A college degree can make you a lot more attractive to employers. But for many people, it isn’t necessary to be successful in the workplace.
In fact, the last time a president didn’t have a bachelor’s degree was Harry Truman in 1951.
George Washington
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George Washington was one of the most recent United States presidents who did not have a college degree. This was a very unusual feat for him to achieve because most chief executives elected to the White House today have at least a bachelor’s degree.
Although George Washington did not have a college education, he was successful in several areas of his life. He was a surveyor, he became an excellent leader, and he made a difference in the lives of his people.
He was also a military man who served in the Revolutionary War and the British army. He did not have extensive training in open-field warfare, but he was brave and determined to win the war.
As a result, he was able to lead a powerful military force to victory. He was also a talented politician and led a unified government in the early years of the United States.
However, he faced some criticism during his time in office. His cabinet appointees included two men who disagreed on the role of the federal government: Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.
They were both part of the Federalist Party, which favored a strong central government. Washington believed that their differing views were essential to the health of the new nation, but he was worried that the two men’s differences could lead to political partisanship.
George Washington was a very influential leader and is admired across the world. He is remembered for his leadership skills, his dedication to his country, and his willingness to sacrifice his personal comforts in order to protect the rights of others.
Martin Van Buren
Van Buren was the only president to be born in the United States and not a British subject. He was also the only person to serve as a United States governor before becoming president.
Martin Van Buren was born in Kinderhook, New York, on December 5, 1782, six years after the colonies gained their independence from Britain. He was the son of Abraham and Maria Van Buren, both of Dutch descent.
He attended a local school, then worked as a clerk in the town government and lawyer. He married his childhood sweetheart, Hannah Hoes; they had four children.
In 1821, Van Buren was elected to the United States Senate. He was a key player in a sophisticated political machine in New York, known as the Albany Regency. He also helped to develop the political system of “spoils,” which allowed supporters of a candidate to receive jobs in government.
During his term as Jackson’s secretary of state, Van Buren and Jackson achieved many important diplomatic successes. They secured a settlement with Great Britain to allow trade with the British West Indies, negotiated a commercial treaty with France that repaid property seized during the Napoleonic Wars, and secured a commercial treaty with the Ottoman Empire that gave U.S. traders access to the Black Sea.
However, Van Buren’s popularity began to erode during the country’s financial crisis. He failed to support the annexation of Texas, which would have made the United States a slave state.
Despite these setbacks, Van Buren’s influence was strong enough to ensure that he was elected president for a second term in 1836. The nation had suffered a severe financial depression that was caused by the transfer of federal funds from the Bank of the United States to state banks. Moreover, the stock market crashed shortly after Van Buren was elected.
Andrew Jackson
The most recent president to have never a college degree was Andrew Jackson. He was a strong-willed and sharp-tempered man who made his mark on the United States as a military hero and a politician.
A hardened veteran of the American Revolution, Jackson grew up in the backcountry of the Carolinas and received little formal education. The British invasion of the region in 1780-81 killed most of his parents, and he was left orphaned.
Jackson was a judge, congressman, and senator from Tennessee. He served as a major general in the War of 1812, leading a successful campaign against the Creek Indians. He won a reputation for his bravado and fierce personality in battle, but behind his towering rages were often shrewd calculations that led to political success.
In his first presidential campaign, Jackson was a polarizing figure and received negative personal attacks. He was nicknamed “jackass” by his opponents. He was reelected in 1828, and became the first westerner to win the presidency.
He destroyed the Second Bank of the United States, founded the Democratic Party and supported individual liberty. He was also known as the “people’s president.”
As the first president to use his veto to challenge a law, Jackson firmly inserted himself into the legislative process. His veto message, unusually long and detailed, asserted that presidents can veto laws based on policy differences, and not only for constitutional reasons.
Jackson’s veto of the bill to reauthorize the Second Bank was a watershed moment, and it is still regarded as one of his most definitive acts. It firmly inserted the president into the legislative process, and set the stage for future Presidents to exercise their vetoes more proactively than previous ones.
William Henry Harrison
Today, most high school graduates are expected to go to college. However, in the past, this was not always the case. Several presidents did not have a degree.
William Henry Harrison was one of the most recent u.s. presidents without a college degree, and he was elected to office in 1840. He became the ninth president of the United States and served as the nation’s first Whig president.
He was a political and military leader who led the American army in several conflicts against Native Americans, including the War of 1812. His most notable victory was the Battle of Tippecanoe, where he defeated Tecumseh’s Shawnee tribe at Tippecanoe Creek.
After the war, he served as governor of the Indiana Territory for 12 years. In this role, he signed numerous restrictive and one-sided treaties with Native American tribes.
Harrison also served in the Ohio Senate (1819-21) and the U.S. Senate (1825-28).
Despite his lack of education, Harrison was a successful political and military leader. He was the son of Benjamin Harrison V, a member of the Continental Congress and a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
When he was a child, he had a passion for the military. He studied to become a doctor but, at his father’s insistence, he joined the United States Army.
He fought in the Northwest Indian War and helped establish the settlement of Ohio. He also served as Secretary of the Northwest Territories and helped gain legislation dividing the Territory into the Northwest and Indiana territories.
Harrison was a popular candidate for president in 1840 because of his record as a military general and his noncommittal political views. He was able to win the presidential election because people blamed President Van Buren for the panic of 1837 and bad economy. He delivered his inaugural speech outdoors in the cold March weather and died a month later of pneumonia.
William McKinley
William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States, was born in Niles, Ohio on January 29, 1843. He was the seventh of eight children and grew up in a family that owned iron foundries. He was raised to be an honorable man with strong values and a sense of duty to his country.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, McKinley enlisted as a private in the Union Army. He served with distinction at the Battles of Antietam and South Mountain, proving himself to be a dependable soldier. After the war, he decided to study law and became a successful attorney in Canton, Ohio.
He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1876 and served 14 years. He quickly gained popularity and rose to become chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. He was an ardent defender of American industry and a Republican tariff expert.
In the 1896 presidential election, McKinley defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan with 51% of the popular vote and 271 electoral votes to Bryan’s 176. The result was considered a realigning election that gave the Republican Party a disproportionate influence in the industrial states.
After a period of economic depression, McKinley pushed back against inflation by rejecting the monetary policy of free silver and raising protective tariffs to boost American industry and keep wages high. His foreign policy included an influential “Open Door” policy aimed at bolstering American commercial interests in China and ensuring that the United States maintained a strong position in world markets.
McKinley’s success was short-lived, however. On September 6, 1901, McKinley was assassinated by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist who was out to discredit the American government.
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