84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorate

Which undergraduate institutions feed which doctoral programs among the people shaping AI, how often do students stay at the same university for both degrees, and how do those paths differ by birth-country region? Across the 6,593 people with education records in our research, 2,654 have a named undergraduate degree, 5,203 have a named doctorate, and 2,116 have both. Among those 2,116 people, we estimate that 1,776 (84%) moved to a different parent institution for their recorded doctorate and 340 (16%) stayed at the same institution for both recorded degrees. The 2,116 paths connect 639 undergraduate institutions to 376 doctorate institutions across 1,452 distinct cross-school pairs and 157 same-school programs.

Key findings

• 1,776 of the 2,116 people with both degrees recorded (84%) changed institutions between undergraduate and doctoral study, and 340 (16%) stayed at the same school. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads in same-school paths with 25 people, followed by Tsinghua University with 17.
• The largest cross-school path runs from Massachusetts Institute of Technology to Stanford University, with 12 people. Next is Stanford University to Massachusetts Institute of Technology with 11, followed by Harvard University to Massachusetts Institute of Technology with 9.
• Doctoral training is more concentrated than undergraduate training across the top 5 institutions: the 5 leading doctorate institutions account for 553 of the 2,116 paths (26%), and the 5 leading undergraduate institutions account for 266 (13%). At Carnegie Mellon University, 99% of people with a recorded doctorate in the paired paths (94 of 95) have their recorded undergraduate degree from a different school.
• Across the 385 people with located undergraduate and doctoral schools and a sourced birth country, paths split by birth-country region: North America-born researchers moved to a different school in the same country in 75% of cases (126 of 169), and researchers born in East Asia and South Asia moved to another country for their doctorate in more than half of cases, led by South Asia at 65% (26 of 40).

Undergraduate feeders and same-school retention

Across all 639 undergraduate institutions in the 2,116 paired paths, Tsinghua University ranks first with 69 undergraduate alumni who went on to a recorded doctorate (17 at the same institution and 52 at other institutions). Massachusetts Institute of Technology follows with 61 (25 stayed and 36 moved), and Stanford University is next with 47. The 12 undergraduate institutions in the chart below account for 498 of the 2,116 paths (24%).

Horizontal stacked bar chart of the 12 undergraduate institutions with the most alumni who also hold a recorded doctorate, split into those who stayed for their doctorate and those who moved to a different institution.

Source: People of Superintelligence career records from biographies and OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Data table

Undergraduate institution	Total	Stayed for doctorate	Moved to another school	Stayed share	Leading external doctorate destinations
Tsinghua University	69	17	52	25%	Stanford University (8), Princeton University (5) and University of California, Berkeley (5), plus 21 other schools
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	61	25	36	41%	Stanford University (12), University of California, Berkeley (4), Cornell University (3) and Harvard University (3), plus 11 other schools
Stanford University	47	11	36	23%	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (11), University of California, Berkeley (4), Carnegie Mellon University (2), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2) and Yale University (2), plus 15 other schools
University of Science and Technology of China	45	16	29	36%	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (4), Harvard University (3) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (3), plus 17 other schools
University of California, Berkeley	44	10	34	23%	Stanford University (6), Harvard University (5) and University of California, Los Angeles (3), plus 16 other schools
Harvard University	43	5	38	12%	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (9), Stanford University (8) and Princeton University (5), plus 9 other schools
National Taiwan University	35	6	29	17%	Carnegie Mellon University (5), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (4), University of California, Berkeley (3) and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (3), plus 13 other schools
University of Cambridge	34	6	28	18%	University of Oxford (5), Imperial College London (3), California Institute of Technology (2), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2) and Stanford University (2), plus 14 other schools
Princeton University	33	1	32	3%	Stanford University (8), University of California, Berkeley (5) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (4), plus 10 other schools
University of Toronto	32	2	30	6%	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (6), Harvard University (5) and Princeton University (5), plus 12 other schools
Shanghai Jiao Tong University	29	3	26	10%	Carnegie Mellon University (4), Stanford University (3), Princeton University (2), University of California, Berkeley (2) and University of California, Los Angeles (2), plus 13 other schools
Yale University	26	0	26	0%	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (5), Harvard University (3), University of Oxford (3) and University of California, Berkeley (3), plus 10 other schools

Same-school retention varies across the 12 leading undergraduate feeders. Massachusetts Institute of Technology has the highest same-school share in this group at 41% (25 of 61), followed by University of Science and Technology of China at 36% (16 of 45). At the other end of the charted undergraduate feeders, Yale University has a same-school share of 0% (0 of 26). Across all 157 institutions where at least one person stayed for both degrees, the largest same-school cohorts are at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (25, including Aaron Bobick, Alan S. Willsky and Anthony D. Joseph), Tsinghua University (17, including Chang Huang, Chongxuan Li and Chujie Zheng), University of Science and Technology of China (16, including Cheng-Zhi Peng, Chuan‐Feng Li and Dong Liu), Stanford University (11, including Alexis Battle, Daniela Witten and George H. John), Harbin Institute of Technology (10, including Baochang Zhang, Bineng Zhong and Bing Qin) and University of California, Berkeley (10, including Andrew Cleland, Batya Friedman and Daniel Gildea).

Doctorate destinations and school-to-school pipelines

On the doctoral side, the 2,116 paths converge on 376 parent institutions, led by Massachusetts Institute of Technology with 153 recorded doctorates (25 from its own undergraduate program and 128 from other undergraduate schools). Stanford University is second with 143 (11 own undergraduates and 132 from other schools), and University of California, Berkeley follows with 107 (10 own undergraduates and 97 from other schools). The 12 doctorate institutions in the chart below account for 817 of the 2,116 paths (39%). Among the charted schools outside the United States, Tsinghua University, University of Science and Technology of China, National Taiwan University, University of Cambridge, University of Toronto and Shanghai Jiao Tong University appear among the 12 leading undergraduate feeders (244 alumni combined), and University of Oxford and University of Toronto appear among the 12 leading doctorate destinations (65 recorded doctorates combined).

Horizontal stacked bar chart of the 12 doctorate institutions with the most people in the paired records, split into own undergraduate alumni and people from other undergraduate schools.

Source: People of Superintelligence career records from biographies and OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Data table

Doctorate institution	Total	Own undergraduate alumni	From another undergraduate school	External share	Leading external undergraduate feeders
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	153	25	128	84%	Stanford University (11), Harvard University (9) and University of Michigan (7), plus 62 other schools
Stanford University	143	11	132	92%	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (12), Harvard University (8), Princeton University (8) and Tsinghua University (8), plus 67 other schools
University of California, Berkeley	107	10	97	91%	Brown University (5), Princeton University (5) and Tsinghua University (5), plus 54 other schools
Carnegie Mellon University	95	1	94	99%	National Taiwan University (5), Harvard University (4) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (4), plus 70 other schools
Harvard University	55	5	50	91%	University of Toronto (5), University of California, Berkeley (5), Brown University (3), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (3), Tufts University (3), University of Science and Technology of China (3) and Yale University (3), plus 25 other schools
Princeton University	50	1	49	98%	Harvard University (5), University of Toronto (5) and Tsinghua University (5), plus 26 other schools
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	43	4	39	91%	Tsinghua University (4), University of Science and Technology of China (4) and National Taiwan University (3), plus 24 other schools
University of Washington	38	1	37	97%	Western Washington University (3), Cornell University (2) and Princeton University (2), plus 30 other schools
Cornell University	35	1	34	97%	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (3), Harvard University (2), Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (2) and University of Southern California (2), plus 25 other schools
University of Oxford	34	3	31	91%	University of Cambridge (5), Yale University (3), University of Toronto (2), University of Warwick (2) and University of Zimbabwe (2), plus 17 other schools
Georgia Institute of Technology	33	2	31	94%	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (2), International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (2), National Taiwan University (2) and University of Science and Technology of China (2), plus 23 other schools
University of Toronto	31	2	29	94%	Amirkabir University of Technology (2), University of Calgary (2) and University of Waterloo (2), plus 23 other schools

Every institution in the doctorate chart above draws more than half of its paired doctorate records from other undergraduate institutions, ranging from 84% at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (128 of 153, across 65 feeder schools) to 99% at Carnegie Mellon University (94 of 95, across 73 feeder schools). Across all 1,452 cross-school pairs, the largest single pipelines are Massachusetts Institute of Technology to Stanford University (12: Abubakar Abid, Alex Derry and Allison Koenecke), Stanford University to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (11: Bowen Jing, Brian Hie and Carol Espy-Wilson), Harvard University to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (9: Alexander Rush, Christopher G. Atkeson and Constantine Caramanis), Harvard University to Stanford University (8: George W. Furnas, Jeffrey S. Rosenschein and Jeremy England), Princeton University to Stanford University (8: David Kriegman, Dora Zhao and Eric Mitchell) and Tsinghua University to Stanford University (8: Charles R. Qi, Danqi Chen and Fei Xia).

How paths differ by birth-country region

Across the 2,080 paired paths where both the undergraduate and doctorate institutions have a country code, 340 people (16%) stayed at the same school, 854 (41%) moved to a different school in the same country, and 886 (43%) moved to a doctorate institution in another country. Linking these located school pairs to sourced birth countries yields 385 people across 9 birth-country regions, of which 5 regions have at least 10 people.

Horizontal stacked bar chart of 5 birth-country regions, showing how many people stayed at the same school, moved to another school in the same country, or moved to another country for their doctorate.

Source: People of Superintelligence career records from biographies and OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Data table

Birth-country region	People	Same school	Different school, same country	Different country for doctorate	Cross-border share	Undergraduate in birth country	Doctorate in birth country
North America	169	22 (13%)	126 (75%)	21 (12%)	12%	165 (98%)	148 (88%)
Europe	84	26 (31%)	29 (35%)	29 (35%)	35%	52 (62%)	37 (44%)
East Asia	41	10 (24%)	7 (17%)	24 (59%)	59%	32 (78%)	11 (27%)
South Asia	40	2 (5%)	12 (30%)	26 (65%)	65%	30 (75%)	4 (10%)
Middle East & North Africa	31	6 (19%)	12 (39%)	13 (42%)	42%	21 (68%)	11 (35%)
Latin America & Caribbean	6	2 (33%)	2 (33%)	2 (33%)	33%	2 (33%)	0 (0%)
Oceania	6	2 (33%)	1 (17%)	3 (50%)	50%	6 (100%)	3 (50%)
Southeast Asia	4	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	4 (100%)	100%	3 (75%)	0 (0%)
Sub-Saharan Africa	4	0 (0%)	1 (25%)	3 (75%)	75%	3 (75%)	0 (0%)

The mix of same-school retention, domestic school switching and cross-border movement differs across the 5 charted birth-country regions. Among people born in North America, 75% (126 of 169) switched schools within the same country, 13% (22) stayed at their undergraduate school, and 12% (21) crossed a national border for their doctorate; 98% (165) have their recorded undergraduate degree in their birth country and 88% (148) have their recorded doctorate in their birth country. Among people born in Europe (84), 29 (35%) switched schools within the same country, 29 (35%) moved to another country for their doctorate, and 26 (31%) stayed at the same school, with 52 (62%) having their recorded undergraduate degree in their birth country and 37 (44%) having their recorded doctorate in their birth country; and Middle East & North Africa (31), 12 (39%) switched schools within the same country, 13 (42%) moved to another country for their doctorate, and 6 (19%) stayed at the same school, with 21 (68%) having their recorded undergraduate degree in their birth country and 11 (35%) having their recorded doctorate in their birth country. In East Asia and South Asia, more than half of paired paths cross a national border between the undergraduate and doctorate institutions: East Asia has 24 cross-border moves out of 41 (59%), 7 domestic school switches (17%), and 10 same-school paths (24%), with 32 (78%) having their recorded undergraduate degree in their birth country and 27 (66%) having their recorded doctorate in the United States; and South Asia has 26 cross-border moves out of 40 (65%), 12 domestic school switches (30%), and 2 same-school paths (5%), with 30 (75%) having their recorded undergraduate degree in their birth country and 30 (75%) having their recorded doctorate in the United States. Within the 5 charted regions, the same-school share is highest for people born in Europe at 31% (26 of 84) and lowest in South Asia at 5% (2 of 40). The remaining 20 people with a sourced birth country come from Latin America & Caribbean (6), Oceania (6), Southeast Asia (4) and Sub-Saharan Africa (4), all of which are included in the table above.

The leading undergraduate feeders and doctorate destinations also shift by birth-country region: among those born in North America (169), Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads undergraduate study (11) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads doctoral study (26); among those born in Europe (84), University of Cambridge leads undergraduate study (8) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads doctoral study (7); among those born in East Asia (41), National Taiwan University leads undergraduate study (8) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads doctoral study (5); among those born in South Asia (40), University of Madras leads undergraduate study (4) and Carnegie Mellon University, Ohio State University and University of California, Berkeley lead doctoral study (3 each); and among those born in Middle East & North Africa (31), Technion leads undergraduate study (8) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Weizmann Institute of Science lead doctoral study (3 each).