If you happen to have been rejected by Harvard to be a member of their Class of 2021, fear not as there have been many folks who’ve come before you who too have faced rejection…and gone on to become great contributors to our world. That’s right. You don’t need to go to Harvard to become a great contributor to society. It may surprise our readers to know that we believe as much. In fact, we don’t believe you need to go to any highly selective college to become a great contributor to society. Doing so simply opens the doors to make those contributions possible. Can those doors be opened without those connections from the likes of Harvard, Dartmouth, Princeton, and Penn? You bet. But attending such an institution sure does make those doors open more easily. It’s like a good spray of WD-40 to loosen up those hinges.

So who are some famous Harvard rejects, you ask? How about Warren Buffet. The man is the GDP of Nebraska. We kid, we kid. Or do we? There’s former Secretary of State John Kerry. He went to Yale. As Adam Sandler would sing in his song about Chanukah, “Not too shabby.” There’s news anchors Tom Brokaw and Meredith Vieira, Matt Groening who happened to create the long-running “The Simpsons,” media tycoon Ted Turner, rocker Art Garfunkel, and even Lee Bollinger who currently serves as president of Columbia University.

When you go to a school like Harvard — or any Ivy League institution for that matter — you’re surrounded by the next generation’s movers and shakers. That’s simply not the case at universities in the United States that aren’t highly selective.

And indeed there are plenty of Harvard graduates who don’t go on to change the world, who don’t become great contributors to our society. But really, Ivy Coach? We didn’t think you’d feel this way! Your business is built on helping students earn admission to schools like Harvard. Oh, but we do and we always have. As an extreme example, the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, went to Harvard too. So, no, you don’t need to go to Harvard to contribute to society. Doing so simply opens the doors to making those contributions. And that, we find, is hugely important.

Who are some other famous Harvard rejects that come to mind? Let us know by posting a Comment below. We look forward to hearing from  you.