When it comes to his school days, Elon Musk comes from relatively humble beginnings. According to Business Insider, Musk’s parents divorced in 1979 and he and his brother stayed with their father. Going to school was rough for the future billionaire, who encountered bullying while attending school in South Africa.
In fact, Musk ended up being bullied so badly that he was hospitalized after becoming unconscious from being beaten. In a 2012 interview withEsquire, Musk’s brother Kimbal described Musk’s time in school. “It’s pretty rough in South Africa,” he said. “It’s a rough culture. Imagine rough — well, it’s rougher than that. Kids gave Elon a very hard time, and it had a huge impact on his life.”
But. despite being bullied, Musk finished high school and attended college. Musk attended Queen’s College in Ontario first, but later went to the University of Philadelphia. “I left South Africa by myself when I was 17 with just a backpack & suitcase of books. Worked on my Mom’s cousin’s farm in Saskatchewan & a lumber mill in Vancouver. Went to Queens Univ with scholarship & debt, then same to UPenn/Wharton & Stanford,” Musk said in a 2019tweet.