Wikipedia:Notable alumni

This was a proposed policy that was discussed in December 2006. The result of the discussion was recorded in Wikipedia:Notability (people)#Lists of people. Please look there. This draft text, and the discussion on the talk page, is here only as a historical record.

There is some confusion about how notable a person must be to be listed as a "notable" alumnus in a college, high school, graduate school, etc., in Wikipedia. On some occasions, this has led to edit wars. This guideline is meant to offer standard guidance about when to include an individual as a "notable" alumnus.

Purpose of lists of alumni

If you are a new Wikipedia editor please remember that the purpose of a list of notable alumni is always to provide useful information about a school and its alumni, and never to promote either an individual or a school. Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of personal biographies or a tool for self-promotion. Additionally, because our goal is to build an encyclopedia that treats every subject fairly and accurately, lists of alumni should maintain a Neutral Point of View. For example, editors should neither ignore infamous alumni nor overstate the connection of famous alumni to the educational institution. For more information regarding Wikipedia's purpose and policies, please see Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not, Wikipedia:Neutral point of view, Wikipedia:No original research, Wikipedia:Verifiability and Wikipedia:Notability.

Inclusion criteria

A person should be included as a "notable alumna or alumnus" if the person would qualify for an article in his or her own right under Wikipedia: Notability (people)/WP:BIO. By implication, this means that each person listed in a "notable alumni" or "notable alumnae" section should have a wikilink, either red or blue.

Thus, people who have their own Wikipedia articles should generally be listed under "notable alumni" (if there is such a section at all), and people who do not have an article should generally not be listed unless the reason they don't have an article is because, although it would qualify under WP:BIO, the article simply hasn't been created yet.

Individuals receiving honorary degrees should generally not be included, unless the awarding is itself notable. In all cases, honorary degrees should be identified as such.

It is possible that some institutions would have so many notable alumni, that including all of them in the main article would be inappropriate. This guideline is not meant to govern that situation. (If the total number grows very large, it would probably be appropriate to simply offer a few emblematic examples and create a separate article for the full list, or simply not have a section on "notable alumni".)

Relevant guideline

If you came here for guidance on whether to put an alumnus/a in a list, the current guideline is provided on the page Wikipedia:WikiProject Schools/Article guidelines; use shortcut WP:ALUMNI for the relevant section.