If you do, were are some rules based upon an analysis of the information about 400 Richest People in the United States for 2009 (actually only data from the top 101 richest people was analyzed; even my OCD has it limits): http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/54/400list08_The-400-Richest-Americans_Rank.html
(1) Don't get a Ph.D. Only 4 people out of 101 have a Ph.D. and they are nowhere near the richest. 36 out of 101 have a B.A. but 15 only have a High School diploma (some apparently never attended college, others are college dropouts; NOTE: Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Whatever, who is British and not included in this data apparently dropped out of high school). There are 7 people who have indeterminate levels of education. In some cases, it is possible that some of these did not have formal schooling (though they may have had tutoring; they may have inherited the money). (2) It doesn't really matter whether you complete you education. There were 12 people who "dropped out" of their educational studies but the mean net worth of these people is about $15 Billion (Bill Gates, as the richest man in the world, skews things) while the 83 people who did complete their studies had a mean net worth of $8.61 Billion. (3) High School graduates are richest people in the U.S. ?????? Given that most college dropouts can only claim their high school diplomas as their highest certified level of educational achievement, people with only a High School diploma have a mean net worth of $13.64 Billion. Of the top 101 richest U.S. people, those with a Bachelor's degree actually have a lower net worth of $7.83 Billion. People with a Master's degree (usually an MBA) do somewhat better with a net worth of $10.65 Billion. Folks with a JD or an MD or a Ph.D. only have a net worth of about $6.75 Billion (yes, less than a person with a B.A.). This is so depressing that I'm not going to shave for the next few days. Anyway, I've attached an SPSS system data file (not an Excel file like I did earlier) of the data I pulled off of the Forbes website. I didn't include the U.S. News ranking of colleges because, quite frankly, it doesn't seem to be relevant (I'll leave it to some other enterprising soul to do so). I'm now going to have a beer and wait for the new episode of "Mad Men" to air. -Mike Palij New York University m...@nyu.edu --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
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