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TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - In the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump and his partner, JD Vance, are running as candidates for the next President and Vice President of the United States (U.S.). Trump is known to have graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution. But did you know that there were several preceding U.S. presidents without college degrees?
While today’s state officials are typically highly educated with at least a bachelor's degree, this is not the case for some of America’s earliest leaders. Legally speaking, according to ThoughtCo, you can become president even without a proper higher educational level, although it is uncommon nowadays.
In this article, we will discover some U.S. presidents who took the White House without college degrees, citing ThoughtCo, Britannica, and the official website of the White House.
1. George Washington
George Washington, one of the founding fathers of the U.S., is among the presidents without college degrees in American history. ThoughtCo revealed that the first U.S. president never took college courses during his life, but he earned a surveyor’s certificate.
Washington served his presidency from 1789 to 1797. Prior to his tenure as president, he held the rank of general and served as the commander-in-chief of the colonial armies during the American Revolution, according to Britannica.
2. James Monroe
James Monroe was the fifth president of the U.S. from 1817 to 1825. He briefly attended William & Mary College but didn’t complete his study.
The fifth U.S. president is best known for the Monroe Doctrine, the then-U.S. foreign policy warning European powers against intervening in the Western Hemisphere. Furthermore, according to Britannica, his administration was often described as the “Era of Good Feelings.”
3. Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson began his tenure as the seventh U.S. president in 1829 and left office in 1837. Aside from being one of the presidents without a college degree, Jackson was also named the first elected president by direct appeal to the masses of voters.
4. Martin Van Buren
Similar to Jackson, Martin Van Buren did not attend college. He served as the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. Van Buren is best remembered as a key architect in forming the Democratic Party, according to Britannica.
5. William Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison briefly pursued his studies at the University of Pennsylvania and Hampden-Sydney College. However, he didn’t graduate from either institution.
Harrison was well-known for being the U.S. president with the shortest tenure. According to the official website of the White House, he died after his only 32 days of service. He was also the oldest elected president at that time.
6. Zachary Taylor
Another U.S. president not pursuing a college education is Zachary Taylor. He served as the nation’s 12th president for only 16 months, from March 1849 to July 1850. Taylor automatically stepped down from his presidency following his death from cholera, Britannica notes.
7. Millard Fillmore
After his death, Taylor’s administration was succeeded by his vice president, Millard Fillmore. Fillmore, who didn’t have a college educational background, took office in 1850 and served as the 13th president until 1853.
Citing Britannica, the former president was prominent for his insistence on federal enforcement of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. Furthermore, he was, too, the last president not to be affiliated with the Democratic and Republican parties.
8. Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln, often dubbed the “Great Emancipator," is among the American presidents without a college degree. Lincoln, the nation’s 16th president from 1861 to 1865, was widely known for his contribution to bringing about the emancipation of enslaved people in the U.S.
Unfortunately, according to the White House, he was murdered on April 14, 1865, at Ford’s Theatre by an actor named John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln was shot in the head by a .44 caliber derringer in his president’s box at the theater, Britannica explains.
9. Andrew Johnson
Upon the passing of President Lincoln in 1865, Vice President Andrew Johnson assumed the presidency. According to Thoughtco, Johnson did not pursue a college education.
After implementing reconstruction policies toward the South, Johnson faced impeachment by the Radical Republicans in Congress, but they found him not guilty. Later, in 1869, he retired from the presidency.
10. Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman is the last 20th-century president without a college degree. He once took courses at Spalding's Commercial College and the University of Kansas City School of Law, but he didn’t finish both his studies.
Truman played a pivotal role in opposing Soviet expansionism in Europe. He was also the one who deployed the U.S. forces to South Korea during the Cold War to contain the communist invasion.
THOUGHTCO. | BRITANNICA | THE WHITE HOUSE
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