The Surprising College Studies of U.S. Presidents
Though exceptions do exist — Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson had no formal education at all — most U.S. presidents have earned at least an undergraduate degree. And in the majority of cases, their fields of study were well aligned with the role of POTUS.
Subjects such as history, political science, law, and economics have long been common choices for a career in politics, while earlier leaders often followed a broad liberal arts education. But not all U.S. presidents chose subjects that were a natural fit for a future in the Oval Office. Here are four presidents whose fields of study might seem surprising for the commander in chief.
James Madison: Hebrew
James Madison had an inquisitive mind long before he became the fourth president of the United States and the “Father of the Constitution.” As a teenager, he was sent to the College of New Jersey — which later became Princeton University — where he studied Latin, Greek, and theology, and read the Enlightenment philosophers. He completed the required three-year course of study in two years, but remained for an additional year to study Hebrew.
At the time, Madison was considering a career as a clergyman, and a knowledge of Hebrew was important for biblical scholarship. That career, of course, never materialized, and Madison went on to become a statesman, diplomat, U.S. founding father, and president of the United States. He remains the only POTUS to speak Hebrew, and one of 20 U.S. presidents (out of 45) to speak a second language.
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Herbert Hoover: Geology
As a young man, Herbert Hoover was determined to go to the newly established Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. He studied hard and barely scraped through the university’s entrance exam. He was initially interested in mechanical engineering but soon changed his major to geology.
Hoover graduated in 1895 but struggled to find a job. Eventually, however, his career as a mining engineer took off, taking him around the world, including to Australia and China. He went on to earn a fortune — around $4 million by 1914 — from investments in mines in Australia, Russia, and Myanmar, and income from consulting operations around the world. Despite his highly specialized technical background, Hoover eventually moved into politics, becoming president in 1929.
Jimmy Carter: Nuclear Physics
America’s 39th president was born in 1924 in the small farming town of Plains, Georgia. He was educated in local public schools, studied engineering at Georgia Southwestern College and the Georgia Institute of Technology, and later received a Bachelor of Science from the United States Naval Academy in 1946. Carter then became a submariner, rising to the rank of lieutenant.
At the time, America’s nuclear submarine program was in its infancy. Carter was chosen to work on the program and was assigned to Schenectady, New York, to undertake graduate studies in reactor technology and nuclear physics at Union College. These highly specialized studies eventually led him to be selected as a senior officer on the USS Seawolf, the world’s second nuclear submarine. But when Carter’s father passed away, he was forced to resign to take over the family peanut farm. Nuclear science wasn’t particularly useful in the world of peanut farming, but it is certainly unique in the history of presidential qualifications.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Teaching
When he was 12 years old, Lyndon B. Johnson famously told his classmates, “You know, someday I’m going to be president of the United States.” It was a bold claim, and one that initially seemed quite unlikely. The young Johnson went to summer courses at Southwest Texas State Teachers College, where he failed to impress. He then drifted about, did odd jobs — including manual labor on a road crew — and started getting into drunken fights, eventually leading to his arrest.
In 1927, Johnson got his life back on track. He returned to Southwest Texas State Teachers College and was assigned a teaching job at a tiny school in a very impoverished and largely Latino area, where he witnessed the extremes of both poverty and racism. He excelled in the role, and his experiences there had a profound effect on him – instilling a lifelong commitment to addressing poverty and advocating for civil rights. Johnson graduated in 1930 with a Bachelor of Science in history and a certificate of qualification as a high school teacher. He soon decided, however, that a teaching career wasn’t for him, turning instead to a life in politics that ultimately led to the White House — just as he had predicted as a child.
