Have great scientists always gone to big famous universities ?

Question

Do you have to go to a big university like Harvard or Princeton (or a state or major city university)to make a great scientifice discovery ?

Hasn't there ever been great scientists who have only gotten degrees from local or community colleges

Answer 1

They don't always go to great universities. A young girl in my community created a spectograph for about a thousand dollars. They usually cost hundreds of thousands. Granted, I'm sure the young lady will end up at MIT or Harvard, but the point is she is a great scientist right now without ever having gone to college.

Answer 2

The problem in the sciences is that in order to do state-of-the-art work, one needs state-of-the-art facilities. That can only be accomplished if one is at a wealthy school or if one gets a generous research grant (which one is also more likely to get if one is at a top university). I would guess that there have always been fewer successful graduates of secondary universities in the hard sciences than, say, in the arts, social sciences, or humanities.