Jeff Bezos is the world’s wealthiest person, but the long time holder of that title was Bill Gates; Gates is a college dropout. There are tons of rumors that circulate about tech CEOs being college dropouts, so does that mean that Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and CEO, is a dropout?
No, Jeff Bezos was not a dropout. Although some famous CEOs have dropped out of school, Jeff Bezos is not one of them. Bezos graduated from high school in Miami and then went on to graduate from the ivy league university Princeton. Bezos even attended a program for gifted children when he was in elementary school.
You can read more about Bezos’ schooling and which billionaires are actually dropouts below.
Where Did Jeff Bezos Go to School?
Jeff Bezos’ first school was River Oaks Elementary School in Houston, Texas. He attended the elementary school as a part of what is known as a Vanguard magnet program. This program was developed in the state of Texas for children who were gifted or of exceptional talent.
Bezos attended high school in Miami after his father was transferred to the area for work. The high school that Bezos attended was Miami Palmetto High School and he isn’t the only famous alumni to come from the school. Before Bezos attended, famous astronaut Dominic L. Pudwill Gorie, baseball player and coach Tom Foley, and Miss Universe winner Sylvia Hitchcock all attended the high school. After Bezos attended, famous singer Camila Cabello graced the halls of the high school.
Bezos graduated from high school as the valedictorian and scored high enough on his SATs to get into Princeton University. In 1986, Bezos graduated from Princeton with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.
How Many Billionaires are Dropouts?
There are always plenty of stories of billionaire CEOs being dropouts, but in reality there is not a huge portion who actually are dropouts. This myth probably popped up in 2010 when the movie The Social Network came out. The movie focused on Mark Zuckerberg and the development of Facebook. Zuckerberg is one of those famous billionaire dropout stories.
To have a better idea of how many billionaires are actually dropouts, in 2017, Forbes magazine analyzed their Forbes 400 list. The Forbes 400 is a list of the world’s 400 wealthiest people. In their article they found that “84% of the richest 400 Americans hold a bachelor’s degree or higher.”
In the same article, Forbes highlighted that “This year’s Forbes 400 contains 45 college dropouts… Another 23 list members graduated from high school but never went onto college. And there are billionaires who made it to the top without even a high school degree.”
What Billionaires Are Dropouts?
Well, as stated before, Mark Zuckerberg is one of the most famous billionaire dropouts and so is the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates. Who are the other billionaire dropout success stories out there though?
The co-founder of WhatsApp, Jan Koum, dropped out of San Jose University after landing a job at Yahoo! Although he is no longer living, Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, dropped out of Reed College after only one semester. David Geffen, the founder of DreamWorks and reported richest man in Hollywood, dropped out of Santa Monica College. Geffen recently sold his Beverly Hills house to Jeff Bezos for a whopping $165 million.
Other names that grace the list of dropouts are fashion designer Ralph Lauren, computer tech whiz Michael Dell, founder of Uber Travis Kalanick, and Virgin founder Richard Branson.
You can watch a Top Trending YouTube video to learn about even more billionaire dropouts below.
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