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A surprising number of presidents never graduated college
Washington Examiner ^ | 2/16/15 | Claire Daniel |

Posted on 02/16/2015 10:09:14 AM PST by blueyon

Media and potential opponents are scandalized that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is considering a run for president even though he didn’t graduate from college. But if Walker (who dropped out of Marquette University in his senior year) won in 2016, he would be joining an exalted group that includes the two presidents most frequently named as the favorites of the American people.

Eleven presidents — exactly 25 percent — were not college graduates. Most prominent on that list are George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, who make up half of Mt. Rushmore’s foursome and are in the top three or top five in virtually every popular survey of favorite presidents. (A 2007 Rasmussen poll put Honest Abe and the Father of Our Country at number two and number one, respectively.) The most recent president to forego the benefits of a sheepskin was Harry Truman, and the list includes other fondly remembered (and a few barely remembered) chief executives.

Meet the presidents who dropped out or didn’t make it to college at all:

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...


TOPICS: Government; History; Miscellaneous; Politics
KEYWORDS: 2016election; abrahamlincoln; agenda; corruption; degree; democrats; election2016; elitistjackoffs; georgewashington; gop; greatestpresident; harrytruman; mediabias; obama; president; scottwalker; thegeneral; therevolution; wisconsin
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To: Lurkinanloomin

Bingo!


21 posted on 02/16/2015 11:04:06 AM PST by gwgn02
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To: JohnBrowdie

One of the left’s modern day icons and example they like to use all the time is Bill Gates, a college dropout.


22 posted on 02/16/2015 11:05:20 AM PST by 5thGenTexan
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To: knarf

Andy “Old Hickory” Jackson, father of the Democrat Party and big owner of slaves, along with some other prominent Rats, is among the presidents w/o a degree.


23 posted on 02/16/2015 11:12:57 AM PST by shove_it (The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen -- Dennis Prager)
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To: shove_it

Can anyone prove that Obama graduated from college? Anyone? (crickets)


24 posted on 02/16/2015 11:19:33 AM PST by Rapscallion (Another lie: "If you like your Internet, you can keep your Internet.")
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To: Rapscallion

I agree! You need to make Wiki aware of that. Apparently nobody else has done so, according to the list Knarf posted above.


25 posted on 02/16/2015 11:27:44 AM PST by shove_it (The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen -- Dennis Prager)
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To: blueyon

“O” certainly never graduated. If he DID, we’d have the degree in our faces 24/7! :)


26 posted on 02/16/2015 11:28:32 AM PST by SMARTY ("When you blame others, you give up your power to change." Robert Anthony)
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To: blueyon

http://www.collegedropoutshalloffame.com/

“You don’t have to go to college to be a success. Even if you go for awhile, you don’t have to graduate to be a success. Here are just a few of the people who have become famous and/or successful without graduating from college and/or high school.

A survey conducted by Bloomberg in 2010 show that the school of hard knocks was the number one source (tied with the University of California) for CEOs of S&P 500 companies. Harvard was the #3 source (along with the universities of Texas, Missouri, and Wisconsin). The school of hard knocks features CEOs who never graduated from college.

Of the top 400 richest Americans in 2011, 27 graduated from high school but did not attend college. Another 36 were college dropouts.”

Paul Allen, billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, founder of Xiant software, owner of Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trailblazers. Dropped out of the University of Washington to work for Honeywell. A year later he convinced Bill Gates to drop out of Harvard and move to Albuquerque, New Mexico to start up Microsoft.

Eike Batista, billionaire mining executive. Studied metallurgy at the University of Aachen, Germany. Dropped out of college. Now one of the 10 richest men in the world.

Alain Bouchard, billionaire co-founder of Alimentation Couche-Tard convenience store chain (including the Circle K stores in the U.S.). Never attended college. Began working at the age of 19 in one of his brother’s stores.

Richard Branson, billionaire founder of Virgin Music, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Mobile, and other Virgin enterprises, balloonist. Left Stowe School when he was 16. Never attended college.

James Francis Byrnes, U.S. representative, U.S. senator, Supreme Court justice, U.S. secretary of state, South Carolina governor. At the age of 14, he left St. Patrick’s Catholic school to apprentice in a law office. Never attended college or law school.

Andrew Carnegie, industrialist and philanthropist. Elementary school dropout. Started work at the age of 13 as a bobbin boy in a textile mill. One of the first mega-billionaires in the U.S.

(continues)


27 posted on 02/16/2015 11:30:00 AM PST by BwanaNdege
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To: blueyon

I’ve taken sh2t jobs in my profession for 25 years because I didn’t graduate, though I was admitted to some of the most reputable colleges on the planet and have contributed original research to my field. Only now (in my 50’s) is the experience finally starting to be acknowledged.


28 posted on 02/16/2015 11:31:01 AM PST by 9thLife ("Life is a military endeavor..." -- Pope Francis)
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To: Da Coyote

George W Bush - Yale (Harvard post-grad)
George H W Bush - Yale
Ronald Reagan - Eureka College
Gerald Ford - University of Michigan (Yale post-grad)
Richard Nixon - Whittier College (Duke post-grad)
Dwight Eisenhower - USMA (West Point)
Herbert Hoover - Stanford
Calvin Coolidge - Amherst
Warren Harding - Ohio Central College
William Taft - Yale
Theodore Roosevelt - Harvard

Probably not complete, especially as regards post-grad work, but this covers the last century of Republican presidents and their colleges. You’re sure you can’t find even one president on this list that you would consider a good president? I know I can.


29 posted on 02/16/2015 11:37:18 AM PST by Team Cuda
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To: blueyon

Most of the people I know didnt graduate college and a good number of them are “Private Jet Wealthy”...


30 posted on 02/16/2015 12:26:28 PM PST by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: fatnotlazy

As long as you could pass a certifying exam back in the day, it did not matter how you learned the information, whether self-taught or otherwise, you passed, you could practice law. The only reason Howard Dean is making it a deal is because he is arguing that since Scott Walker hasn’t completed a degree, he doesn’t know basic information about what is going on in the world or some other random BS.


31 posted on 02/16/2015 1:11:47 PM PST by Morpheus2009
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To: shove_it

Andrew Jackson served in the military, and made it to be an officer, in fact, he was the American Commander at the Battle of New Orleans. He had a military education. I would argue that is a good education.


32 posted on 02/16/2015 1:15:25 PM PST by Morpheus2009
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To: Morpheus2009

You’ll get no argument from me on that. My point is to illustrate the hypocrisy of the left in raising the issue.


33 posted on 02/16/2015 1:25:08 PM PST by shove_it (The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen -- Dennis Prager)
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To: blueyon

But how many went to college for four years, and completed 96 credits before inexplicably disappearing without finishing the last 24 credit hours. Not having a degree is not going to be a problem. Walker’s problem, if there is one, will be the story behind whatever happened...


34 posted on 02/16/2015 1:26:09 PM PST by Regal
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To: blueyon

Many wealthy people do not have a college degree but do have an education. Colleges are silly for thinking they, and they alone, can impart knowledge. What part of sitting in a room watching a teacher’s aid give a boring and useless lecture is educating? What part of liberal classes like “women’s studies” is educating? What part of clapping-for-credits is educating?


35 posted on 02/16/2015 1:30:48 PM PST by CodeToad (Islam should be outlawed and treated as a criminal enterprise!)
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To: blueyon

“Eleven presidents — exactly 25 percent — were not college graduates.”

Of course, the enlightened, elitist, liberal illuminati intelligentsia will say that those were different times and that a POTUS cannot govern today without a degree from Yale, or Harvard. Thy are full of crap! No more lawyers and no more Ivy leaguers!!


36 posted on 02/16/2015 1:32:36 PM PST by Batman11 (The orange, weeping, drunk, squishy oompah-loompah and Yertle McTurd-le gotta go!)
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To: Batman11

....unless it’s Ted Cruz! :)


37 posted on 02/16/2015 1:33:31 PM PST by Batman11 (The orange, weeping, drunk, squishy oompah-loompah and Yertle McTurd-le gotta go!)
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To: shove_it

It’s always about substance. Just because you have a degree doesn’t make your claim infallible, your capability at a job, great, or your science absolutely settled. A better description of the leftist reasoning is known as Appeal to Authority or Appeal to Ridicule, or Bandwagon Fallacy.


38 posted on 02/16/2015 3:18:06 PM PST by Morpheus2009
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To: Batman11

That means 75% of the presidents DID have degrees, including Ronald Reagan. Why side with the minority?


39 posted on 02/16/2015 6:44:33 PM PST by Team Cuda
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To: albie

I’ve got an associate’s degree and I think I’m doing pretty good. Would the libs like Walker if he had a useless degree in something stupid like gender or race studies?


40 posted on 02/19/2015 11:15:05 AM PST by rfreedom4u (Do you know who Barry Soetoro is?)
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