12 Years After Dropping Out, Zuckerberg Gets Degree

He delivered Harvard's commencement address
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted May 26, 2017 1:31 AM CDT
Mark Zuckerberg Finally Gets His Degree
Facebook CEO and Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg is presented with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Vice President and Secretary of Harvard University Marc Goodheart.   (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Almost 12 years after dropping out of Harvard, where the "Face Books" with pictures of people who lived in student dorms gave him an interesting idea for a website, Mark Zuckerberg returned Thursday to deliver a commencement address and receive an honorary degree. In his address, Zuckerberg looked back to good times at Harvard as well as clashes with administrators, the Crimson reports. The Facebook CEO told graduates that their biggest challenge will be to create a world where "everyone has a sense of purpose." He warned that the world faces a "battle of ideas," with the "forces of freedom, openness, and global community against the forces of authoritarianism, isolationism, and nationalism."

Zuckerberg, who dropped out to concentrate on Facebook, which he launched from his dorm room in 2004, added: "There is something wrong with our system when I can leave here and make billions of dollars in ten years when millions of students can't afford to pay off their loans, let alone start a business." Zuckerberg, who received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree, also pointed out the dorm where he met wife Priscilla and said meeting her was the best thing that happened to him at Harvard, the BBC reports. Zuckerberg is now the world's fifth-richest person, though only the second-richest Harvard dropout: Bill Gates dropped out in 1975 to co-found Microsoft. (This video shows the moment Zuckerberg learned he had been accepted to Harvard.)

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