10 Influential Figures Who Got Turned Down by Colleges and Still Got Famous
Getting a college rejection letter can feel like a full stop, but for many famous figures, it was just a comma in their stories. Ivy League schools and drama programs turned them down, but they found other ways to shine. Here’s how 15 celebrities got a “no” and still made big moves.
Tina Fey
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The moment she sat down for her Princeton interview, Tina Fey said she could feel the rejection coming. She later told People Magazine she just didn’t see it happening, so she went to the University of Virginia instead, where she studied drama before heading to “Saturday Night Live” and beyond.
Tom Hanks
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Before winning Oscars, Tom Hanks was sending his SAT scores to M.I.T. just hoping for a free bumper sticker. He wrote in The New York Times that he knew he wouldn’t get in. Instead, he attended Chabot College, a small community college in California, and later transferred to Sacramento State.
Steven Spielberg
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USC turned down Steven Spielberg twice from its School of Cinema Arts, which sounds ridiculous now. He ended up at Cal State Long Beach, though he left just before graduating to take a movie deal. He eventually finished his degree in 2002, years after directing “Jurassic Park” and “Schindler’s List.”
Carey Mulligan
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Carey Mulligan tried applying to drama schools behind her parents’ backs and got rejected from all of them. She called it the most rebellious thing she’d ever done. Even without formal training, she made it big with roles in “An Education,” “Drive,” and “Maestro.”
John Kerry
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After being rejected from Harvard, John Kerry later joked to ABC News that he preferred the term “crimson-challenged.” Instead, he went to Yale and then Boston College Law School. He didn’t let that early rejection stop him from becoming a U.S. Senator, Secretary of State, and Democratic presidential nominee.
Barack Obama
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Swarthmore College wasn’t interested in Barack Obama’s application, and he admitted it “broke [his] heart.” That story was confirmed when a Swarthmore alum asked him in his Senate office. He attended Occidental College, transferred to Columbia, and eventually gained admission to Harvard—but for law school, not undergraduate studies.
Meredith Vieira
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She didn’t get into Harvard, and for a while, Meredith Vieira couldn’t let it go. She told The Wall Street Journal that she used to hitchhike to the campus from Tufts on weekends. Eventually, she stopped when a professor at Tufts pointed her toward broadcast journalism—and that’s where things took off.
Katie Couric
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Katie Couric watched both her sisters go off to Smith College, but when she got her rejection letter, it hit hard. She told US Weekly that she was devastated. Couric ended up at the University of Virginia, where she launched the early stages of what would become a long news career.
Sergey Brin
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Sergey Brin wanted to go to M.I.T. for grad school, but that didn’t pan out. So, he landed at Stanford instead, which turned out to be the place where he met Larry Page. That meeting led to the founding of Google, which redefined how billions of people use the internet.
Tom Brokaw
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Getting rejected from Harvard didn’t slow down Tom Brokaw. He once joked during a panel at the Harvard Club, according to The New York Post, that it was the only way he’d ever step inside the place. He studied at the University of South Dakota before becoming a household name on NBC.
Matt Groening
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Matt Groening applied to Harvard but didn’t get in, so he took his sharp wit to The Evergreen State College instead. He later created “The Simpsons,” the longest-running scripted series in U.S. history. Harvard may have passed, but his satirical style still found a way into their alumni magazine.
Rosamund Pike
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Rosamund Pike quit university to chase drama school dreams, but every school turned her down. She said in an interview with News Corp that being rejected at 19 was a crushing experience. Still, that didn’t stop her from starring in “Gone Girl,” “An Education,” and “Saltburn.”
Jerry Greenfield
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Medical schools gave Jerry Greenfield nothing but rejection 20 times. Then he applied again after working as a lab tech. Another 20 rejections. That’s when he joined up with Ben Cohen to start Ben & Jerry’s. According to Grinnell College, his alma mater, ice cream wasn’t plan A—but it sure worked out.
Hugh Jackman
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Hugh Jackman blew his audition for Australia’s prestigious National Institute of Dramatic Art. That failure actually led him to the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. It’s where he trained before becoming a global star through roles in “X-Men,” “Les Misérables,” and on Broadway.
Warren Buffett
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Warren Buffett was crushed when he was not accepted into Harvard Business School. However, as he later told The Wall Street Journal, Columbia ended up being a better fit. That’s where he met Benjamin Graham, whose investing style helped shape Buffett’s path to building Berkshire Hathaway and becoming a billionaire.