Who is the most recent U.S President without a College Degree?

By | January 17, 2023
Standing U.S flags

There are but a few presidents without college degrees in America’s history. That does not mean there haven’t been any, or that it is impossible to be in politics without a college degree. Legally, you can be elected as the president of the United States of America even if you didn’t attend any college. The U.S. Constitution does not set any education requirements for candidates who wish be presidents.

It’s an extraordinary achievement for a president without a college degree to be elected today as the leader in a country like the United States. Every other chief executive elected to the White House in the modern history has held at least a bachelor’s degree. Most of which have earned advanced degrees from high profile schools and colleges. In actual fact, every president since George H.W. Bush has held at least a degree from an Ivy League university.

Bush was a graduate of Yale University in the United States of America and so was his son, George W. Bush, the 43rd president, and also Bill Clinton. Barack Obama got his degree in law from the Harvard University. The billionaire real-estate developer and businessman, Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania.

This has been the trend so far and its clear, not only do modern presidents of the United States have college degrees, but they’ve also earned these degrees from the elite universities in the United States of America. It wasn’t always common for presidents to have just degrees. In actual sense, the educational attainment was not a prime consideration during balloting.

The Education of Early Presidents.

Fewer than fifty percent of the nation’s first twenty-four presidents held college degrees.
The most recent president who served without a college degree was Harry S. Truman, who was president until 1953. The 33rd president of the United States of America, Truman attended business college and law school but graduated from neither of the above.

A Full List Of Presidents Without College Degrees.

George Washington: He was the nation’s first president who never took college courses but earned a surveyor’s certificate.

James Monroe: He was also the nation’s fifth president who attended William & Mary College but didn’t graduate with a college degree.

Andrew Jackson: He was the seventh president and did not attend any college either.

Martin Van Buren: He was the nation’s eighth president who also did not attend a college.

William Henry Harrison: The ninth president of the United States of America attended both Hampden-Sydney College and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine but he did not graduate from either of the above.

Zachary Taylor: He was the nation’s twelfth president and did not attend any college.

Millard Fillmore: The 13th president of the United States of America did not attend a college.

Abraham Lincoln: The 16th president of the United States of America did not attend a college.

Andrew Johnson: The 17th president of the United States did not attend any college.
Grover Cleveland: The 22nd president of the United States also did not attend a college.

William McKinley: The 25th president of the United States took courses at both Allegheny College and Albany Law School but also did not graduate from either.

Harry S. Truman: The 33rd president of the United States took courses at Spalding’s Commercial College and the University of Kansas City School of Law but like the others before him, did not earn any degree from either institutions.

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