A college education is not a requirement for a presidential candidate. Yet every U.S. President after Harry S. Truman has earned a degree. The following list shows where our presidents earned undergraduate degrees (** indicates no college degree). •
1. George Washington (1789-1797)**
2. John Adams (1797-1801)—Harvard
3. Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809)—College of William and Mary
4. James Madison (1809-1817)—Princeton (then called the College of New Jersey)
5. James Monroe (1817-1825)—College of William and Mary
6. John Quincy Adams (1825-1829)—Harvard
7. Andrew Jackson (1829-1837)**
8. Martin Van Buren (1837-1841)**
9. William Henry Harrison (1841)**
10. John Tyler (1841-1845)—College of William and Mary
11. James K. Polk (1845-1849)—University of North Carolina
12. Zachary Taylor (1849-1850)**
13. Millard Fillmore (1850-1853)**
14. Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)—Bowdoin College
15. James Buchanan (1857-1861)—Dickinson College
16. Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)**
17. Andrew Johnson (1865-1869)**
18. Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877)—West Point
19. Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881)—Kenyon College
20. James Garfield (1881)—Williams College
21. Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885)—Union College
22. Grover Cleveland (1885-1889)**
23. Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)—Miami University
24. Grover Cleveland (1893-1897)**
25. William McKinley (1897-1901)**
26. Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)—Harvard
27. William Howard Taft (1909-1913)—Yale
28. Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)—Princeton (then: the College of New Jersey)
29. Warren G. Harding (1921-1923)—Ohio Central College
30. Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929)—Amherst College
31. Herbert Hoover (1929-1933)—Stanford University
32. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945)—Harvard
33. Harry S. Truman (1945-1953)**
34. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961)—West Point
35. John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)—Harvard
36. Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969)—Southwest Texas State Teachers College
(now known as Texas State University/San Marcos)
37. Richard M. Nixon (1969-1974)—Whittier College
38. Gerald R. Ford (1974-1977)—University of Michigan
39. James Carter (1977-1981)—United States Naval Academy
40. Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)—Eureka College
41. George H. W. Bush (1989-1993)—Yale
42. William J. Clinton (1993-2001)—Georgetown
43. George W. Bush (2001-2009)—Yale
44. Barack Obama (2009-2017)—Columbia University
45. Donald J. Trump (2017-Present)—University of Pennsylvania
