So How’d the Donald Do in School?

Nobody's really sure, but possibly not as great as he led us to believe
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted May 4, 2011 7:50 AM CDT
Updated May 7, 2011 7:45 AM CDT
Donald Trump College: He Probably Didn't Graduate Top of His Class at Wharton
Donald Trump smiles during the presentation of his honorary award of Doctor of Business Administration at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland, Friday Oct. 8, 2010.   (AP Photo/Kami Thomson, Pool)

Donald Trump heard that President Obama "was a terrible student, terrible," who probably pulled a fast one to sneak into the halls of ivy, but Justin Elliott over at Salon isn't so sure the Donald should be chucking rocks inside his glass house. "Trump has allowed the media to report for years that he graduated first in his class at Wharton, despite strong evidence that this is not true," writes Elliott. Further, Trump didn't get a Wharton MBA, but rather a Wharton undergrad degree offered through UPenn.

A biographer notes that Trump's freshman and sophomore grades at Fordham were "respectable," but also that he got into Wharton through a friend of his brother's—and that having a rich father didn't hurt his admissions chances, either. Elliott tracks down pretty convincing circumstantial evidence, including a 1968 commencement program, that Trump didn't graduate with honors, but Wharton won't release more information and the Donald hasn't offered up either comment or transcript. Which is, of course, Elliott notes, "something he has repeatedly demanded that Obama do with his own academic records." Stay tuned. (More Donald Trump stories.)

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