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College Education

The First College Dropout President

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Everyone is speaking approximately, or at the least Googling, Marianne Williamson, her new age rules, her how-to ebook empire, and her secretive family lifestyles. If she became president, there might be several ancient firsts—the first woman president, the first Jewish president, the first single president for 100 years—but one of these firsts sticks out as a capacity downside. Namely, Marianne Williamson did not graduate from university. In this, she stands wildly apart from each previous US president, who all either completed a university diploma or served within the navy —Williams dropped out of a selective liberal arts university after most effective years to pursue her targets as a singer.

The First College Dropout President 2

Without an undergraduate diploma in the remaining a hundred years, the only President changed into Harry S. Truman, who have become President in 1945 after the demise of FDR. As a substitute, he never went to college, enlisted in the military, and fought in World War I. Nine different presidents served inside the navy instead of attending university—mainly within the Revolutionary War and Civil War eras. Every different president completed as a minimum a 4-yr college diploma (two, Martin Van Buren and Grover Cleveland, did not attend university. However, “read the regulation” to emerge as attorneys, which I counted as identical to college and regulation college). So Williamson will be the first President to have neither a college-stage schooling nor a military history.

That being said, do you need to have graduated from a four-year university to be president? Of path not—the only requirement is being a herbal-born US citizen above 35 years old. And I can acknowledge that, because the founder of a university admission consulting enterprise, I’m closely biased closer touting the benefits of a four-12 months university training. So I’m deciding not to talk in this article about the blessings it may have. After all, it’s truly viable to make it via four years of Ivy League college schooling without being prepared to be president. Still, I’d be remiss not to point out that Pomona College is one of the high-quality schools inside u. S. A . (in 2015, it became ranked the first-rate, above every Ivy), and that higher colleges are actually simpler to graduate from, not tougher (after you get in). Pomona offers complete want-primarily based useful resources, and ninety-three % of students graduate within six years (a great deal better than the average university with a 59% six-12 months commencement price).

But this isn’t approximately the value of university education. Regardless of whether she could have been better-educated or better-organized after 4 years at Pomona, her decision to drop out is troubling. Williamson’s scenario is markedly specific from our former presidents or the general public of Americans with partial university educations. She didn’t drop out of college to join the navy or because she should not afford it—she dropped out because she “had hassle finding her ardor” and wanted to pursue a profession as a cabaret singer. Although Williamson is older now, we do keep in mind what applicants and presidents had been like as youngsters whilst evaluating their character, and what I’m seeking out in our subsequent president is someone with the grit, stamina, and stick-to-it-iveness to commit to doing their first-rate for the entire 4 years, not leaving midway thru to try out something extra interesting.

Edunian

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