Bill Gates the U.S. House of Representatives. Gates was a National Merit Scholar when he graduated from Lakeside School in 1973. He scored 1590 out of 1600 on the Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT) and enrolled at Harvard College in the autumn of 1973. He chose a pre-law major but took mathematics and graduate level computer science courses. While at Harvard, he met fellow student Steve Ballmer. Gates left Harvard after two years while Ballmer would stay and graduate "magna cum laude". Years later, Ballmer succeeded Gates as Microsoft's CEO. He maintained that position from 2000 until his resignation from the company in
University Scholars Program major in computer science and economics in 1986 and an MBA from Duke's Fuqua School of Business in 1987. The University Scholars Program at Duke was the first major philanthropic endeavor by the Gates' through the William H. Gates Foundation, prior to the establishment of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The University Scholars Program is the first scholarship program of its kind in the United States. The program offers scholarship support to undergraduate, graduate and professional school students with a focus on interdisciplinary approaches to knowledge. The focus on interdisciplinarity derives in part from Melinda French Gates' own interdisciplinary