He applied for the astronaut program after receiving his master's degree from the Massachusetts's Institute of Technology in 2000 and was accepted into the space program in 2004.

Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and MIT found that what matters more than anything else in a job application is whether the candidate knows someone at the company.

Some of the information in here is also true for American colleges other than MIT, but you should make sure to check with other schools before applying since we can't speak for them!