Top 10 Celebs Who Didn’t Need No College

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Graduation season is in full swing. Twenty-somethings around the country will soon receive their college diplomas and venture off into the workforce, with varying degrees of success.

But success is not always measured by college degrees or a high GPA. In fact, some of the greatest minds this world’s ever seen did not receive diplomas, whether high school or college.

Thomas Edison invented the light bulb and he only had 3 months of official schooling. Steve Jobs dropped out of college, and so did Bill Gates. The list goes on and on…

School isn’t for everyone and not all of us are brainiacs, so we’ve compiled a Top 10 list of our Favorite Celebrities Who Didn’t Need No Stinkin’ College!

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Ben Affleck

Boston native Ben Affleck seems to be doing just fine without a college diploma. He dropped out of the University of Vermont after one semester. He then enrolled at Occidental College, only to drop out shortly after to pursue acting.

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Adele

British singer/songwriter Adele wanted to go to college but signed a record deal soon after graduating high school.

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Simon Cowell

Everyone’s favorite ill-tempered reality show singing competition judge dropped out of boarding school at age 16. He’s now one of the highest paid people on television.

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Billie Joe Armstrong

The Green Day frontman attended two California high schools, only to drop out and pioneer one of the most successful punk bands in history.

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Lady Gaga

At age 19 in 2005, in the second semester of her sophomore year, Mother Monster dropped out of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. The gamble would pay off eventually, reaching international fame in 2008 with the success of her debut album The Fame.

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Ryan Seacrest

TV personality Ryan Seacrest converted a high school internship at a local radio station into his own show. He attended the University of Georgia for broadcasting but at age 19, he dropped out, packed up his belongings, and headed to Hollywood to build a career in radio and TV.

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Mark Wahlberg

Marky Mark probably had the steepest uphill climb of anyone on this list. He dropped out of school at the age of 14. Two years later he was put in prison for assault. He’s now in the process of earning a General Equivalency Diploma, or GED — not that he needs it at this point anyway.

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Drew Barrymore

Actress Drew Barrymore was a child star at age 7 when E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial became a blockbuster hit in the box office. As a teenager, she suffered from alcohol and substance abuse and dropped out of high school.

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John Mayer

Mayer attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston but left after only two semesters to pursue a singing career in Atlanta. Mayer later said of the risk, “I’ve already won one of the biggest gambles of all time, which was to forgo an education so I could pursue a real all-or-none scenario.”

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Chad Kroeger

Nickelback singer Chad Kroeger was this close to graduating high school, falling short only a few credits. Soon after he took the road with his band and the rest is history.

-Andrew Celani, Mix104.1/Boston