The College Dropouts
Hall of Fame

You don't have to go to college to be a success. Even if you go for awhile, you don't have to graduate to be a success. Here are just a few of the people who have become famous and/or successful without graduating from college and/or high school.

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Shawn Fanning, developer of Napster. Dropped out of Northeastern University when 19 to move to Silicon Valley to further develop Napster.

William Faulkner, Nobel and Pulitzer prize-winning novelist. Dropped out of high school after his second year. Also later attended but dropped out of the University of Mississippi.

Perry Farrell (Peretz Bernstein), musician, Jane's Addiction, Porno for Pyros, and Satellite Party. Also producer and founder of the Lollapalooza music tour. Never attended college.

Mel Ferrer, actor, director, producer, husband of Audrey Hepburn. Dropped out of Princeton to get into acting.

Sally Field, Oscar-winning and Emmy-winning actress. Never attended college.

Debbi Fields, founder of Mrs. Fields Cookies. Founded the company when she was a 21-year-old mother with no business experience. Did not graduate from college.

Millard Fillmore, U.S. president. Six months of formal schooling. Studied law while a legal clerk for a judge and law firm.

David Filo, billionaire co-founder of Yahoo! Dropped out of Stanford University PhD program to create Yahoo!

Carly Fiorina, CEO, Hewlett-Packard. Disappointed her parents by dropping out of law school after one semester.

Bobby Fischer, Grandmaster chess player. A high school dropout.

Ella Fitzgerald, singer. Dropped out of high school.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, novelist. Dropped out of Princeton University.

Sean Flynn, actor, photojournalist. Son of Errol Flynn, Sean left Duke University after his freshman year to star in The Son of Captain Blood. He later became a famous photojournalist covering the Vietnam War where he apparently died (MIA and still unaccounted for).

Harrison Ford, actor. Dropped out of Ripon College. He worked as a carpenter for almost ten years before finding success as an actor in Star Wars and other movies.

Henry Ford, billionaire founder of Ford Motor Company. Received only a modest rural education. Left his home on the farm to work as an apprentice machinist in Detroit, Michigan. Later ran a sawmill and became a chief engineer for Edison Illuminating Company before starting the Ford Motor Company.

Henry Ford II, CEO, Ford Motor Company. Dropped out of Yale University.

Charles Forman, founder of iminlikewithyou social networking website. Left home when he was 18 to work in Korea and Japan as a programmer.

Sutton Foster, Tony award-winning actress, singer, and dancer. Attended Carnegie Mellon University for one year and then left to pursue a theatrical career full-time.

Andrew Fox, Internet entrepreneur, multi-millionaire. A high school dropout.

Michael J. Fox, actor. Dropped out of high school. Co-starred in a Canadian television series at the age of 15. Left Canada at the age of 18 to go to Hollywood to pursue an acting career.

Dick Francis, novelist, jockey. Never graduated from high school because his father, as noted by the London Times, felt "that a day's hunting or show jumping was more valuable" than formal schooling.

Aretha Franklin, singer. Dropped out of high school.

Benjamin Franklin, inventor, scientist, inventor, diplomat, author, printer, publisher, politician, patriot, signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Home schooled with less than two years of formal education.

Joe Frazier, heavyweight boxing champion. Never finished high school. Left home at the age of 15 to go to New York City.

Markus Frind, software programmer, multimillionaire founder of Plenty of Fish dating website. Graduated from technical school with a two-year degree in computer programming. Did not attend any further higher education.

Robert Frost, poet. Dropped out of Dartmouth College.

R. Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome, visionary, philosopher, poet, architect, futurist. He never finished college, after being expelled from Harvard twice (one involving some chorus girls).

J. B. Fuqua, industrialist, philanthropist. Never attended college, but learned about business by checking out books from the Duke University library through the mail. Later donated $36 million to support a business school at Duke.

Dropouts with last names starting with G

Drop out of school before your mind rots from our mediocre educational system. — Frank Zappa, musician, liner notes from the Freak Out album