Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Nine Presidential Candidates Who Weren't Great Students in College
Mental Floss ^ | 09/22/2011 | Ethan Trex

Posted on 09/22/2011 2:58:26 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

The Huffington Post recently released a copy of Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry’s college transcript from Texas A&M. The academic picture wasn’t pretty. Perry struggled in some familiar classes (an F in organic chemistry, a D in economics) and some bizarre ones (a C in gym, a D in something the transcript labeled only as “Meats”).

Are Perry’s low college marks all that astonishing for a high-profile politician? Apparently not. Let’s take a look at a few other big names who didn’t light the academic world on fire.

1. Al Gore
Gore’s the brainiest politician around, right? Possibly, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at his Harvard transcript. Gore apparently spent quite a bit of time loafing during his sophomore year, and some of his grades weren’t very good: a D, a C-minus, two C’s, two C-pluses, and a B-minus, marks that put him in the lowest fifth of his class. Strangely enough, the D came in a class that sounds like it would be right in Gore’s wheelhouse: Natural Sciences 6 (Man’s Place in Nature).

2. George W. Bush
Gore’s foe in the 2000 presidential election takes a lot of ribbing for his intellect, but his college grades at Yale were more mediocre than embarrassing. Through his first three years at Yale, Bush’s grades averaged out to 77 on a 100-point scale. He only received one D during his college career, in an astronomy course.

3. John Kerry
Like Bush, Kerry attended Yale. And he had some really rotten grades, particularly during his freshman year. As a Yale frosh, Kerry rang up D’s in geology, two history classes, and – strangely enough for a future Senator – political science. While Kerry’s 2004 campaign presented him as a more cerebral alternative to Bush, the two men’s grades at Yale were roughly equivalent.

4. Dan Quayle
Quayle’s academic struggles didn’t start with his infamously ill-fated attempt to spell “potato.” According to a 1988 Cleveland Plain Dealer story, he wasn’t a bang-up student at DePauw University, either. Quayle’s grades were so lousy that he wouldn’t ordinarily have been able to earn admission into Indiana University’s law school, but he secured a spot thanks to an equal opportunity program. During the 1988 presidential campaign a Quayle spokesman explained that high marks were simply hard to come by at DePauw.

5. George H.W. Bush
When Quayle’s middling college grades became a story during the 1988 campaign, running mate George H.W. Bush defended his eventual VP and revealed a bit of his own classroom struggle. Bush joked, ”I refuse to release my high school transcript because I failed chemistry and I don’t want anyone to know that.”

6. John McCain
McCain excelled at a lot of things during his time at the United States Naval Academy, including boxing. McCain’s classes knocked him out, though. His grades were so poor that in his graduating class of 899, he earned spot 894 in the rankings.

7. Joe Biden
By all accounts, Biden wasn’t the world’s greatest student, but he made up for his academic shortcomings with sheer likability. Biden ranked 506th out of 688 students in the University of Delaware’s class of 1965, but a professor still recommended him for law school “on grounds of personality and general promise.” The future VP didn’t exactly turn on the jets once he got to law school, either. He finished 76th in his class of 85 students at Syracuse, and admitted to plagiarism in his first year of law school. But again, a dean recommended him for a job on the basis of his “confidence,” “general physical appearance,” and “general speaking ability.”

8. Franklin Pierce
It’s not just modern politicians who goofed around in college. When Pierce attended Bowdoin College, he spent so much time hanging out with friends, including a young Nathaniel Hawthorne, that at one point he was ranked dead last in his class. He eventually found some motivation and worked his way up to fifth in his class.

9. Richard Nixon
Unlike the other names on this list, Nixon was actually an excellent student. After Whittier College, Nixon went on to Duke Law, where he graduated third in his class in 1937. He also served as president of the Duke Bar Association. But we’re including him because his good grades didn’t earn him much respect from his alma mater.

In 1954, a committee recommended that then-VP Nixon be given an honorary Doctor of Laws degree, and Nixon agreed to be the graduation speaker. However, after vociferous debate, a faculty panel voted down the recommendation, and Nixon bailed on the commencement address.

Over a quarter-century later, Duke President Terry Sanford pushed to build Nixon’s presidential library on campus, even meeting with Nixon himself to work out the details. However, a similar faculty committee killed the idea. The Nixon Library ended up in Yorba Linda, California.


TOPICS: Education; Society
KEYWORDS: grades; presidents; students
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-35 last
To: SeekAndFind
What about Bill Clinton? Not some contrived group of numbers, but, his real grades.........has anyone seen them?

8:}

21 posted on 09/22/2011 3:27:07 PM PDT by AwesomePossum (I have never looked this forward to a November II........)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
The faculty voted against an honorary degree for Nixon in 1954.

In 1961 the offer was renewed and Nixon turned Duke down.

I don't know the details, but here's the source.

When Nixon died the graduating class of the law school petitioned for a tribute at their graduation. It looks like they didn't get the moment of silence they wanted, but there was a special memorial note published in the commencement program.

I have to wonder about articles like this one. How much of an idiot or lackey does the author have to be not to at least mention that we still haven't seen Obama's grades?

22 posted on 09/22/2011 3:27:39 PM PDT by x
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

A number of our better presidents only attended the college of hard knocks as I recall.


23 posted on 09/22/2011 3:29:43 PM PDT by reed13
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I would love to see a list (not just Nixon) of presidents with high grades.


24 posted on 09/22/2011 3:33:08 PM PDT by I still care (I miss my friends, bagels, and the NYC skyline - but not the taxes. I love the South.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
GHW Bush was Phi Beta Kappa from Yale when that still meant something, and he was married and had a child while he was working towards his degree.

His humorous self-deprecating comment should be taken for what it is and nothing more.

But you know comparing grades from the 1940s or 1960s with grades today is like comparing apples with howitzers.

The standard is totally different today, especially in the humanities and especially at institutions like Harvard and Yale.

25 posted on 09/22/2011 3:35:45 PM PDT by x
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
As a Yale frosh, Kerry rang up D’s in geology

Kerry got a D in "rocks and blocks for jocks?" Geez. And I say that as a geologist. It does not get any easier.

26 posted on 09/22/2011 3:37:04 PM PDT by doodad
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

zero didn’t even finish grade school, so how does that stack up against the field?


27 posted on 09/22/2011 3:47:41 PM PDT by rigelkentaurus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: I still care
Phi Beta Kappa: JQ Adams, Chester Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton.

Wilson didn't, but his school didn't have a chapter at the time.

Others -- FDR, Truman, Carter -- were made honorary members later, which isn't the same thing.

Some unsavory characters were also PBK -- Alger Hiss, Angela Davis, Alfred Kinsey, JFK's Best and Brightest, and the gang running the economy now.

Jeb Bush made it at UT, Bobby Jindal at Brown. So did a lot of Supreme Court Justices.

Franklin Pierce's friends and classmates, Hawthorne and Longfellow, made it at Bowdoin, so maybe one of them should have been elected President.

Oh and Barack Obama made it as well. Barack Sr., that is, at UHawaii.

28 posted on 09/22/2011 3:50:54 PM PDT by x
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: re_nortex

The “AA” making up for his pathetic grades, no doubt.

It’s an open secret they put him on law review because he was, to quote Joe Biden, a magic negro.


29 posted on 09/22/2011 4:05:46 PM PDT by TheThirdRuffian (Nothing to see here. Move along.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Was he a student at all? Don’t think we’ve seen any actual record. Everyone says he was, but who knows?


30 posted on 09/22/2011 4:05:55 PM PDT by dandiegirl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TheThirdRuffian
The “AA” making up for his pathetic grades, no doubt.

In fact, the quota system is precisely how he got there in the first place. Obama was "too black to fail" in the view of the leftist educrats.

31 posted on 09/22/2011 4:10:54 PM PDT by re_nortex (DP...that's what I like about Texas.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: AwesomePossum

When Clinton was attending Yale Law School all grades were Pass/Fail. I’m assuming he passed.


32 posted on 09/22/2011 4:17:59 PM PDT by CaptainK (...please make it stop. Shake a can of pennies at it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: TheThirdRuffian

RE: Obama was a D+/C- student

Where did you get his record?


33 posted on 09/22/2011 4:39:43 PM PDT by SeekAndFind (u)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: CaptainK
Word is that he dropped out........that could possibly mean fail..........his records are like Os, might near devoid of sunshine.........

8:}

34 posted on 09/23/2011 1:22:22 AM PDT by AwesomePossum (I have never looked this forward to a November II........)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Kinkos in Abeline.

It may be fake, but it’s accurate.


35 posted on 09/23/2011 7:18:18 AM PDT by TheThirdRuffian (Nothing to see here. Move along.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-35 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson