Famous Ivy League alumni

All-time Hollywood favorite Meryl Streep earned her MFA at Yale School of Drama in 1975, graduating a year after Alien actress Sigourney Weaver, who received the same degree. Another famous graduate of Yale in the acting world is the late Vincent Price (degree in history, 1933). The financial and entrepreneurial worlds are widely represented among Yale’s famous alumni, one example of which is Time Warner’s CEO Jeffrey Lawrence Bewkes, who got a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1974. The same year, Nobel laureate and economist Paul Krugman earned a BA in – what else? – economics, just like 41^st President of the United States George W.H. Bush 26 years previously. Following in his father’s steps, George W. Bush also graduated from Harvard, earning a BA in history in 1968.

Cornell University boasts that it is the only institution whose list of famous alumni includes three female winners of unshared Nobel Prizes: authors Pearl S. Buck and Toni Morrison who won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and Barbara McClintock, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Another successful author who graduated from Cornell is E.B. White, who earned his BA in 1921. Former President of Cuba Mario Garcia Menocal graduated from Cornell’s School of Engineering in 1888, while pop culture’s favorite Superman actor Christopher Reeve received a bachelor’s degree in English and music theory in 1974. Last but not least, Cornell graduates who made it big in the business world include Mondelez International’s CEO Irene Rosenfeld and Johnson and Johnson’s chairman Sandi Peterson (BA in Psychology and BA in Government Studies respectively).

One of Penn’s most prominent graduates is philosopher, linguist and political theorist Noam Chomsky, who earned all his degrees (BA, MA and PhD) at Penn, unsurprisingly majoring in politics and linguistics. In the sphere of politics, the first President of Nigeria Nnamdi Azikiwe earned his master’s in anthropology in 1934. Once again, famous alumni who skyrocketed to fame in financial and business life are well-represented; American businessman and investor Warren Buffet entered Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania in 1947, switching course to earn his MSc in Economics from Columbia Business School in 1951. Successful businessman and TV personality Donald Trump graduated with a BSc in Economics in 1968, while his daughter, Ivanka Trump, got the same degree with honors in 2004.

Famous American actor James Stewart graduated from Princeton with a degree in architecture (1932), without ever needing to practice it, since he went on to achieve Hollywood fame and critical acclaim for his acting. Another Princeton alumnus who later made it in the film industry is Brooke Shields, who studied French literature (class of 1987). Google chairman Eric Schmidt earned a BSc in Electrical Engineering (1976), despite having initially started out studying architecture. A special mention needs must go to American entrepreneur and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who earned not one but two bachelor’s degrees with honors, one in electrical engineering and one in computer science. Finally, writers Eugene O’Neill and F. Scott Fitzgerald studied briefly at Princeton, though both dropped out without graduating.

Authors Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg of the famous Beat Generation both attended Columbia University in the late 1940s and, while there, frequently contributed articles to student newspapers and magazines. American author and professor of biochemistry Isaac Asimov received his MA in Chemistry in 1941, followed by a PhD in Biochemistry in 1948. American economist and statistician Milton Friedman completed his PhD in 1946, going on to receive the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1976. Singer Art Garfunkel, from the American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, graduated from Columbia with a BA in Art History (1965) and later on with an MA in Mathematics (1967). Last but not least, the cinematic sphere is represented by actor Ed Harris who majored in athletics in 1969, as well as filmmaker Sidney Lumet who studied theatre acting.

The 41^st Vice President of the United States Nelson A. Rockfeller received his degree in economics with honors in 1930. Spin City and American Horror Story actress and producer Connie Britton graduated from Dartmouth in 1989, majoring in Asian studies with a concentration in Chinese. Indian American political commentator Dinesh D’Souza got a BA in English (1983), while Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner majored in politics (1985). We’ll close with two representatives from literature, as Pulitzer Prize winners and poets Robert Frost and Richard Eberhart both attended Dartmouth and earned their degrees there.