The most selective school in America isn't Harvard, Stanford or Annapolis. It's Hamburger University in Oak Brook, IIl., where new McDonald's franchisees earn their fast-food baccalaureates. Of the 2,000 or so who apply each year, barely 200 are admitted. But while those who pass through Hamburger U.'s portals may remain deficient in quantum mechanics and may never deconstruct a paragraph of Proust, they'll probably be rich-like Leighton Hull, 41, who takes home about $300,000 a year from his two McDonald's units in Lynwood, Calif.

In 1975, after two years as a marketing representative at Cummins Engine Co. in Columbus, Ind., Hull was one of 1,700 Cummins employees laid of.

That day, he says, "I decided that I could not depend on any company ultimately for my livelihood." Nonetheless, he held a series of government and corporate jobs, first in Indianapolis and later in Los Angeles, helping launch a series of small businesses before making his own move in 1983.

After lengthy interviews with a McDonald's licensing manager, Hull was accepted as a franchise trainee. For an up-front fee of $4,000, he got to work 50 to 60 hours a week for five months without pay at a local McDonald's, doing everything from fixing milk-shake machines to mopping floors. In addition, he spent two weeks taking management courses at Hamburger U. Unencumbered by a full-time job, Hull finished the training program —normally a two-year process-within six months. He and his wife Brenda, now 38, subsisted on their savings and the $35,000-a-year salary she earned as an accounting manager with the Atlantic Richfield Co.

Four months into his training, Hull received exceptionally good news: not only was he accepted as a franchisee—a decision McDonald's reserves until it deems a candidate fit-but he would have the only unit in Lynwood, Calif., near his home. Some new franchisees have to wait a year to get their units, and some have to relocate.

To get started, Hull had to put up $66,000 in cash, which is only about a quarter of the usual cash investment.

This boon came through McDonald's Business Facilities Lease Program, which allows beginners with limited means to lease signs, equipment and furnishings so that they can save enough capital to purchase the franchise. (Mc-Donald's owns the real estate.) Hull was able to buy his unit in a little over a year, all the while paying himself an annual salary of about $48,000. The total price for his franchise, including close to $300,000 in renovations: $1 million.

Four years later in 1988, he bought his second unit for $700,000, financing it with a secured bank loan, using his first franchise as collateral plus funds generated by the outlet. The two outlets grossed $5 million in 1989. (Average annual sales for a McDonald's franchise:

$1.6 million.) Net profit, or income, was $500,000, with $300,000 going to Hull's salary and the rest largely toward the acquisition of new outlets. (Hull's company, like many other franchises, is a sole proprietorship, in which the corporate profit is also the proprietor's in-come.) In three years, he has seen a spectacular 80% return on a total investment of $300,000 in personal funds.Current market value of the restaurants: $2.8 million, up 65% since he bought in.

Hull works hard for his half a million. He puts in 60-hour, six-day weeks, supervising 175 employees. When he started out six years ago, he worked as many as 100 hours a week, often bedding down in his basement office.

The fruits of all his labors are abundant, however. Brenda was able to quit her job at Arco after their daughter Sydney was born four years ago. The family is currently trading way up from their $299,000 condominium to a 6,000-square-foot, $1.8 million Mediterranean-style spread. Hull has even managed to gain more time with his family. "I can choose not to come to work on Monday or Tuesday and take my daughter to the zoo," he says. "I don't work any less hard, but now I have options."

Richard Levinson likes to style his AlphaGraphics Printshops of the Future franchise as "today's technology with old-fashioned service." And he means it. In a spanking-clean 2,000-square-foot converted clothing outlet across from a shopping center in Concord, Mass., his 10 employees in red-and-blue uniforms greet customers with a smile. Here you can rent a Macintosh for $12 an hour to create and print out documents, tax a cash-flow statement to your boss or get a thousand wedding invitations printed in two days.

It's a different world for the energetic Levinson, who was president of the decorative-products division of National Gypsum in Wakefield, Mass. until 1986, when top management completed a $1.64 billion leveraged buyout and sold Levinson's unit. He left with a lump-sum severance package amounting to twice his $100,000 salary.

Having decided by then that "I didn't want to leave my fate in the hands of another corporation," Levinson met a former colleague who introduced him to an AlphaGraphics franchisee. Levinson was impressed by the professionalism of the shop and saw that it might well be the kind of business he and his wite Connie, 47, could run.

Meanwhile, he impressed Alpha-Graphics, which was seeking candidates with corporate management experi ence. After interviewing scores of franchisees and grilling company officials on fees and marketing support, the Lev-insons purchased a franchise in May 1988. They paid $250,000, which included a $40,000 franchise fee and the cost of supplies and equipment. They used $50,000 in personal savings and a $200,000 Small Business Administration loan. They put up the equity in their $400,000 home as collateral. Another $50,000 of savings went for working capital in the first year.

Once in the program, the Levinsons were put through three weeks of training on everything from handling orders to copying and binding procedures. Levinson spent an additional week at a franchise in Santa Rosa, Calif

The most difficult part of the transition was getting along for their first year on a combined salary of $24,000. The couple had to borrow an additional $25,000 from family members for living and business expenses.

The hours made Levinson's old job look like a long sabbatical. He had worked 50 to 60 hours a week at National Gypsum. Launching the AlphaGraphics outlet with three employees, the couple put in as much as 18 hours a day, seven days a week, with little time to eat or sleep. (Now, with their 10 helpers, they put in 12 hours a day, six days a week.)

Today, the red eyes and gallons of coffee seem well worth it. The couple grossed $450,000 their first year. They expect sales to top $700,000 this year and reach $1 million in '91. Profit this year will come to about $105,000, of which the couple will take $35,000 as salary and reinvest the rest in the busi-ness. They should be able to pay off their SBA loan in four years. The store has a current appraised market value of $400,000, up 60% since they bought it.

The Levinsons love controlling their own operation and nurturing talent. For instance, they hope to open up a satellite store and give an employee a piece of it. Says Levinson: "Making money is only part of the reward. I don't see most people in the corporate world having nearly this much fun."