With only six months of formal education, this president didn't graduate from college but later became president of one.

With only six months of formal education, this president didn’t graduate from college but later became president of one.

Just because school is out for Presidents’ Day doesn’t mean it’s a holiday from learning something new. We’ve pulled together this short quiz on the education of the U.S. presidents. It’s based on more modern standards of education and therefore the answers don’t include presidents who “read” law or were tutored at home; Wikipedia has its limits. Enjoy and we’ll be back tomorrow with the news.

  1.       Which college has the most U.S. presidents as alumni? Name the presidents.

  2.       One president founded a college.  Name the president and the college.

  3.       How many presidents attended law school?  How many graduated?

  4.       Where did Jimmy Carter attend college?

  5.       Which presidents never graduated from college?

  6.       Who is the only president to earn a Ph.D.?

  7.       Which presidents were schoolteachers?

  8.       How many presidents were Rhodes Scholars? Name them.

  9.       Six presidents were university presidents. Name them and their universities.

  10.       Which president had only six months of formal education and married his teacher?

Answers:
(1) Harvard. John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rutherford B. Hayes (Harvard Law School), John F. Kennedy, George W. Bush (Harvard Business School), and Barack Obama (Harvard Law School).  (2) Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia in 1819.  (3) Thirteen attended:  William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, Rutherford Hayes, Barack Obama, Chester A. Arthur, William Howard Taft, Harry S. Truman, Woodrow Wilson, Gerald Ford, and Bill Clinton. Six graduated: Richard Nixon (Duke), Rutherford B. Hayes and Barack Obama (Harvard), William Howard Taft (University of Cincinnati), Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton (Yale).  (4) He started at Georgia Southwestern College, transferred to the Georgia Institute of Technology and transferred to the United States Naval Academy where he received a Bachelor of Science degree. (5) George Washington (earned a surveyor’s certificate from The College of William and Mary), Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, Grover Cleveland and Harry S. Truman (attended Spalding’s Commercial College and the University of Missouri-Kansas School of Law and withdrew from both).  (6) Woodrow Wilson. Studied history and political science at Johns Hopkins University.  (7) John Adams taught briefly in a one-room schoolhouse in Worcester, Mass.; Millard Fillmore taught elementary school while clerking for a county judge; James Garfield paid for boarding school by, among other jobs, teaching during his vacations; Chester A. Arthur taught during his vacations to help pay for college and continued to teach for several years after graduating; Grover Cleveland taught at the New York Institute for the Blind in Manhattan; William McKinley taught briefly but left to enlist when the Civil War broke out; Lyndon B. Johnson taught underprivileged children of Mexican descent in Cotulla, Texas, and later taught public speaking and debate at several Texas high schools.  (8) One. Bill Clinton.  (9) Thomas Jefferson, UVA; James Madison, UVA; James Garfield, Hiram College; Millard Fillmore, University of Buffalo; Woodrow Wilson, Princeton University; and Dwight D. Eisenhower, Columbia University.  (10) Millard Fillmore.

 

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  1. Eric Premack 11 years ago11 years ago

    Will kids need to memorize this material for the Smarter-Balanced tests?

  2. john mockler 11 years ago11 years ago

    Kathy that was fun John