Ethan Trex
9 Presidential Candidates Who Weren’t Great Students
by Ethan Trex - September 22, 2011 - 11:35 AM

© Ted Soqui/Corbis

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.

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Comments (26)

  1. “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…”

    How did Quayle qualify for an equal-opportunity program?

    posted by Bert on 9-22-2011 at 11:04 am

  2. Bert — According to that Plain Dealer story, the program was “designed to reach out to the poor, racial minorities and other students who might not be admitted through regular procedures.”

    posted by Jason English on 9-22-2011 at 11:08 am

  3. And of course we’d all like to know if the current incumbent was a wizard at school or not, but he won’t release his transcripts. Gotta love that transparent government he’s so into. If it took the insanity of the “birthers” movement to get the man to show his birth certificate, who knows what will have to happen before he shows his transcripts?

    posted by WVC on 9-22-2011 at 11:11 am

  4. Grades aren’t everything, but they do mean something. This list paints a picture of what’s wrong with our political system – we don’t elect people based on intelligence, knowledge, hard work, or any other merits. Instead, our national elections are nothing more than high school writ large – a popularity contest. Frightening.

    posted by The Chef on 9-22-2011 at 11:11 am

  5. I think much of this list just goes to prove that college is overrated.

    posted by Ryan on 9-22-2011 at 11:16 am

  6. Or maybe it proves that if you’re really smart, you’ll stay away from a career in politics.

    posted by Miss Cellania on 9-22-2011 at 12:49 pm

  7. @ Ryan:
    I think it just goes to prove that politics is more about charisma than knowledge

    posted by Roger on 9-22-2011 at 12:53 pm

  8. Made me think of the nine presidents who didn’t attend college:

    Washington, Jackson, Van Buren, Taylor, Fillmore, Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Cleveland and Truman

    posted by Wayne Stevens on 9-22-2011 at 1:23 pm

  9. @WVC,
    At Harvard Law School, Obama graduated Magna Cum Laude, puttiing him in the top 10% of Harvard Law School students.

    P.S. I didn’t vote for Obama, but I see no reason to constantly demonize him.

    posted by Morris on 9-22-2011 at 2:23 pm

  10. @ WVC…I agree

    @ Morris, he wasn’t demonizing him, just pointing out the fact that the president will not release his grades. I do not think anyone really cares, but there is certainly a prescendent there.

    Any guess why President Obama will not share his grades? I bet it has more to do with the classes he took than the grades he made in them…

    posted by graham on 9-22-2011 at 2:42 pm

  11. @graham,
    You said, “I bet it has more to do with the classes he took than the grades he made in them…”

    That is claissic demonizing? You are already making accusations, without knowing anything.

    posted by Morris on 9-22-2011 at 3:08 pm

  12. I don’t think college has anything at all to do with how well you do your job. In my experience, college is far from the real world. I’m an analytical chemist with 30 years of experience, who also sucked at sitting in lecture halls, taking notes, and taking tests. I think 18-20 year olds get away from home and on their own, and they just screw up a little.

    That being said, Nixon will go down in history as the greatest president ever…

    posted by Nosferatu on 9-22-2011 at 3:18 pm

  13. no surprise on any of these. i surpassed the education level of most of the presidents or congresspersons in history when i was a 3rd year medical student.

    posted by dr evil on 9-22-2011 at 3:31 pm

  14. @Morris

    “Demonizing?” Seriously? Have a drink and relax a bit – it’s almost Friday you know.

    I merely pointed out that the man refuses to do what practically all of his predecessors chose to do. And graham jumped to the not-too-illogical conclusion that there must be something to hide behind that choice.

    Now, I happen to have a non-photo-shopped copy of his transcript sitting right here in front of me, and I don’t see anything wrong with getting a B- in “Conjuring, Hexing, and Cursing.” However, that D in “Communicating with the Demonaic” is troublesome – it’s hard for me to demonize the man if he barely passed basic dark spirit communing classes.

    posted by WVC on 9-22-2011 at 3:32 pm

  15. As an alumnus of DePauw, I find it hilarious that anyone would claim high marks were hard to come by.

    posted by Matthew on 9-22-2011 at 3:33 pm

  16. Dan Quayle’s parents owned a dozen newspapers including the Indianapolis Star. That’s an equal opportunity in Indiana politics.

    The Sarah Palin of his time with the family money of Nelson Rockefeller.

    posted by Bob on 9-22-2011 at 3:37 pm

  17. Normally I find nit picking about article titles irritating, but the Nixon section is baffling. The article is titled Candidates Who WEREN’T GREAT STUDENTS, and the first line of Nixon’s section says he was an excellent student.

    I’m not defending the guy; I wasn’t even alive when he was in office. But seriously, interesting anecdote or not, that’s just slopping writing.

    posted by Bill Gill on 9-22-2011 at 3:38 pm

  18. DePauw is my alma mater as well, class of ’03, and while I was not a genius by any stretch I maintained a respectable 3.3 GPA… I’m amused by the idea that good grades were (or are) hard to come by there. It’s a good school but it’s not THAT hard. According to campus lore, Quayle spent most of his time partying with his frat and playing golf. (He was also refused an honorary doctorate when he returned to speak at grad, thanks to the memories of professors on the committee who’d taught him.)

    posted by that_girl on 9-22-2011 at 3:41 pm

  19. I knew when I started reading Bill’s nit picking that there’d be a fabulous typo. That it happened on “slopping writing” was wonderful.

    posted by John on 9-22-2011 at 3:49 pm

  20. @ Morris: I said specifically WVC was not demonizing; also, what I said was probably more along the lines of implication not demonization.

    I do suppose, however that his studies focused more on surpressing liberty, be it economic or personal, than it did anything else.

    Not sure what that statement was, a supposition or just a hypothesis?

    posted by graham on 9-22-2011 at 4:56 pm

  21. @graham and WVC,
    “Demonizing” is when you constantly attack someone, grasping at any negative accusation you can find, and to have zero tolerance for anything even remotely positive, spinning everything into negatives.

    Eventually, people will believe just about anything about that person, no matter how monstrous. Thus they are no longer seen as human, and have become the “demon” you want the others to see.

    If you don’t think you demonize Obama, then I apologize.

    posted by Morris on 9-22-2011 at 5:51 pm

  22. Demonizing??? Are you serious??? Believe me, the stuff millions of people are saying about the Prez are not printable here, Morris. I honestly do not want to say bad stuff about anyone, but OMG, some of the stuff i see on the internet and hear on certain TV shows is almost obscene. Like he was Hitler or something. I thought they said bad things about Bush, but the hatred level against Mr. Obama is unprecedented. The things said in these comments is luke-warm tea.

    posted by Eddie on 9-22-2011 at 8:29 pm

  23. hey, most of the guys with bad grades were current politicians. Hummm that might explain somethings.

    posted by diana hampo on 9-25-2011 at 10:02 pm

  24. Eddie,

    Do you really believe that President Obama is getting unprecendented treatment or that his scrutiny is worse than that of President Bush?

    It is obvious that your love for the president is blinding you from the truth.

    posted by graham on 9-26-2011 at 2:19 pm

  25. Graham, first of all NO president has EVER released his grades; GWB’s were pulbished against his wishes. Second, I would call it sheer foolishness rather than demoonizing where you conjecture what kind of classes young Mr. Obama took, with ZERO evidence. You seem to think people ought to treat your wild-ass conjecture with the same respect as solid facts. And yes, Eddie, people who keep up with such matters have found that false and scurrilous rumors about Mr. Obama are at least twice as common as they were against Mr. Bush. Check Snopes if you doubt.

    posted by JD Reed on 10-14-2011 at 2:38 pm

  26. From what I remember reading about him, McCain’s low ranking at Annapolis was mostly due to demerits he got for pranks and conflicts with superior officers.

    posted by New Class Traitor on 11-22-2011 at 3:58 pm

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