When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was asked to give this year's commencement address at Harvard, he asked for advice from Bill Gates.
Zuckerberg said, "They know we didn't actually graduate, right?" To which Gates replied, "Oh, that is the best part! They actually give you a degree!"
This recent exchange between two famous Harvard dropouts might lead you to think college doesn't matter. Numerous media stories and even famous billionaires are glamorizing dropouts or encouraging kids to skip college entirely.
Background Analysis
An analysis of the educational background of the top tier of dollar billionaires shows that they are much more likely than average to have gone to university. And they are more likely to have a postgraduate degree than no degree at all. It doesn't give much support for the image of self-taught entrepreneurs, relying on their wit and wisdom rather than higher education. It shows that 76% of these billionaires have a degree. It breaks down to 47% having a bachelor's degree, 23% a master's degree, and 6% a doctorate.
Institutions and Popular Subjects
The most popular subjects were courses related to economics and engineering. There were many more studying sciences than arts or humanities. The type of institutions attended by the global mega-rich is also much more likely to be elite institutions than local colleges.
United States
Harvard in the U.S. is the single most likely name to be found on the CV of a billionaire, with Harvard Business School also popular.
Stanford University in California and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have become the launchpads for a rising number of tech billionaires. Google's Sergey Brin was a postgraduate at Stanford.
Russia
Reflecting the rise in Russian wealth, Moscow is among the most popular university cities for these billionaires, including Moscow State University and a range of Moscow specialist institutes.
United Kingdom
Among U.K. universities, the London School of Economics and Cambridge have the most multi-billionaires on this list. Oxford can lay claim to Rupert Murdoch, and in France, the Ecole Polytechnique has the most ex-student billionaires.
Germany
There are also billionaire graduates from Karlsruhe in Germany, Milan in Italy, and Zurich in Switzerland.
India
Indian billionaires had attended the University of Mumbai, and the steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal went to St Xavier's College, affiliated with the University of Calcutta. Mukesh Ambani attended Stanford.
Statistics Never Lie
While it's true there are successful college dropouts, statistically speaking, they are not the norm. As researchers in education and talent, we found that the vast majority of the country's success stories are college graduates, such as Sheryl Sandberg (Harvard), Jeff Bezos (Princeton), and Marissa Mayer (Stanford).
In a recent study, "the conversation" investigated how many of the wealthiest and most influential people graduated college. They studied 11,745 U.S. leaders, including CEOs, federal judges, politicians, multi-millionaires and billionaires, business leaders, and the most globally powerful men and women.
They also examined how many people graduated from an "elite school." (Our definition included the eight Ivy League schools, plus many of the top national universities and liberal arts colleges consistently high in the U.S. News rankings for both undergraduate and graduate education.)
They found that about 94 percent of these U.S. leaders attended college, and about 50 percent attended an elite school. Though almost everyone went to college, elite school attendance varied widely. For instance, only 20.6 percent of House members and 33.8 percent of 30-millionaires attended an elite school, but over 80 percent of Forbes' most influential people did. For whatever reason, about twice as many senators – 41 percent – as House members went to elite schools.
Indeed, according to a study by U.K. job site Adview, one in eight of the Forbes 400, which are the 400 wealthiest billionaires in the U.S., are college dropouts. They came to this conclusion by looking at the 362 billionaires with publicly available education information; 44 were dropouts. That follows a similar analysis by Forbes. In 2017, they found that 16% of the billionaires on their list didn't have a bachelor's degree.
Factors Required for Success
- Hard work/Skills
- Luck
- Unfair Advantage
You need all three factors for success: hard work is the struggle you go through, skills you learn, and hours of patience and persistence. Luck is when God bestows you with opportunities in life, it is often said that: "Luck is when preparation meets opportunity." Unfair advantage is significant, and the previous two factors are those which every person can achieve with practice. But, this is the factor that is a game-changer. It varies from person to person, and few factors remain constant in this case:
- Your Brand (MIT/Harvard Graduate)
- Your circle (Circle of Investors, Entrepreneurs, Alumni)
- Unique Ability
- Family Background (nepotism still exists)
And many more.
How to approach degrees?
An average person who does not have an influential background still needs some support, branding, and alumni circle to get the unfair advantage. Therefore, we will dive into the details of how to approach the universities.
The sole purpose of a higher education institution is to give you perspective and insights from all the spheres of life. It is designed in a way that everyone from any background gets his/her pie, for this reason, a uniform set of courses are being taught, depending on the appetite a person can pick and choose what he likes and get the essential information about the other aspects/fields as well.
In this rapidly changing world, it is crucial to be a jack of all trades and master of 1 or 2. If we look from this perspective, then it is obvious. Otherwise, your lens to look into the details is wrong.
Another famous mantra nowadays is dropouts; people talk about Mark Zuckerberg and others being dropouts; they are dropouts of Harvard, Stanford, and other top-notch institutions, not any other institution. You have to understand that they got admission in the first place, which means they can do what they do. In contrast, you are making excuses because you could not get into any reputable university and blaming the system for it.
Why Degree Matters in South Asia?
There are numerous reasons, but here I will chalk out some of the reasons:
- For getting married. (It is the most crucial part of someone's life, I understand that it will change over time; currently, it is what it is)
- For getting a job. (It is still a standard to look for reputable graduates, every company wants security)
- For Incubation Spaces/ Mentorship (Every reputable university provides the mentorship and incubation space if you are into the business and start-ups)
- For immigration (It is a requirement in every country immigration process, and it carries a weightage for immigration)
- For Unfair Alumni Advantage (An average graduate has the leverage to contact people from alumni for any guidance ranging from Management, CEOs, Engineers, Doctors, Founders, etc.)
Conclusion
Every person in this universe is unique, with distinctive features and abilities. Therefore there is no one size fits all strategy. However, based on the statistics, 90% of people fail at business, we need to have a backup plan. It all depends on a person's risk appetite. If you can become a huge risk-taker, then avoid university. For the average person, it is advised by experts to have a degree.
