Skip to footer

Want to be a billionaire? Attend one of these 10 colleges for a better shot.

News flash—billionaires are smarter than you or I.

That’s the takeaway from a new study released by Duke University this month analyzing the ultra-wealthy and connected attendees of the Davos World Economic Forum. The research flies in the face of the popular image of whiz-kids dropping out of college and building a billion-dollar business from the back of their garage.

“The US media has used billionaires Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg as examples illustrating why completing college is not necessary for success, when in fact they are the exception to the rule,” study author Jonathan Wai writes.

With this study in mind, NerdWallet compiled a list of the top ten universities for becoming a billionaire.

10. University of Cambridge

Toby Melville/Reuters/File
University of Cambridge's rowing crew reacts after losing the 160th Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge on the River Thames in London, April 6, 2014.

Number of billionaire alumni: 11

Total billionaire wealth: $48 billion

Number of UHNW (Ultra-High Net Worth) alumni:  361

Total UHNW wealth:  $93 billion

Self-made wealth: 70 percent

The Duke University study shows “the importance of education and cognitive ability in being able to attain a position in the global elite.” About a third of billionaires went to elite schools around the world, with a large number attaining degrees in STEM fields—science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The study also suggests that the modern uber-wealthy work hard to get and stay there.

“As (former WSJ reporter Robert) Frank puts it: ‘The idle rich are being replaced by the workaholic wealthy,’” Wai writes.

“I think we should deeply consider the implications when a select group of scary smart people also tend to hold a disproportionate share of global wealth and power,” Wai told CNBC. “We depend on these people to make wise decisions for all of us. ”

The results mirror a study published last year by Wealth-X that maps out which of the world’s universities produce the most billionaires and “ultra high net wealth” individuals—that is, those with $30 million or more in assets. The vast majority of the fortunes made by these wealthy alumni had been self-made.

The universities are ranked by the most billionaire alumni, according to Wealth-X. But a billionaire count does not a university make. Those merely boasting alumni with “ultra high net wealth,” or UHNW, of $30 million or more are also noted, along with the percentage of self-made wealth.

1 of 10
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.