Which Universities Have the Richest Graduates?

Higher education is often considered the first rung in the ladder of success.

That’s why thousands of students flock to top-tier universities around the world, hoping to translate their degrees into financial outcomes. After all, a degree from specific institutions can often mean that a wealthy and secure future is in the books.

With a new fall term just around the corner, today’s chart relies on the third annual Wealth-X report ranking of global universities with the most ultra-high net worth (UHNW) alumni. We’ve also tracked their combined wealth, and how much each UHNW alumni makes on average.
Analyzing UHNW Riches

The Wealth-X database defines ultra-high net worth alumni as those who own at least $30 million in assets. In addition, the alumni figures are based on the actual known UHNW individuals from each university, then projected based on the sample size to predict total alumni within the global UHNW population.

One caveat to note is that both bachelor’s and master’s degree-holders have been considered, while UHNW individuals who may have attended more than one university have been counted twice. With that in mind, let’s dive in.
Upholding a Stellar Reputation

It’s immediately noticeable that a majority of universities on the list are located in the United States, with a high concentration on the East Coast—including the elite Ivy League.

Established in 1636, Harvard dwarfs all its Ivy League counterparts for the richest graduates. Its 13,650 UHNW alumni is double that of second-place Stanford (5,580 UHNW alumni), with twice the total wealth to boot.

One way that Harvard falls short is when average UHNW alumni wealth is considered in this chart, with Stanford beating it by a difference of $170 million per graduate. Regardless, it’s clear Harvard graduates go on to have a significant impact on the world. Notable alumni include political leaders such as former U.S. President Barack Obama, and billionaires such as Michael Bloomberg.

Interestingly, Princeton climbs the charts for total alumni wealth ($1.1 trillion), despite a lower UHNW alumni count of just over 2,000—but this also puts its wealth per graduate at a high of $516 million. Notable alumni from Princeton include Jeff Bezos and Steve Forbes. Meanwhile, Brown and Dartmouth are the only Ivy universities that don’t make the list at all.
Excellence Outside the U.S.

Zooming out, private universities dominate most of this list of richest graduates. In the United Kingdom, Cambridge, Oxford, and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) have over 6,500 UHNW alumni combined. This represents a total of $1.08 trillion in wealth, an average of $174 million per UHNW grad.

Notable alumni and achievements from these institutions include:
Cambridge: Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Stephen Hawking
Oxford: 69 Nobel prize winners, Stephen Hawking, JRR Tolkien
LSE: 18 Nobel prize winners, including political leaders

*LSE’s label has been misrepresented in the original report as #26 instead of the actual #25.

Nearby in France, the graduate business school Institut Européen d’Administration des Affaires (INSEAD) has a total of 1,956 UHNW alumni and $356 billion in combined wealth—contributed by CEOs of companies like Credit Suisse, Royal Dutch Shell, Ericsson, and Lego.

It’s impressive that the National University of Singapore (NUS) enters the list, with 1,890 UHNW alumni and an average of $46.6 million to their name. Graduates from NUS have gone on to become Singaporean prime ministers and presidents, as well as high-ranking officials in the WHO and UN Security Council.

Here are the full statistics for the top 25 universities worldwide—does yours make the cut?

Rank	University	Total Wealth	UHNW Alumni	Wealth per UHNW Graduate
1	Harvard University	$4.7T	13,650	$349M
2	Stanford University	$2.9T	5,580	$519M
3	University of Pennsylvania	$1.8T	5,575	$319M
4	Columbia University	$1.5T	3,925	$382M
5	Princeton University	$1.1T	2,180	$516M
6	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	$990B	2,785	$355M
7	Yale University	$777B	2,400	$323M
8	University of California Berkeley	$760B	2,385	$318M
9	New York University	$712B	3,380	$210M
10	The University of Chicago	$707B	2,405	$293M
11	The University of Michigan	$691B	1,970	$350M
12	The University of Southern California	$548B	2,645	$207M
13	Cornell University	$483B	2,245	$215M
14	The University of Texas at Austin	$463B	2,195	$210M
15	University of Cambridge	$390B	2,760	$141M
16	Northwestern University	$389B	2,725	$142M
17	The University of California Los Angeles	$375B	1,945	$192M
18	Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires	$356B	1,965	$181M
19	University of Oxford	$349B	2,290	$152M
20	London School of Economics and Political Science	$342B	1,495	$228M
21	University of Miami	$309B	1,700	$181M
22	Boston University	$277B	1,640	$168M
23	University of Virginia	$246B	1,650	$149M
24	The University of Notre Dame	$179B	2,085	$85M
25	National University of Singapore	$88B	1,890	$46M

Culled from Visualcapitalist