This is a list of notable people who attended Harvard University, but did not graduate or have yet to graduate. See List of Harvard University people for a fuller list of people affiliated with Harvard.
| Name and lifespan | Known for | Relationship to Harvard |
|---|---|---|
| Vincent Astor (1891–1959) | businessman and philanthropist | Attended College |
| John Adams II (1803–1834) | Aide to his father President John Quincy Adams | Attended College; expelled prior to 1823 graduation; later among those designated as "Bachelor of Arts as of 1823" and admitted to Roll of Graduates |
| Francis Lee Bailey (born 1933) | former lawyer | Attended College |
| William J. A. Bailey | Radithor scandal | Attended College |
| Andrew Beyer (born ?) | horse racing expert | Attended College |
| James Blake (born 1979) | tennis player | Professional Tennis Player, attended College in 1997-1999 |
| Daniel C. Boyer (born 1971) | surrealist painter and writer | attended Harvard Summer School 1997, 1998, 2001 |
| William Starling Burgess (born 1878) | aviator, yacht designer, automotive innovator, poet | attended Harvard College 1897-1900 |
| Frank Carlucci (born 1930) | United States Secretary of Defense | Attended Business School |
| Jacques Chirac (born 1932) | Former President of France and the former Prime Minister of France | Attended Summer School in 1953 |
| Hamilton Coolidge (1895–1918) | soldier | Attended College 1916 but dropped out to fight in World War I {killed in action}; {posthumously awarded an A.B. {War Degree} Harvard Class of 1919} |
| Alistair Cooke (1908–2004) | journalist, broadcaster | visiting graduate student |
| Daniel Cosío Villegas (1898–1976) | economist, historian | student |
| Vincent Cronin (born 1924) | historian, writer | Attended College |
| Matt Damon (born 1970) | actor | Attended College |
| Paul Douglas (1892–1976) | United States Senator | Attended Graduate School |
| Edmund Fanning (colonial administrator) (1739–1818) | British Colonial Officer and Governor | Given AM Degree in 1764 |
| John F. Fitzgerald {1863-1950} | Mayor of Boston Massachusetts | Attended Harvard Medical School but dropped out 1885 after father died. |
| John Gould Fletcher (1886–1950) | poet and philosopher | College (attended 1903-1907, but did not finish) |
| Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) | scientist | Never attended College; awarded an honorary degree in 1753 as Class of 1724 |
| Robert Frost (1874–1963) | poet | Attended College (1897–1899); awarded an honorary degree in 1937 |
| Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) | designer, architect | Attended College |
| William Gaddis (1922–1998) | novelist | Attended College |
| Bill Gates (born 1955) | Co-founder and Chairman of Microsoft, American entrepreneur, and philanthropist | Attended College (1973-197?); awarded an honorary doctorate in 2007 |
| Frank Gehry (born 1929) | architect | Attended Design School |
| Ruth Bader Ginsburg (born 1933) | Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | Attended Law School, later transferred to Columbia |
| James Halperin (born 1952) | Co-founder and Chairman of Heritage Auctions, American entrepreneur, and author | Attended College (1970–1972) |
| William Randolph Hearst (1863–1951) | newspaper magnate | Attended College |
| Bruce Henderson (1915–1992) | founder of the Boston Consulting Group | Attended the Business School |
| Richard Honaker (born 1951) | attorney, former Wyoming legislator, nominee for U.S. District Judge | Attended College (1969–1973) |
| Joel Iacoomis (-1665) | Native American student | Attended College; died in Shipwreck at Nantucket before receiving his degree as Class of 1665 |
| Lincoln Isham (1892–1971) | Great-grandson of Abraham Lincoln; US Agent, World War II | Attended College "dropped out from exhaustion" |
| Henry James (1843–1916) | novelist | Attended Law School |
| Kim Jong-un (born 1984?) | Dictator | attended college (1992?) as supreme leader of graduate and undergraduate programs |
| Kareena Kapoor (born 1980) | Bollywood actress | Attended Summer School |
| Philip Kaufman (born 1936) | film director, screenwriter | Attended Law School |
| John Key (born 1961) | Current Prime Minister of New Zealand | Attended prossional courses at the Business School) |
| Dan Kiley (1912–2004) | landscape architect, architect | Attended Design School |
| Joseph J. Garner (born 1978) | Philosopher, Metaphysicist, Cosmologist | Attended Harvard "dropped out" (1997-?) |
| Edwin Land (1909–1991) | inventor | Attended College; awarded honorary doctorate in 1957 |
| Fred A. Leuchter (born 1943) | inventor and execution equipment designer | Attended for post-graduate studies |
| Alan Lomax (1915–2002) | musicologist | Attended College (1932–1933) |
| John Lomax (1867–1948) | musicologist | visiting student (1907) |
| Amory Lovins (born 1947) | environmentalist | attended college (1964-66) |
| Robert Lowell (1917–1977) | poet | Attended College |
| James MacArthur (1937–2010) | actor | Attended Harvard-dropped out in sophomore year to become actor |
| Rosario Marin (born 1958) | Treasurer of the United States | Attended KSG Program for State and Local Government Executives |
| Tshilidzi Marwala (born 1971) | academic, community leader, and businessman | Attended Harvard Business School |
| Dustin Moskovitz (born 1984) | Co-founder of Facebook, Inc. | Attended College |
| James Murdoch (born 1972) | British Sky Broadcasting CEO | Attended College |
| Ogden Nash (1902–1971) | poet | Attended College (1920–21) |
| Gabe Newell (born 1962) | Co-founder of Valve Corporation | Attended College |
| Eugene O'Neill (1888–1953) | playwright | Attended College |
| Gram Parsons (1946–1973) | father of country-rock | Attended College |
| Ion Perdicaris(1840–1925) | businessman and philanthropist | Attended College but left in sophomore year |
| Mary Peters (born 1948) | United States Secretary of Transportation | Attended KSG Program for State and Local Government Executives |
| Albert Pike (1809–1891) | Confederate General | Attended but then chose not to attend college because of fees |
| Cole Porter (1891–1964) | composer | Attended Law and Graduate Schools |
| Bonnie Raitt (born 1949) | singer, songwriter | Attended Radcliffe |
| Jose Luis Razo, Jr. | Armed robber | Attended College (1985–87) |
| Eden Riegel (born 1981) | actress | Attended College (1998–2000) |
| Laurance Spelman Rockefeller (1910–2004) | businessman and philanthropist | Attended College but dropped out when he decided not to be a lawyer |
| Quentin Roosevelt (1897–1918) | soldier | Attended College 1916 but dropped out to fight in World War I {killed in action}; {posthumously awarded an A.B. {War Degree} Harvard Class of 1919} |
| Pete Seeger (born 1919) | songwriter, singer, activist | Attended College |
| Birendra Bir Bikram Shah (1945–2001) | Late King of Nepal | Attended for one year (1967–1968) |
| Robert Gould Shaw (1837–1863) | abolitionist, Union Army colonel | Attended College (1856–1859) Killed Civil War |
| Harry Shearer (born 1943) | actor, writer | Attended Graduate School |
| Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) | poet | Special student (1897–1900) |
| Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) | 1952 and 1956 Democratic U.S. presidential nominee, Governor of Illinois | Attended Law School |
| Sinedu Tadesse (1974–1995) | murderer | Attended college (1993–1995) |
| Harry Kendall Thaw {1871-1947} | murderer | Attended college but expelled |
| Jonathan Taylor Thomas (born 1981) | actor | Attended college (2001–2002) |
| David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) | writer | Attended graduate school; did not graduate |
| David Kenyon Webster (1922-1961) | American soldier, journalist, and author; was profiled in Band of Brothers | Attended college one semester; dropped out to fight in WWII |
| Marjorie Williams (1958–2005) | writer | Dropped out after her junior year |
| Charles W. Woodworth (1865–1940) | American entomologist | Studied under Hermann August Hagen 1886 to 1888, 1900–1901 |
| Isoroku Yamamoto (1884–1943) | World War II Naval Marshal General, Imperial Japanese Navy | Visiting student (1919–1921) |
| Mark Zuckerberg (born 1984) | Founder & CEO of Facebook, Inc. | Attended College. Created Facebook as an online directory for Harvard students in his sophomore year; left soon afterward to expand the company. |
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, harvard and/or university:
“Love’s boat has been shattered against the life of everyday. You and I are quits, and it’s useless to draw up a list of mutual hurts, sorrows, and pains.”
—Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893–1930)
“Do your children view themselves as successes or failures? Are they being encouraged to be inquisitive or passive? Are they afraid to challenge authority and to question assumptions? Do they feel comfortable adapting to change? Are they easily discouraged if they cannot arrive at a solution to a problem? The answers to those questions will give you a better appraisal of their education than any list of courses, grades, or test scores.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“If God had meant Harvard professors to appear in People magazine, She wouldn’t have invented The New York Review of Books.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“The scholar is that man who must take up into himself all the ability of the time, all the contributions of the past, all the hopes of the future. He must be an university of knowledges.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)