Benefactors

Yale has had many financial supporters, but some stand out by the magnitude or timeliness of their contributions. Among those who have made large donations commemorated at the university are: Elihu Yale, Jeremiah Dummer, the Vanderbilt family, the Harkness family (Edward, Anna, and William), the Beinecke family (Edwin, Frederick, and Walter), John William Sterling, Payne Whitney, Joseph Earl Sheffield, Paul Mellon, Charles B. G. Murphy, Joseph Tsai, William K. Lanman, and Stephen Schwarzman. The Yale Class of 1954, led by Richard Gilder, donated $70 million in commemoration of their 50th reunion.^[248] Charles B. Johnson, a 1954 graduate of Yale College, pledged a $250 million gift in 2013 to support the construction of two new residential colleges.^[249] The colleges have been named respectively in honor of Pauli Murray and Benjamin Franklin. A $100 million contribution^[250] by Stephen Adams enabled the Yale School of Music to become tuition-free and the Adams Center for Musical Arts to be built, while a $150 million contribution^[251] by David Geffen enabled the Yale School of Drama (renamed the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale) to become tuition-free as well.

Notable alumni

Yale has produced many distinguished alumni in various fields, from the public to private sector. According to 2020 data, around 71% of undergraduates join the workforce, while 17% attend graduate or professional schools.^[252] Yale graduates have been recipients of 263 Rhodes Scholarships,^[253] 123 Marshall Scholarships,^[254] 67 Truman Scholarships,^[255] 21 Churchill Scholarships,^[256] and 9 Mitchell Scholarships.^[257] The university is the 2nd largest producer of Fulbright Scholars, with 1,244 in its history^[258] and 89 MacArthur Fellows.^[259] The U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs ranked Yale fifth among research institutions producing the most 2020–2021 Fulbright Scholars.^[260] 31 living billionaires are alumni.^[14]

One of the most popular undergraduate majors is political science, with many going on to serve in government and politics.^[261] Former presidents who attended for undergrad include William Howard Taft, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush while former presidents Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton attended Yale Law School.^[262] Former vice-president and influential antebellum era politician John C. Calhoun^[263] also graduated from Yale. Former world leaders include Italian prime minister Mario Monti,^[264] Turkish prime minister Tansu Çiller,^[265] South Korean prime minister Lee Hong-koo,^[266] Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo,^[267] German president Karl Carstens,^[268] Philippine president José Paciano Laurel,^[269] Latvian president Valdis Zatlers,^[270] Taiwanese premier Jiang Yi-huah,^[271] and Malawian president Peter Mutharika,^[272] among others. Prominent royals who graduated are Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden,^[273] and Olympia Bonaparte, Princess Napoléon.^[274]

Alumni have had considerable presence in U.S. government in all three branches. On the U.S. Supreme Court, 19 justices have been alumni, including current Associate Justices Sonia Sotomayor,^[275] Samuel Alito,^[276] Clarence Thomas,^[276] and Brett Kavanaugh.^[277] Alumni have been U.S. Senators, including current senators Michael Bennet,^[278] Richard Blumenthal,^[279] Cory Booker,^[280] Sherrod Brown,^[281] Chris Coons,^[282] Amy Klobuchar,^[283] Sheldon Whitehouse,^[284] and JD Vance.^[285] Current and former cabinet members include Secretaries of State John Kerry,^[286] Hillary Clinton,^[287] Cyrus Vance,^[288] and Dean Acheson;^[289] U.S. Secretaries of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott,^[290] Robert Rubin,^[291] Nicholas F. Brady,^[292] Steven Mnuchin,^[293] and Janet Yellen;^[294] U.S. Attorneys General Nicholas Katzenbach,^[295] Edwin Meese, John Ashcroft,^[296] and Edward H. Levi;^[297] and many others. Peace Corps founder and American diplomat Sargent Shriver^[298] and public official and urban planner Robert Moses^[299] are Yale alumni.

Yale has produced numerous award-winning authors and influential writers,^[300] like Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Sinclair Lewis^[301] and Pulitzer Prize winners Stephen Vincent Benét,^[302] Thornton Wilder,^[303] Doug Wright,^[304] and David McCullough.^[305] Academy Award winning actors, actresses, and directors include Jodie Foster,^[306] Paul Newman,^[307] Meryl Streep,^[308] Elia Kazan,^[309] George Roy Hill,^[310] Lupita Nyong'o,^[311] Oliver Stone,^[312] and Frances McDormand.^[313] Alumni from Yale have also made notable contributions to both music and the arts. Leading American composer from the 20th century Charles Ives,^[314] Broadway composer Cole Porter,^[315] Grammy award winner David Lang,^[316] multi-Tony Award winner Composer and Musicologist Maury Yeston,^[317] and award-winning jazz pianist and composer Vijay Iyer^[318] all hail from Yale. Hugo Boss Prize winner Matthew Barney,^[319] famed American sculptor Richard Serra,^[320] President Barack Obama presidential portrait painter Kehinde Wiley,^[321] MacArthur Fellows and contemporary artists Tschabalala Self,^[322] Titus Kaphar, Richard Whitten, and Sarah Sze,^[323] Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Garry Trudeau,^[324] and National Medal of Arts photorealist painter Chuck Close^[325] all graduated from Yale. Additional alumni include architect and Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Maya Lin,^[326] Pritzker Prize winner Norman Foster,^[327] and Gateway Arch designer Eero Saarinen.^[328] Journalists and pundits include Dick Cavett,^[329] Chris Cuomo,^[330] Anderson Cooper,^[331] William F. Buckley Jr.,^[332] Blake Hounshell,^[333] and Fareed Zakaria.^[334]

In business, Yale has had numerous alumni and former students go on to become founders of influential business, like William Boeing^[335] (Boeing, United Airlines), Briton Hadden^[336] and Henry Luce^[337] (Time Magazine), Stephen A. Schwarzman^[338] (Blackstone Group), Frederick W. Smith^[339] (FedEx), Juan Trippe^[340] (Pan Am), Harold Stanley^[341] (Morgan Stanley), Bing Gordon^[342] (Electronic Arts), and Ben Silbermann^[343] (Pinterest). Other business people from Yale include former chairman and CEO of Sears Holdings Edward Lampert,^[344] former Time Warner president Jeffrey Bewkes,^[345] former PepsiCo chairperson and CEO Indra Nooyi,^[346] sports agent Donald Dell,^[347] and investor/philanthropist Sir John Templeton,^[348]

Alumni distinguished in academia include literary critic and historian Henry Louis Gates,^[349] economists Irving Fischer,^[350] Mahbub ul Haq,^[351] and Nobel Prize laureate Paul Krugman;^[352] Nobel Prize in Physics laureates Ernest Lawrence^[353] and Murray Gell-Mann;^[354] Fields Medalist John G. Thompson;^[355] Human Genome Project leader and National Institutes of Health director Francis S. Collins;^[356] brain surgery pioneer Harvey Cushing;^[357] pioneering computer scientist Grace Hopper;^[358] influential mathematician and chemist Josiah Willard Gibbs;^[359] National Women's Hall of Fame inductee and biochemist Florence B. Seibert;^[360] Turing Award recipient Ron Rivest;^[361] inventors Samuel F.B. Morse^[362] and Eli Whitney;^[363] Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate John B. Goodenough;^[364] lexicographer Noah Webster;^[365] and theologians Jonathan Edwards^[366] and Reinhold Niebuhr.^[367]

In the sporting arena, alumni include baseball players Ron Darling^[368] and Craig Breslow who in the major leagues played with fellow Yale alum Ryan Lavarnway^[369] and baseball executives Theo Epstein^[370] and George Weiss;^[371] football players Calvin Hill,^[372] Gary Fenick,^[373] Amos Alonzo Stagg,^[374] and "the Father of American Football" Walter Camp;^[375] ice hockey players Chris Higgins^[376] and Olympian Helen Resor;^[377] Olympic figure skating champions Sarah Hughes^[378] and Nathan Chen;^[379] nine-time U.S. Squash men's champion Julian Illingworth;^[380] Olympic swimmer Don Schollander;^[381] Olympic rowers Josh West^[382] and Rusty Wailes;^[383] Olympic sailor Stuart McNay;^[384] Olympic runner Frank Shorter;^[385] and others.

Notable Yale alumni include:
7th Vice President of the United States John C. Calhoun (College, 1806)
27th President of the United States and Chief Justice William Howard Taft (BA, 1878)
38th President of the United States Gerald Ford (LLB, 1941)
41st President of the United States George H. W. Bush (BA, 1948)
42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton (JD, 1973)
43rd President of the United States George W. Bush (BA, 1968)
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Clarence Thomas (JD, 1974)
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Samuel Alito (JD, 1975)
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Sonia Sotomayor (JD, 1979)
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Brett Kavanaugh (BA, 1987; JD, 1990)
67th United States Secretary of State and Former US Senator of New York Hillary Clinton (JD, 1973)
Senator of Minnesota Amy Klobuchar (BA, 1982)
Senator of New Jersey Cory Booker (JD, 1997)
Governor of Connecticut Ned Lamont (MBA, 1980)
Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis (BA, 2001)
Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig (JD, 1989)
Former Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz (LLB, 1962)
Literary critic and historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. (BA, 1973)
Economist and Nobel Prize laureate Paul Krugman (BA, 1974)
Actress Jodie Foster (BA, 1985)
Actress Lupita Nyong'o (MFA, 2012)