We like to tell the stories of college dropouts who became billionaires, but the truth is, only 30% of billionaires don't have a college degree. For every Bill Gates, there are about three Marc Benioffs. The other 70% of the world's 1% have graduated from college with at least a bachelor's degree. Not surprisingly, Harvard and Stanford are the universities with the highest number of billionaire alumni, but the eight others we've highlighted below have their fare share of wealthy alums as well. Also not surprisingly, the Ivy League schools feature prominently in the top 10 (as does my alma mater).
Here are the 10 colleges with the highest number of billionaire alumni:
#10) New York University
New York, New York
Billionaires with degrees: 22
Notable Alumnus: John Paulson, Paulson & Co., $10 billion net worth
#9) University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
Billionaires with degrees: 22
Notable Alumnus: Thomas Pritzker, Hyatt Hotels heir, $3.1 billion net worth
#8) Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut
Billionaires with degrees: 23
Notable Alumnus: Stephen Schwarzman, The Blackstone Group, $13.4 billion net worth
#7) University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California
Billionaires with degrees: 24
Notable Alumnus: Marc Benioff, Salesforce founder, $3.2 billion net worth
#6) Cornell University
Ithaca, New York
Billionaires with degrees: 26
Notable Alumnus: Herbert Fisk Johnson III, SC Johnson, $3.6 billion net worth
#5) Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Billionaires with degrees: 31
Notable Alumnus: David Koch, Koch Industries, $40 billion net worth
#4) Columbia University
New York, New York
Billionaires with degrees: 43
Notable Alumnus, Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, $65 billion
#3) University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Billionaires with degrees: 54
Notable Alumnus: Ron Perelman, Revlon, $12.4 billion net worth
#2) Stanford University
Palo Alto, California
Billionaires with degrees: 67
Notable Alumnus: Sergey Brin, Google, $37 billion net worth
#1) Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Billionaires with degrees: 134
Notable Alumnus: Jorge Lehman, Anheuser-Busch InBev, $26.9 billion
