Many billionaires dropped out of college, with famous examples including Bill Gates (Microsoft), Steve Jobs (Apple), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), and Michael Dell (Dell Technologies), who all famously left Harvard or similar universities to pursue groundbreaking tech ventures, alongside others like Larry Ellison (Oracle) and Jan Koum (WhatsApp).
23 dropouts who found massive wealth after uni
Steve Jobs: The co-founder of Apple Inc. dropped out of college after just one semester, but went on to become one of the most successful entrepreneurs in history.
Some billionaires who didn't go to college include Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg, who are all from the tech industry. Keep in mind that billionaire college dropouts are rare, and most billionaires are still more likely to have a degree than the average person.
Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard in his second year in order to complete the project. Zuckerberg, Moskovitz and the other co-founders moved to Palo Alto, California, where they leased a small house that served as an office. Over the summer, Zuckerberg met Peter Thiel, who invested in his company.
In 1973, he enrolled at Harvard University, where he took classes including Math 55 and graduate- level computer science courses, but he dropped out in 1975 to co-found and lead Microsoft.
Oprah Winfrey graduated from historically Black Tennessee State University in 1986 with a degree in communication and performing arts.
Check out these household names who didn't do so good in school either, but are are absolutely killing it anyway...
The billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, dropped out of Harvard to focus on building his company. Proving that degrees aren't always necessary, Bill Gates was consistently named the world's richest man between 1995 and 2017, when he was overtaken by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
High school dropouts
Today, Elon Musk is America's most-educated billionaire. He studied for seven years, has two degrees, and is currently the world's richest person. Larry Page is America's second most-educated billionaire. He studied at Stanford University, one of America's best higher education institutions.
Richard Branson: The founder of Virgin Group, a conglomerate of more than 400 companies, dropped out of high school at age 16 and never attended college. 2. Steve Jobs: The co-founder of Apple Inc. dropped out of college after just one semester, but went on to become one of the most successful entrepreneurs in history.
other famous people Who Didn't Go to College or not finish : Benjamin Franklin, inventor, scientist, inventor, diplomat, author, printer, publisher, politician, patriot, signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
Engineering
This might surprise you, but the scope of engineering is huge and widening! KEY FACT: Engineering is the most common degree among the billionaires. 22% of the world's top 100 billionaires studied engineering.
Born into a wealthy family in Pretoria, South Africa, Musk emigrated in 1989 to Canada; he has Canadian citizenship since his mother was born there. He received bachelor's degrees in 1997 from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, United States, before moving to California to pursue business ventures.
Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard to pursue his software company, although he states “if things hadn't worked out, I could always go back to school. I was officially on leave.” Matt Damon was a member of Harvard's Delphic final club.
First up: Oprah Winfrey. In 1975, the future media mogul and philanthropist left Tennessee State University for a TV job one credit shy of completing her four-year degree.
Jimmy Kimmel was only a student at UNLV from 1985-86, but he finally got his degree in 2013—an honorary doctorate. Kimmel said he worked harder on his speech than he did at any of the homework he had at UNLV.
Entrepreneurs without degrees