The thousands of wait-listed would-be MBAs who may not get the chance to go to their dream B-school might want to draw inspiration from the following group of CEOs. Not only did they not get graduate degrees, they didn't get undergraduate degrees -- and some never even attended college.

Of course, not having a degree didn't stop them from being a big name on campus. You'll find Alfred Taubman's name at Brown, Harvard, the University of Michigan, and Lawrence Technological University; at least one building on each campus bears his name, although the retail magnate and philanthropist never finished college. Read on to learn who else made it into corporate top spots without the benefit of a bachelor's degree.

1. Dennis Albaugh

Chairman, Albaugh

Type of Business: Pesticides

Education: Associate's degree from Des Moines Area Community College

Fun fact: He has a collection of more than 100 classic Chevrolets

2. Paul Allen

Founder and chairman, Vulcan

Type of Business: Media, telecommunications

Education: Dropped out of Washington State College after two years

Fun fact: He persuaded Bill Gates to drop out of Harvard. They later founded Microsoft (MSFT) together.

3. Richard Branson

CEO, Virgin Group

Type of Business: Travel, radio, TV, music, venture capital

Education: No college degree

Fun fact: He became an entrepreneur at age 16 with the creation of Student magazine.

4. Maverick Carter

CEO, LRMR Innovative Marketing & Branding

Type of Business: Marketing

Education: 3.5 years of college at Western Michigan University and University of Akron combined

Quote: "Don't be afraid if you see an opportunity to go and give it shot. You can finish school later; it's always there."

5. John Paul DeJoria

CEO, John Paul Mitchell Systems

Type of Business: Hair-care products

Education: No college

Fun fact: He started out selling greeting cards at age 9.

6. Michael Dell

Founder, chairman, and CEO Dell (DELL)

Type of Business: Computers

Education: Attended University of Texas, Austin; did not finish.

Quote: "When I started our company, it was very much an idea outside of the conventional wisdom, and if there were people telling me that it wasn't going to work, I wasn't really listening to them."

7. Felix Dennis

Founder and chairman, Alpha Media Group, formerly Dennis Publishing

Type of Business: Publishing (Maxim, The Week)

Education: No college degree

Fun fact: He wrote a biography and published a magazine about Bruce Lee; sales surged when the martial arts star died suddenly in 1973.

8. Barry Diller

Chairman and CEO of IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI)

Type of Business: Media

Education: Dropped out of UCLA after three weeks

Fun fact: He started his career working in the mail room of the William Morris Agency.

9. Bill Gates

Co-chair and Trustee, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Chairman, Microsoft (MSFT)

Type of Business: Philanthropy. Software.

Education: Dropped out of Harvard

Fun fact: As a schoolboy, he created a program that allowed people to play tic-tac-toe on the computer.

10. Mukesh "Micky" Jagtiani

Chairman, Landmark International (Dubai)

Type of Business: Retailing

Education: No college degree

Fun fact: The billionaire mall developer flunked out of a London accounting school as a teenager and worked as a taxi driver before becoming an entrepreneur.

11. Dean Kamen

Founder and chairman, Segway

Type of Business: Motor vehicles

Education: Dropped out of Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Fun fact: Kamen founded FIRST, a robotics competition for high school students.

12. David Oreck

Founder, Oreck

Type of Business: Vacuum cleaners

Education: No college. At 17, enlisted in the army, and flew B-29 bombers during World War II

Quote: "Things are never as bad as they seem to the pessimist and never as good as they seem to the optimist."

13. Amancio Ortega Gaona

President, Inditex Group

Type of Business: Fashion retailing (Zara, Kiddy Class, others). (A Coruna, Spain)

Education: No college

Fun fact: Often cited as the richest man in Spain, he reportedly has never given any media interviews

14. Phillip Ruffin

Owner, Treasure Island

Type of Business: Casinos

Education: Attended Washburn University for three years and Wichita State University but never got his degree.

Quote: "You get the most experience from the business of life."

15. Alfred Taubman

Founder, Taubman Centers (TCO). Philanthropist

Type of Business: Shopping malls

Education: Attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor for three years but left to start a family and his career

Quote: "Become an expert in one fundamental area of your market or business. No one starts out as a generalist."

16. Ty Warner

Founder, Ty, Inc.

Type of Business: Toys (stuffed animals)

Education: Dropped out of college to pursue a career in acting. Later founded Ty Inc.

Fun fact: The plush animals his company manufactured retailed for only $5 in the 1990s, but Beanie Baby-mania drove prices up to $30 or more for the hard-to-get characters.

复 UCLA，应该是不太好进的。特别是最近几年。

家园

对比顶尖名校,UCLA算好进的,标准也简单, UCLA和

和伯克利确实对华人不公平, 但作为华人, 如果身在加州, 连UCLA和伯克利都进不去,放到中国不知道能上什么学校.

抱怨的华人家长们,应该一边抱怨,一边向犯困兄您学习啊.

复江苏高考本来就不吃亏。。。

家园

一年能招8000的湖北高校就那几个吧

华中工学院，武汉大学，武汉理工大学，这三个吧，其他没哪个大学能招这么多人的了。

鄙人当年从江苏考3+2考华中工学院，9000学生其中有3000湖北人，江苏的录取分数线跟湖北当地人是差不多的。

你说的那个什么在湖北只能上二本的分数，这个不奇怪，比如江苏的南京大学每年在湖北的分数线也就是比一类底线高不了几分。这不能怪招生不公平什么的，只能说是地区差异。江苏人头发削尖了往南京大学东南大学里面挤，湖北人只要过一本线就能上。这是地区差异。

要说悲惨，湖南人跟河南人真的很惨，湖南跟河南的高校相对来说要少一些。