scorecardThe Most Successful Alumni From Each Of Oxford's Colleges
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The Most Successful Alumni From Each Of Oxford's Colleges

David Cameron: Brasenose College

The Most Successful Alumni From Each Of Oxford's Colleges

Albert Einstein: Christ Church College

Albert Einstein: Christ Church College

Albert Einstein was briefly a student at Christ Church College in the 1930s, before emigrating to the US.

His theory of relativity revolutionized modern physics and he was named Person of the Century by Time Magazine.

Christ Church is probably the most prestigious college when it comes to alumni: 13 British prime ministers and King Edward VI of England studied there.

It is also the college of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the Olympic rowing twins associated with the founding on Facebook.

Tony Blair: St John's College

Tony Blair: St John

Blair, UK prime minister from 1997 to 2007, is a graduate from St John's, where he read law.

He is currently the UN representative for the Middle East as well as an advisor to many foreign governments.

Another alumnus is Lester Pearson, Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 and a former prime minister of Canada.

Tina Brown: St Anne's College

Tina Brown: St Anne

Tina Brown has been the editor of Vanity Fair and the New Yorker. She graduated from St Anne's in 1974.

Her biography of Diana, Princess of Wales, was the No.1 New York Times bestseller in summer 2007.

Another alumnus is Simon Rattle, the British music conductor.

Adam Smith: Balliol College

Adam Smith: Balliol College

Smith was a student at Balliol from 1740 to 1746. He was able to enroll thanks to a scholarship, the Snell fellowship, that is still available to students from Glasgow University.

Balliol's alumni list is packed with big names: it includes three British prime ministers and a former president of Germany.

Aldous Huxley, the writer, and Boris Johnson, the Lord Mayor of London, studied here too.

Margaret Thatcher: Sommerville College

Margaret Thatcher: Sommerville College

The Iron Lady studied Chemistry at Sommerville and graduated in 1943. She was prime minister of Britain from 1979 to 1990 and, so far, the only female prime minister in the country's history.

Originally opened for women only, Sommerville still has a strong female alumna corps: Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India, and Shirley Williams, the British politician, among them.

David and Ed Milliband: Corpus Christi College

David and Ed Milliband: Corpus Christi College

Both David and Ed Milliband went to the same college. The former is the current chairman of the International Rescue Committee, and ex-foreign minister of the United Kingdom. The latter is the leader of the British Labour Party. They also enrolled in the same program: Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE).

Martin Wolf also studied PPE at Corpus Christi, graduating in 1971. He is now a columnist at the FT and one of the most respected voices in global markets.

Rupert Murdoch: Worcester College

Rupert Murdoch: Worcester College

Murdoch studied at Worcester from 1949 to 1952.

His media empire includes News Corp., 21st Century Fox, the Wall Street Journal and The Times.

Emma Watson also went to Worcester.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien: Exeter College

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien: Exeter College

A professor at Merton, Tolkien graduated from Exeter, where he read Greats, as ancient literature and philosophy are called at Oxford.

His Lord of the Rings is regarded by some as the book of the century.

Richard Burton, the English actor, went to Exeter too.

Bill Clinton: University College

Bill Clinton: University College

Clinton was the 42nd US president, serving from 1993 to 2001.

He studied at Oxford thanks to the prestigious Rhodes scholarship, and read PPE at University College from 1969 to 1971.

The scientist Stephen Hawking studied at the same institution.

Ingrid Betancourt: Harris Manchester College

Ingrid Betancourt: Harris Manchester College

Betancourt is still enrolled at Harris Manchester College, an institution that only accepts post-graduates among its students.

She is a French-Colombian politician (formerly a Colombian senator) and a campaigner against corruption. In 2008, Betancourt was released by FARC guerrillas after being held hostage by them for six and a half years.

Christopher Wren: Wadham College

Christopher Wren: Wadham College

The architect of St Paul's Cathedral graduated from Wadham in 1651.

His first big architectural project was the Sheldonian Theatre, also in Oxford, which he designed in 1664. Two years later, he was commissioned with a new project for London's largest cathedral, which was reduced to ashes by the Great Fire of 1666.

Other alumni from Wadham include Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, and Rosamund Pike, the actress.

Thomas Stearns Eliot: Merton College

Thomas Stearns Eliot: Merton College

Eliot, the poet and literary critic, won a scholarship to attend Merton in 1914 but dropped out after just one year.

He moved to London and was hired by Lloyd's. In 1922 he published his most famous poem, Waste Land, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1948.

Merton's alumni include three other Nobel Prize winners: Frederick Soddy (Chemistry, 1921), Nikolaas Tinbergen (Medicine, 1973), and Anthony Leggett (Physics, 2003)

Thomas E. Lawrence: Jesus College

Thomas E. Lawrence: Jesus College

Lawrence went to Oxford before becoming "Lawrence of Arabia," the iconic British commander of Arabic troops in World War I.

He graduated from Jesus College, where he read history between 1907 and 1910.

Harold Wilson, British prime minister from 1964 to 1970, is another alumnus.

Tony Abbot: Queen's College

Tony Abbot: Queen

Abbott is the current Prime Minister of Australia.

He attended Queen's College and read PPE thanks to a Rhodes scholarship, the most prestigious scholarship at the University.

He later came back to his school to give a memorial lecture about Australians at Oxford.

Queen's alumni are famous in the academic world: among these are Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, and Edwin Hubble, the American astronomer.

Manmohan Singh: Nuffield College

Manmohan Singh: Nuffield College

Singh was prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He steered India's more recent economic and social reforms.

He studied Economics at Nuffield from 1960 to 1962, when he earned his DPhil.

Another Economics alumnus from Nuffield is Nicholas Stern, the British economist and Lord.

Reid Hoffman: Wolfson College

Reid Hoffman: Wolfson College

Hoffman, who co-founded LinkedIn in 2002, received an MA in Philosophy from Wolfson in 1993.

He was also vice president of PayPal, before the company was bought by eBay.

Another famous alumnus at Wolfson is Francisco Rezek, former foreign minister of Brazil and a judge at the International Court of Justice.

Imran Kahn: Keble College

Imran Kahn: Keble College

Kahn was one of the most talented cricketers of his generation and captain of the Pakistani national team on 48 occasions. He lead his team to win the Cricket World Cup in 1992.

He entered politics after cricket retirement, and is now a contender in the Pakistani presidential race.

Before that, he studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Keble.

Ed Balls, the Labour politician and current shadow chancellor of the exchequer, studied at Keble as well.

Aung San Suu Kyi: St Hugh's College

Aung San Suu Kyi: St Hugh

Suu Kyi is a world leader for freedom and democracy, as well as one of Burma's most distinguished personalities.

She is also a graduate from St Hugh's, where she read Politics, Philosophy and Economics. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

Theresa May, the British home secretary, is another alumna.

Oscar Wilde: Magdalen College

Oscar Wilde: Magdalen College

Wilde started his career at Magdalen, where he studied from 1874 to 1878. His poem "Ravenna" won the Newdigate prize as the best verse composition from an Oxford undergraduate.

He went on to publish classics such as "The Importance of Being Earnest" and "The Picture of Dorian Gray."

Other famous alumni of Margaret College include King Edward VII of England, and Martha Lane Fox, the founder of Lastminute.com.

John Le Carrè: Lincoln College

John Le Carrè: Lincoln College

Le Carrè, whose real name is David Cornwell, is another best-selling author who went to Oxford.

He read German and History while at Lincoln. At the same time he was allegedly working for MI5.

Fellow alumni include John Radcliffe, the British physicist, and Howard Florey, who won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1945.

Jonathan Swift: Hertford College

Jonathan Swift: Hertford College

Swift is the author of Gulliver's Travels. He studied at Hertford College in the 17th century.

Other alumni include John Donne, Thomas Hobbes, and, more recently, Fiona Bruce, the BBC TV Presenter.

Viktor Orbàn: Pembroke College

Viktor Orbàn: Pembroke College

The current prime minister of Hungary studied at Pembroke for just 3 months in 1989, before rushing back to his country at the dawn of the Velvet Revolution.

Although such a short time is enough to make him an alumnus of Pembroke, Oxford University reportedly removed OrbÀn from its list of famous student, after his politics became more authoritarian.

Another former student at Pembroke is William Fulbright, the founder of the Fulbright scholarship programme for exchange students.

Sir Walter Raleigh: Oriel College

Sir Walter Raleigh: Oriel College

Raleigh attended Oxford for one year and was registered at Oriel, probably before he joined the French Huguenot revolt in 1569, although little is certain on the issue.

A favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, Raleigh was one of the first English explorers in the New World. He named Virginia in her honour.

Other alumni from Oriel include two Nobel Prize winners: Alexander Todd (Chemistry, 1957) and James Meade (Economics, 1977).

Henry Moseley: Trinity College

Henry Moseley: Trinity College

Moseley was an outstanding physicist of the early 20th century. He provided experimental proof for the modern theory of the atom.

He graduated from Trinity in 1910 and but when World War I broke out he enrolled as a volunteer and died in Gallipoli in 1915, aged just 28.

Trinity also boasts three British prime ministers as alumni, although most recent was Frederick North in 1782.

John Walker: St Catherine's College

John Walker: St Catherine

Walker is a graduate from St Catherine's, where he studied chemistry and earned a BA in 1964.

His research on adenosine triphosphate (ATP) got him the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1997.

St Catherine also favors rowing, and boasts three Olympic medals from among its alumni.

Hugh Grant: New College

Hugh Grant: New College

An icon of British movies, Hugh Grant is another celebrity Oxford graduate. He attended New College, where he also starred in his first film, Privileged, in 1982.

Susan Rise, the current National Security Advisor to President Obama, attended New as a Rhodes scholar from 1988 to 1990.

Stephen Hester: Lady Margaret College

Stephen Hester: Lady Margaret College

Hester is a former CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland and currently heads RSA Insurance.

He attended Lady Margaret Hall, where he took a first in PPE.

Eglantyne Jebb, the founder of Save the Children, studied in the same school in the early 1900s.

Edwin Cameron: All Souls College

Edwin Cameron: All Souls College

Cameron is a Justice of the South Africa Constitutional Court.

One of the first South African public figures to openly declare that he is gay, he came back to school as a Fellow of All Souls at 50 to research HIV, a disease he has.

All Souls is open to graduate students only. Other alumni at All Souls include Cosmo Gordon Lang, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bernard Williams, one of the foremost philosophers in the 20th century.

Mark Carney: St Peter's College

Mark Carney: St Peter

Carney, a Canadian, currently heads the Bank of England, having previously held the same job at the Bank of Canada. He studied at St Peter's, where he read economics.

Ken Loach, the director of The Wind That Shakes The Barley, attended the same school.

Guy Hands: Mansfield College

Guy Hands: Mansfield College

From 1978 to 1981, Hands attended Mansfield where he read PPE.

He was also president of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1980.

He went on to found Terra Firma Capital Partners, a global equity firm with assets for almost £5 billion.

Another former student was Alfred Von Trott, a leading dissident in Nazi Germany.

Jake Wetzel: Linacre College

Jake Wetzel: Linacre College

Wetzel, a graduate from Linacre in 2006, is a Canadian rower and Olympic medallist.

He won a Gold medal at Beijing 2008 as well as 5 more golds at various World Championships events. He competed for both Canada and the US.

Flavio Delbono, an Italian economist and former mayor of the city of Bologna, is another alumnus at Linacre.

Alvaro Uribe: St Antony's College

Alvaro Uribe: St Antony

Uribe was president of Colombia from 2002 to 2010. He studied as a Chevening scholar, a British international scholarship program, in 1998 and 1999.

Other St. Antony's alumni are European Commissioner Olli Rehn and the journalist Thomas Friedman.

Ivan Gazidis: St Edmund's Hall

Ivan Gazidis: St Edmund

Gazidis is the current chief executive of Arsenal FC and a former deputy commissioner of the American MLS.

He attended St Edmund's while at Oxford, and also played twice for the Oxford Blues football team against arch-rival Cambridge University.

Lionel Barber, the editor of the Financial Times, is also a graduate from St Edmund's.

Jonathan Orszag: St Cross College

Jonathan Orszag: St Cross College

Orszag is founder and CEO of economic analysis firm Compass Lexecon.

He attended St Cross in 1997, where he gained a MSc in Economics.

He previously worked as economic policy advisor for President Bill Clinton and the US Secretary for Commerce.

St Cross is also an all-graduate college.

Ruby Wax: Kellogg College

Ruby Wax: Kellogg College

In 2013, comedian and actress Ruby Wax took a Master's in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy from Kellogg, one of the University's youngest institutions, founded only in 1990.

She acted at the Royal Shakespeare Company before starting her standup career. She also founded the website Black Dog Tribe to raise awareness on mental health.

She now advises the likes of Skype, the UK Home Office and Deutsche Bank on business communication.

Hamish Stevenson: Green Templeton College

Hamish Stevenson: Green Templeton College

Stevenson founded Fast Track, a British networking events company, in collaboration with Sir Richard Branson, the Virgin entrepreneur.

He graduated in 1997 from Green College, where he also won a scholarship for entrepreneurs.

Green Templeton was formed in 2008, when Green College and Templeton College merged.

Sarah Baxter: St Hilda's College

Sarah Baxter: St Hilda

Baxter is the deputy editor at The Sunday Times and the editor of the paper's magazine, ST Magazine.

She is also a non-executive director of the Times Newspapers Holding Ltd. She studied History at St Hilda's and graduated in 1978.

St Hilda's was an all-women college until 2008. The current British minister for transport, Susan Kramer, also studied here.

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