Considering a study program in the United States can be great. There are more than one hundred and seventy (170) universities and colleges in the United States among the best in the world that have a very strong alumni network.
This article introduces the Top 15 American Universities with the powerful alumni network, ranging from men who influenced the society at large in one way or another, and also contributed immensely to the development of the economy which has studied in universities in the United States.
An alumni network is a union of former students (graduates). It is an association of colleges, universities, schools, fraternities, and sororities that are often groups with alumni from the same institution.
Top 15 USA Universities with Powerful Alumni Network are as follows:
1) Stanford University
Stanford University is an Ivy private research university in Stanford, California. It is known for its academic strength, wealth, and proximity to Silicon Valley.
The university was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford in memory of their only child, Leland Stanford Jr., who died of typhoid fever at the age of fifteen (15) the previous year.
Stanford was a United States senator and former governor of California who made his fortune as a railroad magnate.
The school admitted its first batch of students on October 1st 1891, ranking among the best universities in the world. Stanford University is also one of the nation’s top fundraising institutions, becoming the first school to raise more than $1 billion in one year.
Based in Palo Alto, right next to Silicon Valley, Stanford has played a leading role in encouraging the development of the region’s tech industry.
Many of its faculty members, students, and alumni have founded successful tech companies and start-ups, including Google, Snapchat, and Hewlett-Packard. In total, companies founded by Stanford graduates earn $2.7 trillion a year
Notable Alumni
- Gene D. Block (A.B. 1970), 8th Chancellor of University of California, Los Angeles
- Derek Bok (A.B. 1951), 25th president of Harvard University
- Michelle Alexander (JD 1992), civil rights activist and law professor at Ohio State University
- Anant Agarwal (Ph.D in EE), president of edX at MIT
- Ružena Bajcsy (Ph.D in CS), winner of the 2009 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computing and Cognitive Science
- Andy Bechtolsheim (Ph.D. dropout), designer of the first networked SUN workstation
- James B. Aguayo-Martel (MD 1981, MPH 1981), chairman of the department of surgery, founder and inventor of NMR microscopy and deuterium NMR spectroscopy.
2) Harvard University
Harvard is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Around 20,000 students are enrolled, of which a quarter are international. Although the cost of tuition is costly, Harvard’s financial endowment allows for significant financial aid for students.
Harvard University was founded in 1636 and named after its first benefactor, Rev. John Harvard, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and its history, influence and wealth have made it the one of the most important universities in the world. The Harvard Corporation is its first chartered company.
Harvard University is perhaps one of the best universities in the world, topping Times Higher Education reputation rankings for most years. The Harvard Library System is made up of seventy-nine (79) libraries and counts as the largest university library in the world.
Harvard has eight US presidents, 157 Nobel laureates, 14 Turing Award winners, and 62 living billionaires. Unlike other top universities, Harvard University is at least as renowned for the arts and sciences human resources than for science and technology, or even more.
Notable Alumni
- Roger Adams (1889–1971) College 1909, PhD 1912 – Pioneer organic chemist
- Howard H. Aiken (1900–1973) M.A. 1937; PhD 1939 – computer scientist; designer of the Harvard Mark 1.
- Darius Adamczyk (born 1966) Business 1995 – CEO of Honeywell
- John Adams (1735–1826) 1755 – College – President of the United States
- John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) 1787 – College – President of the United States
- Abdiweli Mohamed Ali (b. 1965) HKS – 1999 – President of Puntland; Prime Minister of Somalia
- Sophia Akuffo (b. 1949) Law – Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana
- Mark Fields (born 1961) Company – CEO of Ford Motor Company
3) Princeton University
Princeton University is a prestigious Ivy League research university located in Princeton, New Jersey.
The university was founded in the year 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey. Princeton is the fourth oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and one of nine (9) colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution.
Princeton’s distinct social environment includes private “eating clubs”, which serve as both social foyers and restaurants.
Many clubs are selective and competitive, but others simply require students to join. The institution moved to Newark in 1747 and then to the present site nine years later where it was renamed Princeton University in the year 1896.
Notable Alumni
- James Millikin Bevans – Major General of the United States Air Force
- Alexander Bonnyman, Jr., 1932 – WWII Medal of Honor recipient killed in Battle of Tarawa
- Mike Archer (Biology) B 1967 – Director of the Australian Museum, 1999–2003
- Stan Allen – Dean of the School of Architecture at Princeton University; author of Points and Lines
- Orley Ashenfelter – professor of economics, winner of the Frisch Medal (1982)
- Bruce Alger – former U.S. Representative for Texas’ 5th congressional district, based in Dallas
- Kwame Anthony Appiah – professor of philosophy
- Philip Warren Anderson – Joseph Henry Professor of Physics and Nobel Laureate in Physics
- Robert Calderbank – professor of electrical engineering, mathematics and applied mathematics
4) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a prestigious research university located in Cambridge, USA. The university was founded in the year of 1861 in response to the increasing industrialization of the United States. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has adopted a European polytechnic university model of laboratory teaching in applied science and engineering.
The University is traditionally known for its research and teaching in the physical sciences and engineering, but more recently in biology, economics, linguistics and management. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is often ranked among the best universities in the world.
As of August 2018, 91 Nobel Prize winners, 25 Turing Prize winners, and 8 Fields Medalists have been affiliated with MIT as alumni, faculty, or researchers.
MIT also cultivates a strong entrepreneurial culture, which has seen many graduates build renowned companies such as Intel and Dropbox.
Notable Alumni
- Ben Bernanke PhD – Economics Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank 1979 Julius A. Furer SM Admiral of the United States Navy 1905
- Kofi Annan SM – Management 1972 Former United Nations Secretary General
- Ogden Codman, Jr. (1884) – Beaux-Arts domestic architect, interior designer
- Marion Mahony Griffin (1894) – co-designer of the master plan for Canberra, Australia
- Arash Ferdowsi (dropped out); co-founder of CTO at Dropbox
- Karel Bossart (SM 1927) – designer of the Atlas SM-65 missile
- Michael Brennan – pioneering academic in finance, former president of the American Finance Association
- Herbert Kalmus (1903) – inventor of Technicolor, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
- Wesley A. Clark – computer pioneer, creator of the LINC (1 st minicomputer)
- Johan Harmenberg – epee fencer, 1980 Olympics gold medalist, world champion
5) California Institute of Technology (CalTech)
Caltech is a private, doctoral research university located in Pasadena, California, USA. Recognized for its strength in the natural sciences and engineering, it is often ranked among the top ten universities in the world.
The university was established as a preparatory and vocational school by Amos G. Throop in the year 1891. In the early 20th century, the college attracted influential scientists such as Arthur Amos Noyes, George Ellery Hale, and Robert Andrews Millikan.
The vocational and preparatory schools were disbanded and disbanded in 1910 and the college assumed its present name in the year 1921.
In 1934, Caltech was elected to the Association of American Universities and the antecedents of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which Caltech continues to manage and operate, were established between 1936 and 1943 under Theodore von Kármán.
There are approximately two thousand (2,000) students at CalTech, and the main campus in Pasadena, near Los Angeles, covers 124 acres. Almost all undergraduate students live on campus.
In the six (6) faculties, the emphasis is on science and engineering. CalTech has the highest proportion of students pursuing doctoral degrees, and the CalTech graduate trope has seeped into popular culture; all of the main characters in the television comedy The Big Bang Theory work or study at California Institute of Technology.
Notable Alumni
- Frank Borman, commanded the 1968 Apollo 8 mission, the first team of astronauts to circle the moon
- Gordon Fullerton, pilot of the 3 rd space shuttle mission and orbited earth in Skylab
- France Córdova, director of the National Science Foundation
- Chester F. Carlson, inventor of xerography (photocopy)
- Frank Capra, director (It Happened One Night; Lost Horizon; It’s a Wonderful Life)
6) Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (JHU) is an American private research university located in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in the year 1876, it takes its name from its first benefactor, the American abolitionist, philanthropist and entrepreneur, Johns Hopkins.
His bequest of $7 million (about $141.2 million today), half of which funded the establishment of Johns Hopkins Hospital, was the largest philanthropic gift in U.S. history at that time. .
Johns Hopkins University has four campuses in Baltimore, as well as regional satellite campuses throughout Maryland and a biotechnology center north of Washington, DC.
It is present in more than one hundred and fifty (150) countries, including Argentina, France, China, Italy and Singapore, and an extensive study abroad program.
Over three thousand (3,000) of the students at the university are international, totaling 20 percent (%) of the student body and representing 120 different countries.
The university has up to 36 Nobel laureates among past and present faculty and students.
Other notable alumni include journalist PJ O’Rourke, film director Wes Craven, Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States, and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Russell Baker.
Its main campus features red-brick buildings, an iconic clock tower, and sprawling wooded areas.
Notable Alumni
- Mr. Coetzee – Nobel Prize in Literature, 2003
- Joseph Erlanger – Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1944
- William Foxwell Albright – authenticator of the Dead Sea Scrolls, linguist, ceramics expert
- Louise L. Sloan – ophthalmologist and vision scientist
- Louis Clarke – Olympic track champion
- Sanju Bansal (MS 1990) – co-founder of MicroStrategy
- Arthur Talmage Abernethy – journalist, theologian, minister, North Carolina’s first Poet Laureate
7) University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private Ivy League research institution. located in the college portion of West Philadelphia.
It is one of fourteen (14) founding members of the Association of American Universities and one of nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution.
Penn’s founder, Benjamin Franklin, advocated an educational program that focused as much on practical education for commerce and public service as on the classics and theology, although his proposed curriculum was never adopted.
With an endowment of $12.21 billion in 2017, it had the seventh-largest endowment of any college in the United States. In its fiscal year 2015, Penn’s academic research budget was approximately $851 million, involving more than 4,300 faculty, 5,500 postdoctoral fellows, and 5,500 support staff/graduate assistants.
The 2018 Distinguished Alumni include 14 Heads of State, 25 Billionaires; three justices of the Supreme Court of the United States 3; 33 United States Senators, 42 United States Governors, and 158 members of the United States House of Representatives; 8 signers of the American Declaration of Independence; 12 signers of the United States Constitution and current President of the United States.
Notable Alumni
- Herman Vandenburg Ames: Professor of Constitutional History
- Cyrus Adler: Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary; President of Dropsie College
- Elizabeth Alexander: poet who recited during the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009
- Reds Bagnell: Maxwell Award football running back at Penn and a member of the College Football Hall of Fame
- B. Beaumont: first head football coach at the University of Alabama
- Pard Pearce: the 1921 NFL champion playing for the Chicago Staleys (now the Chicago Bears)
- Greg Best: winner of two silver medals at the 1988 Seoul Olympics
- Steve Baumann: Chairman of the National Football Hall of Fame
- Joe Burk: Award-winning Ivy League rower and trainer
- Laura J. Alber: President and CEO of Williams-Sonoma
8) Yale University
Yale University is an American private research university, the Ivy League, which is the third oldest institution of higher learning in the United States.
Yale traces its history back to the year 1701 when it was founded as Collegiate School in Saybrook, Connecticut, which then moved to New Haven 15 years later.
Yale University’s central campus covers 260 acres of New Haven and includes buildings dating back to the mid-18th century.
About one in five Yale students is an international student, and more than half of all undergraduate students receive scholarships or grants from the university.
Yale has an endowment exceeding US$1 billion (£1 billion), making it the second richest educational institution in the world, and a library containing over 25 million volumes, making it the third important in the United States.
Yale alumni and sports teams are known as the “Bulldogs”. Many graduates have had distinguished careers in politics, the arts, science, and more.
Notable Alumni
- George Akerlof (BA 1962), Economics, 2001
- Anne Applebaum (B.A. 1986), 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction
- Richard Anuszkiewicz, painter of the Op-Art movement
- Frank Aarebrot, professor of comparative politics at the University of Bergen
- Joel Benjamin (B.A. 1985), Chess Grandmaster, three-time American Chess Champion (1987, 1997, 2000)
- John Fellows Akers (B.A. 1956), former CEO and Chairman of the Board of IBM
- Isaac K. Beckes (Ph.D. 1943), president of the University of Vincennes, 1950 – 1980
- Henry Bean, writer/director The Believer
- Joseph P. Allen (Ph.D. 1965), NASA astronaut with two STS mission experiences
- Elizabeth Adams (Ph.D. 1926), professor of zoology at Mount Holyoke College
9) University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is an urban research university that has pushed new ways of thinking since 1890. Its commitment to free and open inquiry draws enthusiastic scholars to its global campuses, where ideas that challenge and change are born. the world.
University of Chicago scholars have played a large role in the development of many academic disciplines, including economics, sociology, law, literary criticism, religion, and the behavioral school of political science.
The university is also home to the University of Chicago Press, the largest university press in the United States.
Creative students and alumni at the University of Chicago drive innovation, lead international conversations, and make masterpieces. Alumni and professors, lecturers and postdocs go on to become CEOs, attorneys general, literary giants, university presidents and astronauts.
Notable Alumni
- William Lyon Mackenzie King (AM 1897), Prime Minister of Canada (1935 – 1948)
- Lester Beall (AB 1926) – modernist graphic designer
- Jay Berwanger (AB 1936) – first Heisman Trophy winner
- Roger Altman – Founder and Senior Chairman of Evercore, Under Secretary of the United States Treasury
- Henry Steele Commager (Ph.B. 1923, AM 1924, Ph.D. 1928) – American historian
- Jessica Abel (A.B. 1991) – comic book writer and artist
- Robert Gallo (medical resident 1963–1965) – first retrovirus identified in humans
- Leonard Bloomfield – linguist who led the development of structural linguistics
10) University of California at Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) is one of the top-ranked public research universities in the United States. Located in the city of Berkeley, it was founded in the year 1868 and is the flagship institution of the ten research universities affiliated with the University of California system.
Berkeley has since grown to educate over forty thousand (40,000) students in over 350 undergraduate and graduate programs spanning a wide range of disciplines.
The University is one of 14 founding members of the Association of American Universities, with $789 million in R&D expenditures in the fiscal year ended June 30 , 2015.
The establishment of the university stemmed from a vision in the state constitution of a university that would “contribute even more than the gold of California to the glory and happiness of future generations.”
It has a tradition as a center for political activism. During the year, the 1960s and 1970s campuses were the scene of student protests against the Vietnam War. On-campus attractions include a botanical garden which was established in the year 1890 and the 60,000 capacity California Memorial Stadium used by the university’s sports teams.
Notable Alumni
- Michael Freedman – mathematician, recipient of the Fields Medal in 1986
- Mark Anchor Albert, BA 1984 – Los Angeles-based attorney, lay Catholic leader, founder of the Queen of Angels Foundation
- Timothy Leary, Ph.D. 1950 – psychologist and counterculture figure
- Viet Thanh Nguyen, BA [1992], Ph.D. 1997 – author (also Pulitzer Prize-winning); 2017 MacArthur Fellowship (291)
- William Thurston, Ph.D. 1972 – 2012 Mathematician, 1982 Fields Medal of the Year recipient
11) University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood area of ​​Los Angeles, United States. In the year 1919, it became the Southern Branch of the University of California, making it the second oldest undergraduate campus in California’s ten-campus university system.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the year 2018-2019 ranked UCLA 17th in the world for academics, No. 2 public university in the United States for academics, and 9th in the world for reputation.
In the year 2017, UCLA ranked 12th in the world, 10th in North America by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), and 33rd in the 2017-2018 QS World University Rankings.
In 2017, the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) ranked UCLA 15th in the world based on quality of education, alumni employment, quality of faculty, publications, influence, citations, wide impact and patents. In the 2018-2019 year, US News & World Report ranked UCLA as the #1 public university in the United States.
The University of California, Los Angeles also encourages students to study abroad more than two thousand four hundred (2,400) do so each year – with more than 40 programs in approximately 275 countries. Community service is also a cornerstone of undergraduate education at UCLA.
Notable Alumni
- Ralph Bunche – recipient of the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize
- Allen Adham, BS Engineering, 1990 – co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment
- Luis Aguilar – Monsalve – writer and educator
- Inez Asher – television writer and novelist
- Eric Byrnes – former Major League Baseball player
- Ike Anigbogu – National Basketball Association player, Indiana Pacers
- Anthony Barr – Minnesota Vikings linebacker
- Mohini Bhardwaj – Olympic silver medalist in gymnastics
12) Columbia University
Columbia University is a private league research university located in Upper Manhattan, New York. It was created in the year 1754.
Columbia University, home to the oldest college in New York State, is the fifth-largest accredited institution of higher education in the United States, making it one of nine (9) colonial colleges founded before the declaration of independence.
It was officially established as King’s College by royal charter from George II of Great Britain and renamed Columbia College in 1784 after the American Revolutionary War.
The university’s main landmark is the Low Memorial Library, built in the classical Roman style and housing the university’s central administration offices. In addition to its main campus in the heart of New York on Broadway, Columbia has two (2) facilities outside of Manhattan:
Nevis Laboratories, a center for the study of high-energy experimental elements and nuclear physics in Irvington, New York, and the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York.
Up to eighty (80) faculty members, auxiliary staff and Columbia alumni have won a Nobel Prize since the year 1901, when they were first awarded. Among them, US President Barack Obama, who received the 2009 Peace Prize, chemist Robert Lefkowitz and economist Joseph Stiglitz.
The private research university has 20 schools – which include architecture, planning and preservation; business; Jewish Theological Seminary; law, and the 23 libraries that are spotted across the city. Sponsored research from its medical center produces over $600,000,000 (six hundred million dollars) annually.
Columbia University also has nine (9) Columbia Global Centers, which aim to promote and facilitate collaboration among university staff, students, and alumni to address global challenges. These are found in China, Jordan, Turkey, India, Kenya, France, Chile, Brazil, and New York.
From 2014 to 2015, the university’s total endowment exceeded $9.6 billion.
Notable Alumni
- Willie Blount – Governor of Tennessee (1809-1815)
- William Pelham Barr (1971th, United States Attorney General, 1973–77) (BA 1991, MA 1993)
- Charles Fried (1985 – 1989) – United States Solicitor General
- John Jay – first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court; governor of new york
- François Blanchet (MD c.1800) – member of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada
- Hans Blix – Swedish diplomat, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (1981 – 1997)
- Annette Nazareth – Commissioner of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission
- Dan Abrams (JD 1992) – media legal commentator
13) Duke University
Duke University is one of the wealthiest private universities in the United States and one of the largest producers of international scholars, located in North Carolina, United States.
The university was founded in the birth year of 1838 as Trinity College, but was not known as Duke University until the following year, after the Duke Foundation was established. The university describes itself as being younger than most other major research universities in the country.
Approximately 95 (%) of all students graduate within four (4) years of enrollment. In the 2015 entry year, the most popular majors were economics, public policy, psychology, biomedical engineering, and biology.
In 2014, Duke Kunshan University opened in China, with the goal of integrating liberal arts education with Chinese tradition. Duke also has a partnership with the National University of Singapore to collaborate on a joint medical program, which welcomed its first students in 2007.
The most notable alumnus is Richard Nixon, USA. 37th President . He graduated with a law degree from Duke University in the year 1937. Duke graduates also lead many Fortune Five (500) companies including Apple, Cisco Systems, JPMorgan Chase, and PepsiCo.
Notable Alumni
- Ricardo Lagos (Ph.D. 1966), former President of Chile
- Edward Gurney (LL.M. 1948), former United States Senator from Florida
- Jim Courter (JD 1966), former congressman from New Jersey
- Cynthia G. Efird (AM), United States Ambassador to Angola (2004-2007)
- Charles S. Hamilton (BS 1974), Rear Admiral in the United States Navy
- Michael Dreeben (JD 1981), Deputy Solicitor General
- Larry Klayman (A.B. 1973), public interest attorney
14) Cornell University
Cornell University is a private, statutory Ivy League research university located in Ithaca, New York. The University was in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, the university was to teach and make contributions in all fields of knowledge – from classics to science and from theory to practice.
It is a federal land-grant university with a private endowment; it has six locations around the world. Its main campus located in Ithaca, New York, covers an area of ​​4 hectares (2,300) of the Finger Lakes region and is so large that students can hike without even leaving the university premises. .
The university has 45 Nobel laureates among its faculty and alumni. Other famous alumni include Tsai Ing-wen, president-elect of Taiwan, and Huey Lewis, frontman of Huey Lewis and the News.
Notable Alumni
- Joachim Frank (postdoctoral fellow 1972) – Chemistry, 2017; member of the National Academy of Sciences (2006)
- Pearl S. Buck (English Literature MA 1925) – Literature 1938
- Hermann Joseph Muller (postgraduate study 1911 – 12) – Physiology or Medicine 1946; member of the National Academy of Sciences (1931)
- Mario GarcÃa Menocal (BS Engineering 1888) – President of Cuba, 1913–21
- John Alden Dix (attendee 1879 – 1882) – 38 Governor of New York, 1911 – 1912
- John G. Alexander (JD 1916) – 3rd District of Minnesota, 1939–41
- David Buckel (JD 1987) – American lawyer and environmental activist, LGBT rights advocate
- Carol Aichele (BA) – Commonwealth Secretary, Pennsylvania (2011 – 2015)
- Aldo Bensadoun (present, transferred) – Billionaire Founder and Executive Chairman of ALDO Group
15) University of Michigan
The University of Michigan, often referred to as Michigan, is a leading public research university in the United States. Located in the city of Ann Arbor, the institution is Michigan’s oldest, having been founded in 1817 in Detroit as the University of Michigania or Catholepistemiad, which was 20 years before the territory became a state. .
The school was moved to Ann Arbor in the year 1837 on 40 acres (16 ha) of what is now known as Central Campus.
Considered one of the leading research universities in the United States, Michigan is ranked among the 115 doctoral universities with very high research according to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.
Since the year 2018, 25 Nobel Laureates, 6 Turing Prize Laureates, and 1 Fields Medalist have been affiliated with the University of Michigan.
The university’s mission is to serve the people of Michigan and around the world “by creating, communicating, preserving, and applying art, knowledge, and academic values, and by nurturing leaders and citizens who will face the present and will enrich the future.
Notable Alumni
- Ricardo Ainslie (Ph.D.), originally from Mexico City, Mexico; Guggenheim Prize Winner
- Aisha Bowe (BS, MS 2009), NASA aerospace engineer; CEO of STEMBoard, a technology company
- Jack Lousma (COE: BSAE 1959), Skylab 3 1973; STS-3, 1982
- Theophilus C. Abbot (LL.D. 1890), third president of Michigan State University
- Rodolfo Arévalo, president of Eastern Washington University
- Ray Stannard Baker (MDNG LAW: 1891), biographer of Woodrow Wilson
- Caroline Walker Bynum (B.A. 1962), medieval scholar; MacArthur Fellow
- James McDonald Vicary, market researcher; pioneered the concept of subliminal advertising in 1957.
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