Educational qualifications to be President

[paineinthearse]

Poll question: Educational qualifications to be President

One doesn't need to be a rocket scientist to be an astronaut, but it helps.

What is the MINIMUM educational qualification a person should have to be POUS?

Caveats:
1. Assume all institutions are accredited
2. All degrees are earned - no fly-by-night diploma mills or honorary awards.

[imenja]

1. remember that Lincoln had no formal education

He was self-taught. Bush has an MBA. It has done him no good. Education isn't a clear indicator of intelligence or the extent to which someone is informed. Moreover, the Constitution stipulates no such requirement.

[etherealtruth]

2. Wonderful contrast btw * and Lincoln

[whistle]

3. Correct, but neither did 95% of the rest of the Americans....

...of that day.

It would help to have the educational achievements of all U.S. presidents listed.

[paineinthearse]

5. Washington to Reagan

Searching for more.......

http://www.presidentsusa.net/education.html

Presidential Education

List of all the Colleges and Universities attended by the Presidents

The names below contain more information from College and University web sites:

Jefferson – William & Mary

Tyler – William & Mary

Polk - North Carolina

Buchanan – Dickinson College

Garfield – Williams College

Garfield – Hiram College

Arthur – Union College

Hoover - Stanford

Coolidge - Amherst College

Roosevelts - Harvard

Nixon – Whittier College

Nixon - Duke

Reagan – Eureka College

[imenja]

7. all BAs only?

The site doesn't stipulate.

[imenja]

6. Wilson had a PhD

I believe he was a historian. My memory is hazy here, but he taught at one of the fancy schools, Princeton I think, and became the university president there.

[leyton]

15. I'm certain that he had a graduate degree.

IIRC he did undergrad at Davidson (outside Charlotte, NC) and then graduate work at Princeton. And he was later the head of the University, something they will beat you over the head with when you take the tour. I think it is from that position that he ran for governor of NJ. He has a school of public policy named after him there.

[Just Me]

19. Wilson was a dyslexic who became the most highly educated President, ever.

He was an amazingly involved/evolved man. He started in theology (his "Poppy's career"), earned a JD (and HATED the practice), earned a PhD in government/history,...

,...and ultimately framed the "power-sharing" scheme which held this world together after WWII.

He was an amazing human being.

Wish he were here to help us combat the corporatocracy that is ruining human capacity and global strength/stability.

[paineinthearse]

8. University affiliations

http://www.answers.com/topic/list-of-u-s-presidents-by-college-education

Allegheny College
William McKinley (dropped out)

Amherst College
Calvin Coolidge

Bowdoin College
Franklin Pierce

College of William and Mary
George Washington (surveyor's license)
Thomas Jefferson
James Monroe (dropped out)
John Tyler

Dickinson College
James Buchanan

Eureka College
Ronald W. Reagan

Georgia Institute of Technology
James E. Carter, Jr. (transferred to Georgia Southwestern College)

Georgia Southwestern College
James E. Carter, Jr. (transferred to United States Naval Academy)

Kenyon College
Rutherford B. Hayes

Kinderhook Academy
Martin Van Buren

Georgetown University
William J. Clinton

Hampden-Sydney College
William H. Harrison (dropped out)

Harvard University
John Adams
John Q. Adams
Theodore Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
John F. Kennedy

Hiram College
James A. Garfield (transferred to Williams College)

London School of Economics
John F. Kennedy (transferred to Princeton University)

Miami University
Benjamin Harrison

Ohio Central College
Warren G. Harding

Princeton University
John F. Kennedy (transferred to Harvard University)
James Madison
Woodrow Wilson

Southwest Texas State Teachers College
Lyndon B. Johnson

Stanford University
Herbert C. Hoover

University of Leiden
John Q. Adams (transferred to Harvard University)

University of Michigan
Gerald R. Ford

University of North Carolina
James K. Polk

Union College
Chester A. Arthur
James E. Carter, Junior (Graduate Studies in Engineering)

United States Military Academy
Ulysses S. Grant
Dwight D. Eisenhower

United States Naval Academy
James E. Carter, Jr.

Whittier College
Richard M. Nixon

Williams College
James A. Garfield

Yale University
William H. Taft
George H. W. Bush
George W. Bush

Legal Education

Albany Law School
William McKinley (dropped out)

Columbia Law School
Theodore Roosevelt (dropped out)
Franklin D. Roosevelt (dropped out)

Duke University School of Law
Richard M. Nixon

Georgetown University Law Center
Lyndon B. Johnson (dropped out)

Harvard Law School
Rutherford B. Hayes

University of Cincinnati College of Law
William H. Taft

University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law
Harry S. Truman (dropped out)

University of Virginia School of Law
Woodrow Wilson (dropped out)

Yale Law School
Gerald R. Ford
William J. Clinton

Other Graduate Education

Oxford University Rhodes Scholarship
William J. Clinton (dropped out)

M.B.A.

Stanford Graduate School of Business
John F. Kennedy (flunked out)

Harvard Business School
George W. Bush

M.D.

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
William H. Harrison (dropped out)

Ph.D.

Johns Hopkins University
Woodrow Wilson

List by Presidents

George Washington
None

John Adams
Harvard University

Thomas Jefferson
College of William and Mary

James Madison
Princeton University

James Monroe
College of William and Mary (dropped out)

John Q. Adams
University of Leiden (transferred to Harvard)
Harvard University

Andrew Jackson
None

Martin Van Buren
Kinderhook Academy

William H. Harrison
Hampden-Sydney College - Undergraduate (dropped out)
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine - M.D. (dropped out)

John Tyler
College of William and Mary

James K. Polk
University of North Carolina

Zachary Taylor
None

Millard Fillmore
None

Franklin Pierce
Bowdoin College

James Buchanan
Dickinson College

Abraham Lincoln
None

Andrew Johnson
None

Ulysses S. Grant
United States Military Academy

Rutherford B. Hayes
Kenyon College - Undergraduate
Harvard Law School - Law

James A. Garfield
Hiram College (transferred to Williams)
Williams College

Chester A. Arthur
Union College

Grover Cleveland
None

Benjamin Harrison
Miami University

Grover Cleveland
None

William McKinley
Allegheny College

Theodore Roosevelt
Harvard University - Undergraduate
Columbia Law School - Law (dropped out)

William H. Taft
Yale University - Undergraduate
University of Cincinnati Law School - Law

Woodrow Wilson
Princeton University - Undergraduate
University of Virginia School of Law - Law
Johns Hopkins University - Ph.D.

Warren G. Harding
Ohio Central College

Calvin Coolidge
Amherst College

Herbert C. Hoover
Stanford University

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Harvard University - Undergraduate
Columbia Law School - Law

Harry S. Truman
University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law - Law

Dwight D. Eisenhower
United States Military Academy
President of Columbia University 1948 to 1953

John F. Kennedy
London School of Economics - Undergraduate (transferred to Princeton)
Princeton University - Undergraduate (transferred to Harvard)
Harvard University - Undergraduate

Lyndon B. Johnson
Southwest Texas State Teachers College - Undergraduate
Georgetown University Law Center - Law (dropped out)

Richard M. Nixon
Whittier College - Undergraduate
Duke University School of Law - Law

Gerald R. Ford
University of Michigan - Undergraduate
Yale Law School - Law

James E. Carter, Jr.
Georgia Southwestern College (transferred to Georgia Tech)
Georgia Institute of Technology (transferred to U.S. Naval Academy)
United States Naval Academy

Ronald W. Reagan
Eureka College

George H. W. Bush
Yale University

William J. Clinton
Georgetown University - Undergraduate
Oxford University - Rhodes Scholarship
Yale Law School - Law

George W. Bush
Yale University - Undergraduate
Harvard Business School - M.B.A.

[imenja]

10. the man with the answers!

Awesome!

[paineinthearse]

18. naaaaaaa, just google

[LiberalFighter]

26. Lincoln was not a dummy

He was a hard worker and it was part of his learning experience. He could not have become a lawyer without it.

His education could very well be on a par with many with a college degree.

[last_texas_dem]

12. Good comparison and point

I agree.

[Mich Otter]

24. Bush bought his MBA

Do you ever wonder how a person who doesn't read and has lots of money gets a degree at a school where many students pay their tuition by writing papers for kids that can pay the money?

[LiberalFighter]

27. If Harvard Business College follows the same principle to obtain MBA...

Students are assigned to a group.

Within the group they do their assignments.
The students receive their assignment grade based as A group. Not what the student does as an individual. If there is a slacker in the group the group has two options. Someone else does the work of the slacker or the group strongly encourgage the slacker to leave.

Their grade is composed work done as a group and individual tests.

Which was gw*dipshit? Slacker or studious student?

[LiberalFighter]

25. Just because someone has an MBA does not mean they earned it

They way they set up the class slackers could pass the course.

[Orangepeel]

4. there shouldn't be a formal minimum qualification

although I doubt I'd vote for someone without at least a college degree.

In general, I think that higher education improves critical thinking. Obtaining higher education is also correlated to some extent with having the intellectual curiosity and ambition to want it, which I think are good traits in a world leader.

However, that's my voting preference. I don't see any reason to make it a formal requirement for running for office.

[imenja]

9. agree completely

That is for the public to decide through elections, for better or worse.

[Robeson]

11. Agree.

[mcscajun]

13. Hear! Hear!

I have a college degree.

So does Bush.

Any more questions?

I want an intellect equal to or better than my own in the Oval Office, and I'll judge fitness on that basis, not on the candidate's paperwork.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

14. I don't think there should be any requirements regarding education

but I would support a law requiring anyone running for President to submit a 500 page Thesis to the American people outlining her/his position on a number of set issues: foreign policy, healthcare, the economy, human rights, etc. The paper would be supported by footnotes and a complete bibliography of the books/articles they had read to support their position. The candidate would have to sign an affidavit under penalty of perjury swearing that the paper was researched and written entirely by herself/himself without any input whatsoever by any other individual. The American people could judge for themselves whether the candidate had received a sufficient education and had a sufficient knowledge of the issues. This would require each candidate to spend time displaying their intellctual aptitude, instead of simply rehashing someone else's talking points in mindless campaign commercials and photo-ops. I must admit, however, that I'm a pretty weird idealist, in hoping that we might elect an accomplished intellectual rather than a trained chimpanzee.

[Just Me]

16. Although I believe a 40 - 100 page synopsis would suffice,...

,...I do like your proposition. Any lay person should be able to digest the "synopsis" of a candidate's intentions/objectives as a "representative".

I don't think footnotes or a complete bibliography would be required.

What WOULD be required is a legal commitment, a contract enforceable by our citizens, to fulfill the objectives contained in that synopsis.

On edit: the legal commitment to fulfill a synopsis of objectives includes active advocacy for the same, without regard to those forces (legislative or judicial) which places limits on outcome.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

17. My reason for including the bibliography

is to make public the types of reading materials to which a candidate had been exposed. I would expect someone running for President to have read books and articles in the entire political/economic/philosophical spectrum and to defend certain ideas, while explaining why the ideas of their opponents are wrong. I really like your idea of a contract.

[Just Me]

20. Except *LOL* the neoCONs would assist in just making sh*t up *LOL*.

Good grief,...they would probably sit down for three hours with their "facade-in-chief" to be,...and simply read off a spectrum of political/economic/philosophical "classics" and include them in a bio.

I am sure you know that I am being serious about these people.

What really bugs me is that we are living in an age where our "representatives" seem to have no sense of commitment to "serve" the people.

What really concerns me is that, our "representatives" are usurping power rather than respecting that power, taking responsibility for that power.

They no longer treat their promises to protect our laws and our people as promises to be kept. Instead, they are abusing their power to deceive. They are being tyrannical,...in such crafty and deceptive ways,...and seem conscience-free in doing so.

:shrug:

[Crunchy Frog]

28. And what percentage of the American people

would even bother to read it past page two? Actually, maybe reading the 500 page thesis could become a requirement for actually voting for President.

[AP]

21. I think Democrats would say no background rules you out from being

president, and no background mandates you as a worthy candidate for president.

(And I'm talking about a background that shows you care for people who suffer, that you know how people really live life, and that you've worked hard for other people.)

We'll consider a diverse range of qualifications and we'll try to see what each one says about the candidate.

[Clark2008]

22. Maybe we should change this to IQ qualifications

instead of educational.

There are a lot of very smart and learned people who cannot complete their education because, mostly, of poverty. And, yet, there are others who receive a brilliant education, but still cannot think, critically, their way out of a paper bag (ahem... blivet, blivet, blivet).

Educational qualification isn't necessarily an indicator.

[etherealtruth]

23. Touche!