Universities build endowments largely on the generosity of their alumni. They, in some cases, bother past graduates mercilessly. Often, it works. Universities that tend to have people who go on to great financial success have endowments that are in the billions of dollars. This helps them fund research and development, student aid, new infrastructure and high-paid professors.
Among the universities with huge endowments, Harvard tops the list. Founded in 1636, it boasts alum who are Nobel Prize winners, billionaires and American presidents. Harvard has the largest endowment at $40 billion, followed by Yale ($30 billion), Stanford ($28 billion), Princeton ($25 billion) and MIT ($17 billion).
Not all universities can say they have rich graduates. In some cases, dropouts are phenomenally rich. EduBirdie put together a list of the world’s richest people who did not complete their education.
Harvard was at the top of the list with a combined dropout net worth of $307,850,000,000. Its richest dropout is Bill Gates, with a net worth of $149 billion. Second, on the Harvard list is Mark Zuckerberg, with a net worth of $129 billion.
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The university with the second richest list of dropouts was the University of Michigan at $117,000,000,000. Its richest dropout was Google co-founder Larry Page, with a net worth of $117 billion.
The methodology included a review of the Forbes billionaires list and celebrity net worth. This was supplemented by data from CBS News, CNN and Mashable.
These are the 10 universities with the richest dropouts:
| Rank | University | Combined net worth |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harvard University | $307,850,000,000 |
| 2 | University of Michigan | $117,000,000,000 |
| 3 | University of Illinois | $101,000,000,000 |
| 4 | University of Texas | $61,100,000,000 |
| 5 | Missouri University of Science and Technology | $13,700,000,000 |
| 6 | San Jose University | $13,200,000,000 |
| 7 | University of Miami | $11,100,000,000 |
| 8 | City University of New York | $7,730,000,000 |
| 9 | Cal State Long Beach | $7,730,000,000 |
| 10 | Cliff View House School | $6,810,000,000 |
Click here to see which are the 50 best colleges in America.
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