Ex Goldman Sachs CEO got into Harvard University at 16 from public housing—and says higher education is the best way to break into the middle class

Some business CEOs have put the college degree on blast , questioning if higher education is really setting students up for success in the workforce.

But the former CEO of Goldman Sachs , Lloyd Blankfein , is pushing back against that narrative.

Blankfein has witnessed the power of a strong college education firsthand.

The billionaire finance leader was born into public housing in Brooklyn, sharing a bedroom in his small New York City apartment with his grandmother or sister until he went off to college.

At the time, his high school was on the brink of shutting down, Blankfein told CBS earlier this year—but the then-teenager battened down the hatches, studied hard, became class valedictorian , and got into Harvard University at just 16 years old.

It was the launchpad to his illustrious career in finance, including a 12-year reign at Goldman Sachs .

Fast forward five decades, and Blankfein still believes schooling is the great wealth equalizer, even as AI threatens to swipe white-collar roles at a dizzying pace.

“I think education is the real accelerator for most people into the middle and upper classes,” Blankfein told CBS .

Blankfein says college helps make workers a ‘complete person’ Higher education has long been lauded as the best path to success, but some leaders are encouraging budding workers to skip college altogether.

Palantir and PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel —a Stanford University alumnus—has been particularly outspoken, even offering young entrepreneurs $200,000 grants to ditch the “corrupt institution” of higher education and “build new things” with his Thiel Fellowship .

Blankfein hit back at the tech mogul’s rhetoric, advising the next generation of movers and shakers to set themselves up for success by going to college.

“I strongly disagree with the technology investor Peter Thiel,” Blankfein wrote in an excerpt from his upcoming memoir, Streetwise , shared with Vanity Fair earlier this year.

“To succeed in a career, you have to know the technical minutiae of your field, of course.

But you also need to be a complete person—the kind of person other people want to engage with.” The ex-Goldman Sachs leader, an alumnus of both Harvard University and Harvard Law School, says the elite college nurtured his confidence, writing skills, love of history, and engagement with current events.