So you want to be President? Here's where you have to go to college.

College Search & Selection
1

<p>This here is a list of the undergraduate colleges where U.S. presidents attended and the number of US presidents who attended. Keep in mind that many of the early presidents did not attend college.</p>

<p>Harvard - 4
College of William and Mary - 3
Yale - 2
Bowdoin College - 1
Dickinson College - 1
Kenyon College - 1
Hiram College - 1
Williams College - 1
Whittier College - 1
Union College - 1
Miami University (OH) - 1
Allegheny College - 1
Mount Holyoke - 1
Davidson College - 1
Princeton - 1
Ohio Central College - 1
Amherst College - 1
Stanford - 1
Texas State University at San Marcos - 1
University of Michigan - 1
Georgetown - 1
Georgia Tech - 1
US Naval Academy - 1
Georgia Southwestern College - 1
Eureka College - 1</p>

<p>You have a lot of options. Get those applications ready folks!</p>

2

<p>So you're saying it doesn't matter where you go...</p>

3

<p>^ ditto</p>

<p>also ...the times have changed</p>

4

<p>
[quote]
Harvard - 4

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Uh, it's actually 5 at Harvard.</p>

<p>Adams, Adams, Roosevelt, Roosevelt, and Kennedy.</p>

5

<p>
[quote]
Princeton - 1

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</p>

<p>Uh, it's actually at least 2 at Princeton - Woodrow Wilson and James Madison. </p>

<p>Arguably, it could be 3, as Kennedy enrolled at Princeton for 1 semester but then transferred to Harvard. Since we are just talking about schools that ex-Prez's attended, as opposed to * graduated from*, Kennedy should probably count for Princeton.</p>

6

<p>
[quote]
This here is a list of the undergraduate colleges where U.S. presidents attended and the number of US presidents who attended. Keep in mind that many of the early presidents did not attend college.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Seems to me that you forgot about West Point, with 2 (Grant, Eisenhower).</p>

7

<p>As a result of the times changing, I'd say the best schools are:</p>

<p>Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Georgetown, Williams, or Amherst.</p>

<p>College of W&M had a lot of early presidents but just doesn't have the same level of turning out national politicians in the modern day.</p>

<p>Feel free to refute this position if you think it's not warranted :)</p>

8

<p>With regard to the comments above...many presidents go one place for undergrad and others for graduate school...also, I know WW was Dean or President or something of Princeton, but did he also go to school there?</p>

9

<p>Not sure this list is accurate. For example, Mount Holyoke is a women's college ... which ex-president attended there ... ? Assuming Hilary Clinton is the first woman president, then it is Wellesley that would need to be added to the list.</p>

10

<p>
[quote]
So you're saying it doesn't matter where you go...

[/quote]

The thread pretty much should have ended here.</p>

11

<p>
[quote]
Not sure this list is accurate. For example, Mount Holyoke is a women's college ... which ex-president attended there

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Yeah, I too would like to know exactly which ex-Prez attended Mount Holyoke. </p>

<p>
[quote]
College of W&M had a lot of early presidents but just doesn't have the same level of turning out national politicians in the modern day.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>The truth is, W&M just does not have the prominence that it used to have in the old days, when for a while it looked like it had a legitimate shot at challenging Oxford and Cambridge which were at the time considered the best universities in the world. The old W&M was effectively killed starting in the Civil War when it was occupied by Union troops and the subsequent decades of penury before finally declaring bankruptcy in 1882. When it reopened, it was (and, frankly, still is) a shadow of its former self. Don't get me wrong - W&M is still a top-notch school. But there is no comparison between what it is now and what it used to be.</p>

<p>
[quote]
As a result of the times changing, I'd say the best schools are:</p>

<p>Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Georgetown, Williams, or Amherst.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>To that, I would add the military academies. Let's face it. As long as the US alone spends than the rest of the world combined in terms of military expenditures, as it does not and for the foreseeable future, the military will always hold a prominent position in the US political milieu. </p>

<p>
[quote]
also, I know WW was Dean or President or something of Princeton, but did he also go to school there?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Wilson graduated with a bachelor's degree from Princeton in 1879. </p>

<p>He became Professor at Princeton in 1890 (after a short law career, obtaining a PhD at Johns Hopkins and serving professorships at Bryn Mawr and Wesleyan), and was promoted to become President of Princeton in 1902. He resigned that position to serve a term as Governor of New Jersey before becoming Prez.</p>

12

<p>If you count graduate school.</p>

<p>Theodore & Franklin Roosevelt both attended Columbia
Eisenhower was President of Columbia</p>

<p>3- Columbia</p>

13

<p>
[quote]
If you count graduate school.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Then Harvard would have 7. Rutherford Hayes and George W. Bush (law and business, respectively).</p>

14

<p>I'm pretty sure that George W. Bush went to Yale, as did his father. The Bush family is kind of synonymous with Yale. I think one of the twins went there too.</p>

15

<p>The only high-level politician I could think of right now who went to Mount Holyoke is Elaine Chao, and she certainly isn't President, hehe.</p>

16

<p>
[quote]
I'm pretty sure that George W. Bush went to Yale

[/quote]
</p>

<p>He did, but also got an MBA from Harvard.</p>

17

<p>considering the fact that a lot of our presidents were horrible, i suggest that you don't attend any of those schools if you want to be a good president.</p>

18

<p>Mount Holyoke???</p>

19

<p>
[quote]
Yeah, I too would like to know exactly which ex-Prez attended Mount Holyoke.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>William Taft's mother attended Mount Holyoke. I think that's where a processing mistake may have been made.</p>

20

<p>I'd like to see a similar compilation for supreme court justices.</p>