Many of today’s presidents have college degrees, but who was the most recent president to not have one? The list includes George Washington, Harry Truman, and Millard Fillmore. In this article, we’ll take a look at what some of these presidents had in common.
George Washington
George Washington is the most recent president of the United States to not have earned a college degree. He attended the College of William and Mary as a teenager and earned a surveyor’s license. This degree was not enough to become president, however. Washington also loved formal education and left money to encourage the advancement of education. Today, William and Mary is the fifth most popular college to produce presidents. Four of the other presidents earned college degrees, including Thomas Jefferson.
While Washington’s education was not formal, he pursued knowledge throughout his life. He and his younger brother Lawrence attended an English grammar school, but Washington’s father died when he was still a young boy. Although Washington’s education was limited, his early training may have helped him in his role as a soldier on unfamiliar ground. In his early years, Washington studied math, geometry, and geography. This education also gave him a perspective of the world in the mid-eighteenth century.
Besides Washington, Herbert Hoover was the last president of the United States to serve without a college degree. He was president of the University of Arizona for five years before coming to GW in 1927. A college education is not always necessary to become president.
Millard Fillmore
Fillmore was elected president of the United States in 1852, though he did not run for a second term. Fillmore’s first term was marked by a disastrous national crisis, and he was unable to prevent it. Despite this, Fillmore remained in office and supported the passage of the 1850 slavery law. Unfortunately, his efforts did not result in the recapture of a single slave. Fillmore’s greatest mistake was not accepting the nomination for a second term.
In addition to being the oldest president without a college degree, Fillmore was the second-oldest son of a farmer and was the only president to have been born in a log cabin. As a boy, he attended country schools. In 1815, he was apprenticed to a clothier in New Hope, New York. However, he did not like the work and eventually had to take out a loan of thirty dollars to free himself from the obligation to his employer.
In 1852, Fillmore hinted that he would not seek re-election. His opponent, Mexican-American war hero General Winfield Scott, was a close second. On the fifty-third ballot, Fillmore lost to Scott. After his defeat in 1852, Fillmore opted to run as the candidate of the American Party in 1856. Although he did not win, he served as president for a second term, and he died in office on March 4, 1874.
Although Fillmore did not receive a college degree, he was a strong supporter of the Union and opposed Lincoln’s re-election. In fact, in 1861 he helped organize the Buffalo Union Continentals, a group of 150 former military officers who served as home guards.
Before becoming president, Fillmore served in Albany, New York, as a state legislator. He was a member of the Anti-Masonic Party. In 1832, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and opposed the interstate slave trade. He later joined the Whig Party and ran for governor of New York in 1843, but ultimately lost. He then settled in Buffalo where he became a businessman and political leader.
Another example of a president without a college degree is Andrew Jackson. The former country lawyer moved to the frontier town of Nashville. After becoming a state senator and congressman, he also rose to the rank of militia commander and became the seventh US president. He served until 1837.
Harry Truman
Truman began his political career by serving in the Kansas City area as a county judge. While his duties were mostly administrative, he established a good reputation as an honest, efficient leader of county affairs. He was defeated for re-election in 1924, but in 1926 he was elected as presiding judge of Jackson County. He later won re-election in 1930.
Although he never finished his college education, he did take night classes at the Kansas City School of Law, now the University of Missouri-Kansas City. While working in a Jackson County Court administrative position, Truman also cultivated an interest in history. He studied Andrew Jackson and other historical figures in order to better understand why they became successful.
After his father’s death in 1914, Truman began working for himself. He owned a small mining company and a small oil business. He also remained involved in his family farm. During World War I, Truman’s National Guard unit sailed to France as part of the American Expeditionary Force. He turned his battery into a top-notch unit.
After the war, Truman inherited a weak political situation and faced enormous challenges in domestic and foreign policy. His policies, which included the New Deal, benefited American citizens and the economy. His liberal agenda also advanced African-American civil rights and protected the nation’s prosperity.
Truman went on to work on his family’s farm from 1906 to 1914. The family farm was not his ideal career choice, but he found a love for his childhood sweetheart, Virginia Wallace. Although she rejected his marriage proposal in 1911, they married in 1919. They had one daughter, Mary Margaret.
After his term as president, Truman retired to Independence, Missouri. He was described as a “Mr. Citizen” in his memoirs. In his free time, Truman read, wrote, lectured, and took long walks. He was also instrumental in founding the Truman Library. Truman died on December 26, 1972. His wife, Bess, died on October 18, 1982. They were buried next to one another.
Despite his many flaws, Truman was a good president. He was honest and courageous. He was often self-educated. However, he was also deeply in love with the Constitution and rarely wavered.
Mitt Romney
The Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, has been out of college for over 20 years. He has been an investment consultant and co-founder of Bain Capital, a firm that has made billions of dollars for clients. While at Bain, he honed his political skills and acquired a multimillion-dollar fortune. But his educational background is not what makes him a presidential candidate.
Mitt Romney is the youngest of four siblings and was born into a prominent Mormon family. His father was a successful businessman and helped turn American Motors around from near bankruptcy to record profits. His father also served as governor of Michigan and as secretary of housing and urban development in the Nixon administration. Romney attended Stanford University, but interrupted his studies in 1966 to join a missionary organization in France. After a year, he was seriously injured in a car accident in France.
Before running for president, Mitt Romney ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1994 against the Democratic incumbent Ted Kennedy. He later became the head of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, a statewide project that transformed the Winter Olympics from a failure to a success story. Before going into public service, Romney had a successful business career, including founding and leading Bain Capital and Bain & Company.
In addition to his career as an attorney, Romney is also a member of the Utah legislature. He currently serves on the Senate Foreign Relations, Health, Homeland Security & Government Affairs, and Budget committees. He is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on East Asia and International Cybersecurity Policy, and is a member of the Senate National Security Working Group.
While the differences between college graduates and non-college graduates have been wide in the past, this election marks the largest educational gap in a presidential election in the last several decades. This gap is especially pronounced among white voters. Since 1992, presidential elections have been won by candidates with college degrees in greater numbers than those without. Mitt Romney narrowly won the college-degree category in 2012, while Barack Obama won the non-college-education group.
Romney has been a prominent voice in foreign policy and has warned of China’s rise as the central challenge of our time. He has also pushed for a comprehensive strategy to counter this threat. In fact, he proposed an amendment to the 2021 national defense bill that requires the president to come up with a grand strategy. He has also been vocal in his support for the boycott of the Chinese Communist Party for human rights violations.
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