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In Pictures: Billionaire Universities

This article is more than 10 years old.

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Billionaire Universities

A degree from Harvard or Stanford isn't a prerequisite to becoming a billionaire, but the connections that can be made at elite universities are priceless.

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1. Harvard University

Number of billionaire graduates: 62

Change from last year: +8

Notable billionaire grads include New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Citadel founder Kenneth Griffin and David Rockefeller Sr.

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2. Stanford University

Number of billionaire graduates: 28

Change: +3

Located in Palo Alto, Calif., this school has had many graduates that made it big in Silicon Valley including Jerry Yang of Yahoo and Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google. Other notable grads are Philip Knight of Nike and David Shaw of hedge fund DE Shaw.

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3. Columbia University

Number of billionaire graduates: 20

Change: +4

The university that administers the Pulitzer Prize is also famous for educating billionaires such as Warren Buffett, Henry Kravis and Robert Kraft.

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4. University of Pennsylvania

Number of billionaire graduates: 18

No change year-over-year

Founded by Benjamin Franklin, this school is also known for its business school Wharton. Famous billionaire graduates include real estate titan Mortimer Zuckerman, Daniel Och of hedge fund Och-Ziff and Michael Milken.

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5. Yale University

Number of billionaire graduates: 16

No change year-over-year

Yale is alma mater to a slew of billionaire clans, including the Mars chocolate fortune (Forrest Mars Jr. and John Mars) and Cargill agricultural

fortune (Cargill MacMillan Jr. and Whitney MacMillan). Investor Eddie Lampert and Blackstone Group cofounder Stephen Schwarzman also graduated from Yale; both were members of the infamous secret society Skull & Bones.

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6. University of Chicago

Number of billionaire graduates: 13

Change: +3

Founded by oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, notable billionaire graduates include Joseph Mansueto of Morningstar and David Rubenstein and William Conway of the Carlyle Group.

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7. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Number of billionaire graduates: 11

No change year-over-year

Renowned for its strength in science and technology, it's also famous for billionaire alumni such as Charles and David Koch of Koch Industries and Irwin Jacobs of Qualcomm.

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8. New York University (tie)

Number of billionaire graduates: 10

New entrant

The largest nonprofit institution of higher education in the U.S., NYU is where Home Depot cofounder Kenneth Langone and hedge fund managers Israel Englander and John Paulson went to school.

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8. Northwestern University (tie)

Number of billionaire graduates: 10

No change year-over-year

The school has churned out billionaires including Peter Peterson of Blackstone and Jay Robert and Daniel Pritzker.

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10. Cornell University (tie)

Number of billionaire graduates: 9

No change year-over-year

The Ivy League school has educated PeopleSoft founder David Duffield as well as five members of the SC Johnson family.

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10. Princeton University (tie)

Number of billionaire graduates: 9

New entrant

Originally founded as The College of New Jersey, notable billionaire graduates include corporate raider Carl Icahn, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Meg Whitman of eBay.

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10. University of California, Berkeley (tie)

Number of billionaire graduates: 9

No change year-over-year

Despite its countercultural legacy, the school has also been a launching pad for capitalist overachievers, educating such billionaires as James Simons of hedge fund Renaissance Technologies and Intel's Gordon Moore.

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10. University of Southern California (tie)

Number of billionaire graduates: 9

No change year-over-year

In addition to the many actors and athletes the school has churned out, it has billionaire graduates such as Bradley Hughes of Public Storage and Scott Cook of Intuit.