Editor’s note: This article was first published in May 2017; the ranking and figures come from Wealth-X’s 2017 report on ultra-high-net-worth alumni. Lloyd Blankfein is described as chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, a role he left in 2018, and Amancio Ortega as one of the world’s three richest men, as in 2017.
It’s no coincidence that some universities count a higher share of successful people, entrepreneurs and multimillionaires among their alumni. If we follow the statistics, nor is it a fluke that almost all of the best universities in the world (when it comes to producing successful people) are in the same country.
The firm Wealth-X carried out a study looking for the 20 best universities in the world at producing millionaires and successful people, and, to our entirely predictable surprise, 19 of them are in the United States. The only one outside the US to sneak into the ranking as a breeding ground for millionaires is the University of Cambridge (England).
Many more millionaires have come out of these universities. There are even others who studied at them but never graduated, as in the case of Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook).
1. Harvard University. In first place, and this will come as no surprise, is Harvard University, with the largest number of multimillionaires: 1,906 multimillionaires with a combined wealth of 811 billion dollars.
This is the university where, among others, Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, graduated in 1975.
And Harvard’s philosophy is very simple: “we don’t turn out good workers; we create good entrepreneurs who generate jobs.”
2. University of Pennsylvania
With 832 multimillionaires and a combined wealth of 369 billion, this is the university Elon Musk (Tesla, SpaceX) came from; he graduated in 1997.
3. Columbia University
With 578 multimillionaires and a combined wealth of 307 billion. Benjamin Graham, the “father” of value investing and author of The Intelligent Investor, taught at this university, and Warren Buffett studied here.
4. New York University
With 488 multimillionaires and a combined wealth of 155 billion, this university’s alumni include, among others, Angelina Jolie.
5. Stanford University
With 466 multimillionaires and a combined wealth of 404 billion, this is the university that gave us Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal.
The list continues with:
6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): 375 multimillionaires and 215 billion in combined wealth.
7. University of Chicago: 371 multimillionaires and 93 billion in combined wealth.
8. Northwestern University: 365 multimillionaires and 80 billion in combined wealth.
9. Yale University: 360 multimillionaires and 156 billion in combined wealth.
10. Princeton University: 330 multimillionaires and 188 billion in combined wealth.
In 18th place is the University of Cambridge, with 271 multimillionaires and a combined wealth of 69 billion. Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post, studied there.
As a curious fact, Spain’s richest man, and one of the three richest men in the world, Amancio Ortega, never went to university.
Conclusions
As I said at the start of the article, it’s no coincidence that most multimillionaires and successful entrepreneurs come from universities in the United States. To begin with, the system at these universities focuses more on teaching what is most useful and necessary for the student’s career, and on changing the students’ mindset.
You may remember our article “Students knowing the capital of France is just a waste of time”. We wrote it after a newspaper tried to make Harvard students look stupid because they didn’t know the capital of their neighbouring country, Canada.
Even some students at prestigious universities would struggle to point to Spain on a map, but that doesn’t worry them much, because they aren’t there to learn general knowledge and geography, which they can pick up in their spare time if need be.
On the other hand, the American system rewards people with ideas: it funds their ideas, puts money behind small entrepreneurs and makes it easier to start a business.
Within the walls of these universities, geniuses work with geniuses and synergies form between students.
But above all, it’s the mindset of dreaming big, thinking big and acting big that makes many of these students aim for something more than passing oposiciones (Spain’s competitive exams for a public-sector job) to get a stable salary.
What happens if you give a hamburger to a Spaniard and an American?
The Spanish entrepreneur opens a restaurant and works there 12 hours a day so that at the end of the month, after paying off loans, mortgages, staff and insurance, he is left with a net amount less than or equal to what one of his employees earns.
The American entrepreneur builds an empire called McDonald’s.
See also: The traits you absolutely need to succeed in business
Featured image: Ian Lamont, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
