Princeton has produced tons of politicians — who graduated from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. This institution has equally produced a good number of super successful startup founders, journalists, actors, and CEOs.
Starting with First Lady Michelle Obama to Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman, find below some of the most successful Princeton alumni of all time.
Malcolm Forbes,serves as chairman and editor in chief of renowned Forbes magazine, took control of the media house in 1957 after his father, the founder, died. While he was at Princeton, Forbes, class of 1941, studied political science and was given the Class of 1901 Medal “as the member of the class who gave the most contribution to Princeton as an undergraduate student.”
Author F. Scott Fitzgerald has sponsored many students to Princeton, which he referred to as the “pleasantest country club in America.”Interestingly, Fitzgerald dropped out of Princeton in 1917 to be part of the Army, but while in school he did a lot of creative writing and journalistic pursuits instead of regular academic coursework.
Jeff Bezos, The CEO and founder of Amazon, took up electrical engineering and computer programming at Princeton. Bezos himself graduated in 1986 and did the first business plan for Amazon while moving from New York City to Los Angeles with his beloved wife, MacKenzie, who also attended Princeton.
While at Princeton University, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was the leading debater on the debate team. Interestingly, his senior thesis talked about the ninth and tenth amendments, which became something of special interest to conservative idealists. Cruz later went to Harvard Law School after he graduated in 1992.
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Did you know that Robert L. Johnson founded Black Entertainment Television (BET) in 1980? At the moment he serves as the company’s chairman and CEO. He earned his MA in international affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton sometime in 1972.
As part of this list, granddaughter and niece of former presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush respectively, Lauren Bush came out of Princeton in 2006 with a B.A. in anthropology and a certificate in photography. Currently, she is the co-founder and CEO of FEED Projects LLC, an important organization that sells merchandise and sends the proceeds to hunger relief charities across the world.
Richard Feynman got his Ph.D. at Princeton University in 1942. Latter In 1965 he won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his scientific work in quantum electrodynamics, and in 1986 attracted global attention while on the presidential commission to analyze, research and investigate the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle.
Renowed X-Files” actor David Duchovny graduated from Princeton in 1982 with a degree in English literature. At college, his friends reportedly called him “Scruff” and they recall that he was super focused on basketball than anything else. Duchovny got his first paid acting job on a Lowenbrau beer commercial.
Queen Noor of Jordan not too long ago, received the Woodrow Wilson Award at Princeton’s 100th annual Alumni Day for her activities in promoting peace in the Middle East. Queen Noor, who came. Out of Yale in 1973, is a renowned social rights activist, president of the United World Colleges, plus a New York Times best-selling author.
In 1997, Princeton University recognized and honored Jimmy Stewart, one of its most famous alumni, when they dedicated a new film theater to his name. Stewart, who is renowned for movies such as “The Philadelphia Story,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and “Rear Window” got his first exposure to the world of acting and comedy through Princeton’s Triangle Club musicals and latter graduated in 1932.
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Three-term senator of New Jersey, Bill Bradley, has tons of accomplishments under his belt. He was very popular in his Princeton days and was the best amateur basketball player in the country and eventually went on to play with the Knicks from 1967-77. At the moment, he is the managing director of boutique investment bank Allen & Company and regular host of the radio program “American Voices.”
Meg Whitman came out of Princeton with a degree in 1977 and provided funding for the $30 million construction of Whitman College, the sixth residential college at the institution, in 2002. Currently, Whitman is the CEO of Hewlett-Packard and the former CEO of eBay.
Eric Schmidt, who was a member of the class of ’76, did electrical engineering at Princeton before earning a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UC Berkeley and joining Google in 2001. He is currently the executive chairman of the company, and in 2009 he and his lovely wife put together a scientific research fund at Princeton known as the Schmidt Transformative Technology Fund.
The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs got its famous name from the 28th president of the US, who got his BA at Princeton sometime in 1879. Before he went on to become the president, Wilson lectured on jurisprudence and political economy, and was the university’s president from 1902 to 1910. Latter on In 1919, Wilson won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Brooke Shields started her acting career when she was just 11 months in an Ivory soap ad. She was closely followed by many across the world, even during her time in college. During her senior year, she went on to date Dean Cain and graduated in 1987 with a degree in French literature. At the moment, the actress turned model lives in New York City and regularly acts in television series.
Dean Cain,was renowed for his role as Superman in the TV series “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” did history and was part of the football team at Princeton before he graduated in 1988. He befriended fellow actress Brooke Shields as they were both students at the university. At the moment, Cain continues to write, produce, and act full time.
Syngman Rhee was the leader of the exiled Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea as president when Japan occupied South Korea in the early 1900s, and later went on to serve as the first president of the Republic of Korea. Rhee latter obtained his Ph.D. in history, politics, and economics at Princeton sometime in 1910.
Andrea Jung also graduated magna cum laude in 1979. She had a number of roles in corporate America, but was most famous for her position as the first female CEO of Avon, from 1999-2012. At the moment, she is the CEO of microfinance non-profit Grameen America. Jung claims that if she hadn’t dabbled into business, she would have taken up journalism.
Donald Rumsfeld, who served as the secretary of defense under both President Gerald Ford and President George W. Bush, got a degree from Princeton in 1954 and captained both the football and wrestling teams. Ever Since, Rumsfeld has gone on to win the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the George Catlett Marshall Award, the Woodrow Wilson Award, and the Dwight Eisenhower Medal to mention a few.
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