Famous College Dropouts Who Should Probably Have Stayed In School

Sure education is important, but sometimes doesn’t it seem like the media glorifies a lack of education just a little bit? There are tons of congratulatory stories about billionaire dropouts and other successful flunkies.
 

Of course lots of people don’t attend college or dropout and still do very well in life. Take Snoop Dogg, for example, who once said: "A lot of people like to fool you and say that you're not smart if you never went to college, but common sense rules over everything. That's what I learned from selling crack."
 

Still, you can’t help but wonder if some people would have been better off with a college degree in hand, or at least the lessons learned on a university campus. The following people have all become famous and successful, but maybe, just maybe, they could have benefitted from a little more college experience.

Katherine McPhee
 

Before American Idol, the singer attended Boston Conservatory for three semesters, majoring in musical theater. On the show, she garnered a loyal following, inspiring the term “McPheever.” Still, McPhee failed to nab the top spot, but a few more musical theater semesters could have pushed her on to victory.

Diddy
 

Diddy, a dropout of Howard University, is a man of many rotating names: Sean Combs, Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Puffy and P. Diddy. At the very least, college may have helped him come to terms with his identity. At the very most, it could have helped him develop better judgment, avoiding that small shooting issue and a little thing called the Diddy Obama Blog.

Karl Rove
 

Surprisingly, Karl Rove never completed college. He first attended University of Utah, which helped him defer the draft, but he then eventually dropped out. Rove then went on to attend the University of Maryland and then dropped out yet again. He later became Bush’s right hand man, which in and of itself is reason enough to think he may have chosen more wisely had he stayed in school.

Rosie O’Donnell
 

The “Queen of Nice” (seriously where did that come from?) briefly attended both Dickinson College and Boston University. However, a little more roommate experience, may have taught her to get along better with others, in which case she could have steered clear of her many feuds, including with Donald Trump and Kelly Ripa.

Yoko Ono
 

Yoko’s family moved from Japan to Scarsdale, NY after the war and Yoko attended Sarah Lawrence College. However, she left school to elope with a composer, though the marriage eventually failed. If you believe in the butterfly effect, it’s possible to imagine that if Yoko had stayed at Sarah Lawrence, the Beatles would have been much better off in the long run.

Tom Cruise
 

Tom Cruise actually started life as an avid Catholic. While it’s not exactly college, he did briefly attend a Franciscan Seminary and aspired to be a Catholic priest. However, he left the seminary and now the world has had to suffer through the promotion of Scientology. Plus, poor, brainwashed Katie Holmes could have been spared.

Rush Limbaugh
 

The conservative talk show host was pressured into attending college by his parents, so he attended Southeastern Missouri State University. However, after two semesters and a summer, he had failed everything including a ballroom dancing class, and left school. What he apparently missed were lessons on tact, which could have stopped him from making fun of Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s symptoms, referring to phony soldiers, etc.

Britney Spears
 

I know, I know… she dropped out of high school not college. But c’mon, I think we can all agree the girl could have used a little more schooling and a lot more sheltered living for at least a few more years. See the KFed marriage, head-shaving and VMA shenanigans for proof.