Many of us grew up believing that in the United States of America, anyone could become president through talent, hard work and, most significantly, education. Our four candidates for president and vice president took strikingly different paths for their higher education. That they are all on top of the ballot might be a sign that what we thought growing up is, in fact, true. 

Here’s a look at their paths, and what their education might say about them:

Donald Trump

In 1964, Trump enrolled at Fordham University, a private university in New York City. As the son of a wealthy family, he did not have to be concerned with tuition costs. In 1966, as a junior, he transferred to The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated in 1968.

Trump never made the dean’s list, and there’s no record of his involvement in university life. He lived off campus and spent weekends in New York, working at his father’s real estate business. Nonetheless, the Republican nominee for president often boasts about attending an Ivy League school. In December 2015, on Meet the Press, he said, “Wharton is probably the hardest there is to get into … Some of the great business minds in the world have gone to Wharton.”

To this day, many students and their families aspire to a Penn education, mainly for its prestige and the advantages an Ivy League pedigree confers.

This disdain for higher education seems like an example of climbing a ladder and then pulling it up after you reach the top.

Beyond his personal resumé, though, Donald Trump would not appear to have respect for higher education. In 2005, he founded Trump University, a for-profit enterprise, which operated from 2005 to 2010, blatantly cheating students of tuition money and resulting in Trump’s paying a $25 million settlement to anyone who enrolled there between 2007 and 2010.

J. D. Vance

Trump’s vice presidential running mate J. D. Vance did not grow up with Trump’s advantages. As Vance documents in his memoir Hillbilly Elegy, he rose above a difficult childhood to enter the U.S. Marines. For low-income citizens, the military is frequently an excellent route from poverty to higher education.

The G.I. Bill — the most significant piece of continuing education legislation of the 20th and 21st centuries — enabled Vance to attend Ohio State University, a public, land-grant research university, founded in 1870, in accordance with the Morrill Act of 1862, the most important education legislation of the 19th century.

After completing an Ohio State degree in political science and philosophy, Vance was admitted with generous financial aid to his dream school, Yale Law School. The Republican vice presidential candidate’s career in higher ed exemplifies the rags-to-riches of the American dream.

Now, for reasons of his own, Vance calls universities “the enemy,” saying that they are dedicated to “deceit and lies, not to the truth.” This disdain for higher education seems like an example of climbing a ladder and then pulling it up after you reach the top.

Kamala Harris

Academic values permeated the household where Kamala Harris grew up. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a biologist who moved from India to the U.S. for graduate work and then contributed to breast cancer research. Her father, Donald J. Harris, a retired Stanford University professor of economics, arrived in the U.S. from Jamaica in 1961.

While Kamala Harris was growing up, the Harrises, like many academic families, moved around a great deal. After her parents divorced when she was seven, the Democratic nominee lived with her mother, who moved to Canada, where Harris attended high school and began her college career in 1981 at Vanier College in Montréal.

We should demand that current leaders extend the benefits they received to new generations.

She subsequently transferred to Howard University, a historically Black university, in Washington, D.C. Among Howard’s distinguished alumni are Phylicia Rashad, Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison. Majoring in political science and economics, the future Vice President Harris served on the College of Arts and Sciences Student Council and the debate team. Her affiliation with Alpha Kappa Alpha, one of the Divine Nine sororities and fraternities, has been a sustaining influence in her career. Founded in 1908, AKA is the oldest Greek-letter organization established by college-educated Black women. Its motto is “By Culture and by Merit,” and its causes include “empowering families, building economic wealth, enhancing the environment, advocating for social justice, and uplifting the local community.”

On her Howard University biography page, Harris points to the variety of experiences available at her chosen university: “The thing that Howard taught me is that you can do any collection of things, and not one thing to the exclusion of the other. You could be homecoming queen and valedictorian. There are no false choices at Howard.”

Graduating from Howard in 1986, Harris then matriculated at a public law school, University of California, San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings) and completed her law degree in 1989.

Tim Walz

Howard prepared Vice President Harris to view many options without fear of making false choices. This week she chose Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, to be her vice presidential running mate.

Like Vance, Governor Walz grew up in a small Midwestern town, and his path to higher education was through military service. At 17, Walz enlisted in the Army National Guard and served for a total of 24 years. In 1989, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in social science from a public institution, Chadron State College. After a year teaching in China, and gaining some proficiency in Mandarin, Walz returned to the U.S. as a full-time member of the National Guard, periodically serving overseas in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He retired from the military as the highest ranking enlisted soldier to serve in the U.S. Congress.

In 2001, Walz earned a Master of Science in educational leadership from Minnesota State University — a publicly supported institution — and worked as a teacher and coach before turning to politics.

College pathways for everyone

The variety of the educational backgrounds of the four Americans seeking the highest political office in the land exemplifies one of the great strengths of higher education in the U.S. — its diversity. To be sure, the Ivy League has always conveyed immediate advantages to its graduates. But public universities and HBCUs also offer pathways to success. Military service continues to open doors, especially for low-income citizens.

Three of the four candidates (Vance, Harris and Walz) pursued liberal arts degrees — areas of study that are under duress at many universities today.

What’s important now is to examine how the selected candidates of each party intend to protect higher education in this nation and to keep the doors to the presidency open to multiracial women, farm boys and girls, and those growing up in challenging economic circumstances. Given the obstacles currently arrayed against higher education, we should demand that current leaders extend the benefits they received to new generations.

Every Voice, Every Vote funds Philadelphia media and community organizations to expand access to civic news and information. The coalition is led by The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Lead support for Every Voice, Every Vote in 2024 and 2025 is provided by the William Penn Foundation with additional funding from The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, Comcast NBC Universal, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Henry L. Kimelman Family Foundation, Judy and Peter Leone, Arctos Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, 25th Century Foundation, and Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation.

Elaine Maimon, Ph.D., is an Advisor at the American Council on Education. She is the author of Leading Academic Change: Vision, Strategy, Transformation. Her long career in higher education has encompassed top executive positions at public universities as well as distinction as a scholar in rhetoric/composition. Her co-authored book, Writing In The Arts and Sciences, has been designated as a landmark text. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum. Follow @epmaimon on X.

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