Despite an early start to his business career, Mark Zuckerberg has a strong academic background. While much is known about his professional successes, less is known about his academic career. Let’s find out more about it.
Undoubtedly, a life full of achievements for the American programmer and entrepreneur, who decided to create the social network in 2004 when he was only 19 years old. Although many know about his life in the professional field, not everyone knows what career and where he studied.
Here’s where Zuckerberg, born in White Plains, New York, on 14 May 1984, was educated.
Mark Zuckerberg entered Harvard in 2003 to study computer science. He began developing programs such as Coursematch, which allowed students to see the list of other classmates.
He also developed a website where students could rate students at the university, Facemash.com. Because of this website, he had to answer to the university’s Department of Information Services, where he was charged with a breach of computer security and violation of privacy and intellectual property policies.
While Harvard insisted that he had hacked into the school’s intranet to extract data without permission and for his benefit, Zuckerberg pointed out that such information should be free and open to the public. In 2004, he created Facebook, leading to a year’s absence from the university, and the following year he dropped out.
In the end, it took 13 years for Zuckerberg to return to Harvard with the sole purpose of finishing the degree he dropped out of. When he finished his studies, he was chosen to give the commencement speech.
The anecdote of how he found out about being accepted at Harvard
It was Mark Zuckerberg himself, who decided to share a video on his Facebook account to publicize, several years ago, the moment when he found out that he had been accepted to study at a prestigious university. His father, Edward, recorded the moment he received the news.
In the images, we see a young Mark in his pyjamas, sitting on his bed and typing on a computer to check the results of his application. “There’s an email from Harvard, is that correct?” his father asks.
Suddenly, a smiling boy answers in the affirmative and then asks: “Do you want me to open it? After a few seconds of suspense, he tells him that he has been accepted, a situation that fills his father with joy and excitement, and he immediately says, focusing on his son: “Well, now we are focusing on one of the new members of Harvard’s 2006 class”.