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Take the Forbes 400 Alumni Networks Quiz

September 21, 2007 on 2:03 am | In In the news, Network Training, New Features, Year in Review |

The Forbes Richest 400 Alumni Networks Quiz (by Dean Krikorian, Ph.D.)
GroupScope and Spresent partnered with Forbes.com to deliver the Forbes 400 Viewer, which maps network affiliations between the richest Americans that attended Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale Universities (The Top 4 Universities on the Forbes 400). The Forbes 400 Viewer is a flexible Flash interface that displays relationships that are not readily apparent to the end user. This blog post illustrates some of these key relationships in a 10-question multiple choice quiz format. See how much you know about universities ties of the richest Americans. This is a fairly difficult test (as an ex-Cornell prof. who was known for having <70% median scores on multiple choice exams): Score 8-10 and consider yourself a Forbes Expert; Score 6-7 and consider yourself as passing. On with the questions...answers at end:

1. What degree is most popular for Harvard alumni on the list?
A. BA/BS
B. MBA
C. MA/MS
D. Ph.D.

2. What degree is most popular for Yale alumni on the list?
A. BA/BS
B. MBA
C. MA/MS
D. Ph.D.

3. In which state do most Yale alumni on the list currently reside?
A. Connecticut
B. New York
C. California
D. Texas

4. What two Universities have the most co-alumni?
A. Harvard and Princeton
B. Harvard and Yale
C. Harvard and Stanford
D. Princeton and Stanford

5. What company has the most Investments (>5% Stake) from list member alumni in the Top 4 Universities?
A. Microsoft
B. Google
C. Gap
D. Berkshire Hathaway

6. What University has the most co-alumni with Harvard University?
A. Columbia
B. Stanford
C. Yale
D. University of Pennsylvania

7. Which University has the most Self made list members in the Finance industry?
A. Harvard
B. Stanford
C. Princeton
D. Yale

8. Which University has the most Inherited and Growing list members in the Oil/Gas industry?
A. Harvard
B. Stanford
C. Princeton
D. Yale

9. What is the state residence for the most Top 4 University list members under the age of 60?
A. New York
B. California
C. Texas
D. Florida

10. What University has the most Self made list members with Wealth over $2 Billion under the age of 50?
A. Harvard
B. Stanford
C. Princeton
D. Yale

Answers:

1. B (Let’s start off easy…still nothing quite like a Harvard MBA - by a large margin)

2. A (Yale is probably less known for its graduate programs than its undergraduate program)

3. D (Don’t mess with Texas; for questions 1-3 considering George W. Bush would have been quite useful)

4. D. (Surprisingly, this is mainly because of Robert, John, & William Fisher (Gap) who all are all alumni of both Princeton and Stanford)

5. C. (See #4, but note that both Charles Schwab and Meg Whitman (eBay) are major investors in Gap - this may be because Gap was started in SF and they all reside in the Bay area)

6. D. (This was a tough one, U Penn had 3 co-alumni (Jamie Dinan, Charles Butt, and Joshua Harris) vs. 2 each for Columbia (Dirk Ziff & Robert Kraft), Stanford (Steve Ballmer & Penny Pritzger), and Yale (Wilbur Ross Jr. & Stephen Schwartzman))

7. A. (This should be of no surprise, given the propensity of Harvard MBAs on Wall Street).

8. D. (All four ties are from the Bass family; again, considering George W. Bush would have helped here)

9. B. (More young people/surfers in California…and the real estate is most expensive)

10. B. (An end of quiz tap in, Stanford by a 5-3 margin over Harvard - Google alone ties with Harvard (Sergey Brin, Larry Page, & Omid Kordestani))