift and LeBron James.

02:44At number three is Harvard University with 28 billionaire alums.

02:48Harvard College has educated Natalie Portman,

02:50Neil deGrasse Tyson, six U.S. presidents,

02:53and more than two dozen current U.S. billionaires.

02:56That includes Citadel's Ken Griffin,

02:58who installed a satellite dish on his dorm roof to get real-time stock quotes,

03:02and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

03:05Just as famous as the school's graduates, however, are its dropouts.

03:09Bill Gates, for example, left to launch Microsoft in 1975,

03:13while Mark Zuckerberg left in 2004 to pursue Facebook full-time.

03:18At number two is Stanford University with 30 billionaire alums.

03:23The Silicon Valley School has helped mold plenty of tech billionaires,

03:27from Andy Fang and Stanley Tang,

03:29who were students when they co-founded food delivery app DoorDash,

03:32to Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy,

03:34two fraternity brothers who created the project that became Snapchat.

03:39At number one is the University of Pennsylvania with 36 billionaire alums.

03:44The Philadelphia Institution educated the likes of Tesla's Elon Musk,

03:48former president Donald Trump,

03:50and Apollo co-founders Mark Rowan and Josh Harris.

03:53Penn is also in the blood of the heirs to the Estee Lauder fortune,

03:57with Leonard Lauder, William Lauder, Aaron Lauder, and Ronald Lauder

04:01all attending over the span of four decades.

04:04For full coverage and to see the whole list,

04:07check out Richard J. Chang's piece on Forbes.com.

04:11This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

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