We've all heard about college dropouts who became billionaires. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Michael Dell all left college without a diploma only to succeed wildly. But the majority of the world's wealthiest people have a bachelor's degree.
And, according to The Wealth-X Billionaire Census 2018, they tend to have graduated from the most prestigious universities.
"The social elitism, prestige and fast-track career progression often associated with a private Ivy League education undoubtedly provides a springboard towards wealth creation and for some high achievers to attain billionaire status: Five of the top seven-ranked billionaire universities are Ivy League schools," Wealth-X reports.
Leading the way is Harvard, the alma mater of 188 billionaires in 2017. Harvard grads — those who earned an undergraduate or graduate degree — represent 6.8 percent of the global billionaire population. In fact, more billionaires attended the school than attended Stanford, MIT and Yale combined.
While No. 2 ranked Stanford has less than half the number of billionaire grads than Harvard, "the average net worth of Stanford's billionaire population is the highest," Wealth-X reports, adding that its high ranking "owes much to its location in the heart of Silicon Valley and its close integration with the global tech giants."
