Schmidt was born in Washington, D.C. After graduating from Yorktown High School,[7] Schmidt attended Princeton University where he earned a BSEE in 1976.[8] At the University of California, Berkeley, he earned an MS in 1979 for designing and implementing a network linking the campus computer center, the CS and the EECS departments,[9][10] and a PhD in 1982 in EECS with a dissertation about the problems of managing distributed software development and tools for solving these problems.[11] He was joint author of lex (a lexical analyzer and an important tool for compiler construction). He taught at Stanford Business School as a part time professor.[12]
He lives in Atherton, California, with his wife Wendy.[13]
He is also on the list of ARTnews 200 top art collectors.[14]