17 Famous People Rejected by Colleges Who Still Succeeded

Receiving a college rejection can feel like a final curtain for many applicants, but for numerous well-known figures it was merely a detour. Ivy League schools, prestigious drama programs and elite graduate programs said “no,” yet these people found other paths to success. Below are the stories of 17 notable individuals who overcame early academic rejections to build impactful careers.

Tina Fey

Tina Fey sensed during her Princeton interview that she wouldn’t be accepted. Rather than let that stop her, she enrolled at the University of Virginia, studied drama and eventually rose through the comedy world—most notably as a writer and performer on Saturday Night Live and as the creator of 30 Rock.

Tom Hanks

Long before his Oscar wins, Tom Hanks sent SAT scores to M.I.T. more as a whim than in earnest expectation of admission. After realizing MIT wasn’t realistic for him, he attended Chabot College, a community college in California, and later transferred to Sacramento State, beginning the trajectory that led to a celebrated acting career.

Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg was rejected twice by the USC School of Cinematic Arts. He went to Cal State Long Beach instead and left before graduating when film opportunities arose. Years later, after directing landmark films like Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List, he completed his degree in 2002.

Carey Mulligan

Carey Mulligan secretly applied to drama schools and was rejected by them all. Despite lacking formal conservatory training, she built a successful film career with acclaimed roles in An Education, Drive and Maestro, proving that persistence and talent can prevail.

John Kerry

After a rejection from Harvard, John Kerry joked about being “crimson-challenged.” He attended Yale for his undergraduate studies and later Boston College Law School. That early setback didn’t deter him from serving as a U.S. Senator, Secretary of State and presidential candidate.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama’s application to Swarthmore College was turned down, and he later said the rejection “broke [his] heart.” He began at Occidental College, transferred to Columbia University, and ultimately attended Harvard Law School—demonstrating that initial refusals don’t determine long-term outcomes.

Meredith Vieira

Meredith Vieira didn’t gain admission to Harvard and spent some time fixated on that setback. She even hitchhiked to Harvard from Tufts on weekends before a Tufts professor steered her toward broadcast journalism—a field where she would later thrive.

Katie Couric

Katie Couric was disappointed after her rejection from Smith College, but she enrolled at the University of Virginia and began a career in journalism that would make her a familiar face on morning news shows and network broadcasts.

Sergey Brin

Sergey Brin applied to M.I.T. for graduate school and was not admitted. He enrolled at Stanford University instead, where he met Larry Page. Their collaboration led to the founding of Google, which transformed global access to information.

Tom Brokaw

Tom Brokaw was not accepted to Harvard, but that didn’t prevent him from building a distinguished journalism career. He studied at the University of South Dakota and later became a longtime anchor and correspondent at NBC News.

Matt Groening

Matt Groening was rejected by Harvard and enrolled at The Evergreen State College. His distinctive humor and cartooning eventually led to The Simpsons, one of the most enduring and influential scripted series in American television history.

Rosamund Pike

Rosamund Pike left university to pursue drama school, only to face rejection from every program she applied to. Though that period was painful, she persevered and went on to earn acclaim in films such as Gone Girl, An Education and Saltburn.

Jerry Greenfield

Jerry Greenfield applied to medical school multiple times and faced dozens of rejections. After working as a lab technician and continuing to be turned down, he teamed up with Ben Cohen to start Ben & Jerry’s—an enterprise that began as a pivot and became an iconic ice cream brand.

Hugh Jackman

Hugh Jackman failed his audition at Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art, but that setback led him to the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. There he trained for the stage and screen, later achieving global fame in roles such as Wolverine and in musical theatre.

Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett was disappointed when Harvard Business School rejected him, but he subsequently attended Columbia Business School. There he studied under Benjamin Graham, whose investment philosophy helped shape Buffett’s approach and contributed to his eventual success with Berkshire Hathaway.

Kerry Washington

Kerry Washington nearly missed her calling as an actor while planning to study psychology, but a full theater scholarship led her to George Washington University. She created her own performance studies major there, which helped launch her into prominent roles, including her breakout turn on the TV series Scandal.

Jack London

Jack London faced rejection from UC Berkeley but refused to accept defeat. He compressed a year of preparatory coursework into three months to pass the entrance exams and briefly attended the university. Financial hardship forced him to leave, yet his experiences and resilience later fueled the stories that made him famous.