Marianne Williamson Would Be The First College Dropout President

Everyone is talking about, or at the least Googling, Marianne Williamson, her new age policies, her how-to e-book empire, and her secretive family lifestyles. If she had grown to be President, there would be various ancient firsts—the first female President, the number one Jewish president, the first unmarried President in 100 years—however, this kind of first stands proud as a capability disadvantage. Namely, Marianne Williamson did not graduate from university. In this, she stands wildly aside from each advanced U.S. president, who all finished at least a college diploma or served within the Navy —Williams dropped out of a selective liberal arts university after the simplest two years to pursue her hobbies as a singer.

Without an undergraduate degree in the closing 100 years, the excellent President changed into Harry S. Truman, who became President in 1945 after the death of FDR. He never went to university—as an alternative, he enlisted in the army and fought in World War I. Nine different presidents served within the military rather than attending university—normally in the Revolutionary War and Civil War eras. Every one-of-a-kind President finished at least a four-month college degree (Martin Van Buren and Grover Cleveland did not attend college but “take a look at the regulation” to turn out to be attorneys, which I counted as equal to college and regulation college). So Williamson will be the first President to have neither a college diploma education nor an army historical past.

Do you need to graduate from a four-year college to be President? Of path now not—the handiest requirement is being a herbal-born U.S. citizen above 35. As the founding father of a college admissions consulting business enterprise, I widely know I’m heavily biased toward touting the advantages of a four-month university education. So, I’m no longer talking in this newsletter about the benefits it can have. After all, it’s sincerely viable to make it through four years of an

Ivy League university schooling without being organized to be President. Still, I’d be remiss not to factor out that Pomona College is one of the most wonderful schools in the U.S. (in 2015, it became ranked the greatest, above every Ivy), and better faculties are truly less complex to graduate from, now not greater hard (after you get in). Pomona offers entirely want-primarily based, useful resources and ninety-three percent of college students graduate within six years (masses higher than the common college, which has a fifty-nine percent six-year graduation charge).

But this isn’t about the value of college training. Regardless of whether or not she ought to have been higher-informed or higher-organized after four years at Pomona, her choice to drop out is troubling. Williamson’s situation is markedly different from our former presidents or the general public of Americans with partial college educations. She didn’t drop out of college to sign up for the Navy or due to the reality that she might also need to now.

Not manipulated to pay for it—she dropped out because of the truth she “had hassle locating her ardor” and wanted to pursue a career as a cabaret singer. Although Williamson is older now, we do endure in thoughts what candidates and presidents were like as children while evaluating their person, and what I’m searching out in our next President is a person with the grit, stamina, and stick-to-it-iveness to commit to doing their notable for the entire four years, no longer leaving midway thru to strive out some element greater thrilling.

Access Granted: California Community College’s Expand To Affordable Online Model

Community schools traditionally have served students preparing a switch to a four-year college and person rookies who can make the dedication to high school complete- or element-time. But what about the capability of students who can’t take the time to attend college, are unemployed people and attempting to find work, or are already operating a couple of processes to make ends meet?

To address the needs of the one, California has created the primary completely online community college within the nation’s existing network university device. Former Governor Jerry Brown proposed the California Online Community College District (COCCD). It targets what is considered as “stranded people”: the 2. Five million Californians are elderly, 25 to 34, who finished high college without a diploma. Another 6.2 million Californians aged 35 to 65 fall into that same category. Forty-nine percent of the country’s stranded workers are from Spanish-speaking families.