- 13 minutes ago
Every U.S. president’s education gets the full breakdown here, from self-taught frontier leaders to Ivy League overachievers, and the results are as surprising as the Oval Office itself. George Washington taught himself math and surveying, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson came through Harvard-era and law-school paths, and John Quincy Adams may have had the most extreme morning routine in presidential history.
The story keeps moving through Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, JFK, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden, showing how formal schooling, military training, law study, and raw self-discipline shaped each presidency. It’s part history documentary, part presidential biography, and part fast-paced education ranking, with jokes, IQ claims, college trivia, and a lot of American political history packed into one long-form narration.
Created for viewers searching for presidential education explained, US presidents history, political biography, and history documentary narration. It also fits searches for American history videos, college and law school backgrounds of presidents, and educational commentary on the smartest and least formal presidents in the United States.
The story keeps moving through Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, JFK, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden, showing how formal schooling, military training, law study, and raw self-discipline shaped each presidency. It’s part history documentary, part presidential biography, and part fast-paced education ranking, with jokes, IQ claims, college trivia, and a lot of American political history packed into one long-form narration.
Created for viewers searching for presidential education explained, US presidents history, political biography, and history documentary narration. It also fits searches for American history videos, college and law school backgrounds of presidents, and educational commentary on the smartest and least formal presidents in the United States.
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00:00From a Michigan football star who won back-to-back championships
00:04to an Ivy League genius with photographic memory
00:07to a president so dumb, he graduated at the bottom of his class twice
00:12and still became president.
00:15This is every U.S. president's education.
00:18And spoiler, while some learned from the most elite institutions in the world,
00:23others just taught themselves from scratch.
00:25Like George Washington, whose education was pretty much non-existent.
00:30Cuz after his father died, little George ditched school to help his mom run the farm.
00:36But in his free time, he taught himself math, military strategy, and land surveying,
00:41which proved lethal when combined with his near-photographic memory.
00:46Cuz during the Revolutionary War, Washington effortlessly recalled troop positions,
00:50terrain features, and minor details, outsmarting formerly-trained British generals on the battlefield.
00:57But for John Adams, it was the total opposite.
01:01Cuz he attended Harvard at just 15 years old and studied math, philosophy, and history.
01:07And after graduating near the top of his class, Adams went on to read law under a local attorney,
01:13basically the 18th-century version of law school.
01:16But he wasn't just a brilliant mind.
01:19He was a fiery debater, using his masterful rhetorical skills to argue for American independence.
01:26But speaking of brilliant minds, Thomas Jefferson studied law at William and Mary College.
01:32And oh boy was he a voracious reader, obsessed with everything from architecture,
01:37to philosophy, to languages, to science.
01:40And when the British burned the Capitol in 1814, Jefferson sold his personal collection of 6,000 books
01:47to form the new Library of Congress.
01:50But he didn't stop there.
01:52He also founded the University of Virginia, personally designing the campus, buildings, and famous rotunda.
01:59Cuz if it wasn't obvious, Jefferson was a polymath.
02:02So insanely brilliant, that modern psychologists place his IQ around 160,
02:09making him one of the smartest presidents in U.S. history.
02:12Kinda like James Madison, who went to the College of New Jersey, or what we now call Princeton,
02:18where he dove into Latin, Greek, theology, and completed four years of classes in two years.
02:25But unlike Adams, James Madison wasn't fiery in debate.
02:29He was quiet, surgical, and never wasted a word.
02:33It was this combo of being sharp and disciplined that made Madison the perfect man to architect the U.S.
02:39Constitution.
02:40But while Madison learned in the classroom, James Monroe learned on the job.
02:45Cuz after two years of attending William and Mary, 1776 happened.
02:50And Madison was like, sorry professors, there's a revolution going on.
02:54And left college to join the Continental Army, where he fought in the Battle of Trenton and crossed the Delaware
03:00River with Washington.
03:02That's him right here holding the flag.
03:04But after the revolution, Monroe was famous for having natural political instincts.
03:10He was more EQ than IQ.
03:12Cuz instead of learning from books, Monroe's skill came from people, politics, and practical wisdom.
03:18But then came John Quincy Adams, who might be the smartest president in U.S. history.
03:24Cuz as a kid, little Adams traveled with his dad throughout Europe and spoke fluent French, Dutch, and a little
03:31German.
03:31So when he returned home, he breezed through Harvard in two years before launching into politics.
03:37But to me, the craziest part about Adams was his morning routine.
03:41Cuz he started every day with a nude swim in the Potomac, then read the Bible in its original Greek,
03:47and then wrote in his diary, which ended up becoming a 15,000-page journal.
03:53And modern researchers believe Adams had an IQ of around 175, the highest of any U.S. president.
04:01So if you want to be as smart as Quincy Adams, maybe just do what he did.
04:05Woohoo!
04:07Cannonball!
04:08But unlike the fancy-pants presidents we've seen so far, Andrew Jackson grew up on the rugged frontier,
04:15with pretty much no education outside of elementary school.
04:19Cuz by 15 years old, Jackson was orphaned, broke, and fighting to survive.
04:25So he became a schoolteacher himself while studying law at night.
04:30But Jackson's true strengths emerged during the War of 1812, where he out-strategized generals despite having zero military training.
04:39Cuz he was sharp, tough, and street-smart.
04:42And Jackson applied the same instincts to outmaneuver political opponents and rally the people to his side.
04:48So yeah, Jackson didn't have the polish of Adams or Jefferson, but he did have the raw charisma and war
04:55hero fame to make him an American legend.
04:58Kinda like Martin Van Buren, who also didn't come from privilege.
05:03Cuz Van Buren went to a one-room schoolhouse until age 14.
05:07Then jumped straight into a lawyer's office as an apprentice, where he grinded through legal work for seven years until
05:13being admitted to the bar.
05:15And even though he never went to college, Van Buren was a highly skilled lawyer, who became New York's attorney
05:21general before the age of 30.
05:23However, William Henry Harrison did give college a shot.
05:27Kinda.
05:29Cuz he attended Hampton-Sydney College in Virginia for about a year before moving on to study medicine at the
05:35University of Pennsylvania.
05:37But after his dad died, money got tight.
05:40So he left school and traded the textbooks for a sword and enlisted in the army, where his battlefield career
05:46eventually took off.
05:47See? Who says he needs school to become president?
05:51Oh, hey there.
05:52Well, John Tyler's dad set him up for success early.
05:56Cuz at just 12 years old, he entered the prep program at the College of William and Mary.
06:01Moved into the main school at 15.
06:03And after graduating, studied law under his father, who was a judge.
06:08And even though Tyler maybe wasn't as brilliant as the founding fathers, he had solid B-plus energy.
06:14But a B-plus didn't cut it for this next president.
06:17Cuz James Polk was the ultimate overachiever.
06:20After graduating first in his class at the University of North Carolina, Polk became a lawyer and young congressman.
06:27But most impressively, before stepping into the Oval Office, Polk mapped out his entire presidency, promising to accomplish four major
06:36goals.
06:36And guess what?
06:38He achieved all four in one term, then refused to run again.
06:42On the other hand, Zachary Taylor didn't care much about school.
06:46He received poor grades, never went to college, and his spelling was horrible.
06:51Instead, he joined the army at 23 years old and never looked back.
06:55Cuz instead of reading books, he'd rather lead armies into battle.
06:59Charge!
07:00Charge!
07:01But this next president was the definition of self-made.
07:05Cuz even though he grew up in poverty, Millard Fillmore devoured every book he could get his hands on, teaching
07:11himself grammar, math, law, and science.
07:14And eventually was admitted to the bar in 1823.
07:18But although Fillmore never went to college himself, he literally founded the University of Buffalo.
07:24And hey, I like that mentality.
07:26If you can't go to college, just build one.
07:29I hereby grant this diploma to myself.
07:32But speaking of higher education, Franklin Pierce entered Bowdoin College at just 15 years old.
07:39Where he studied classics, philosophy, and became best friends with Nathaniel Hawthorne.
07:44The man who'd go on to write the Scarlet Letter.
07:46But even though Pierce was a strong student, let's just say he didn't need it.
07:51Cuz he cruised through politics with good looks, charisma, and a gifted speaking ability.
07:56Pierce was considered the handsomest man in politics of his day.
08:00And oh boy, did he know how to use it.
08:03Ahem, I'm standing right here.
08:05But on to less attractive presidents.
08:08Cuz James Buchanan graduated from Dickinson College with honors in just two years.
08:13And afterwards became a lawyer and a highly accomplished diplomat.
08:17Too bad those skills didn't translate to the Oval Office.
08:21Unlike Abraham Lincoln, who was a natural-born future president.
08:26Cuz although he had almost no formal schooling, Lincoln taught himself everything.
08:31He'd spend his nights reading books by the fireplace, and passed the Illinois bar entirely on his own.
08:37He'd read Shakespeare, the Bible, poetry, and sometimes walked miles just to borrow a book.
08:44He even taught himself Euclid geometry just to sharpen his logic.
08:48Like, who does that?
08:50So despite having no teacher his entire life, Lincoln became one of the most eloquent, insightful leaders in American history.
08:58But if you thought Lincoln had it bad, Andrew Johnson somehow had it worse.
09:03Cuz after growing up in poverty, Johnson didn't learn to read, write, or do basic arithmetic until he was a
09:10teenager.
09:11Yet managed to teach himself enough law to get admitted to the Tennessee bar.
09:15Even so, Johnson used the fake-it-till-you-make-it strategy to work his way up the political ladder.
09:21Cuz modern historians rank him as one of the lowest IQ presidents.
09:25Meanwhile, Ulysses S. Grant received one of the most rigorous educations America had to offer.
09:31The United States Military Academy.
09:33Where he studied engineering, math, and military science.
09:37But Grant wasn't exactly a standout.
09:40He graduated 21st out of 39 cadets.
09:44Nevertheless, the West Point values were drilled into his being.
09:48Cuz during the Civil War, Grant's calm judgment and strategic intelligence allowed him to lead the Union to victory.
09:55Proof that sometimes the kid with average grades becomes the one who changes history.
10:00And other times, they just blend in with the pack.
10:03Like Rutherford B. Hayes.
10:05Cuz he graduated valedictorian at Kenyon College before earning his law degree at Harvard.
10:11And in his free time, enjoyed classical music, lectures, and the visual arts.
10:16So yeah, Hayes wasn't considered a genius, but definitely had a resume that made his parents proud.
10:22Unlike this next president, who quite literally was a genius.
10:27Cuz James Garfield graduated from Williams College and immediately started teaching college-level math,
10:33Greek, and Latin while studying law on the side.
10:37But that's just the beginning.
10:39Cuz Garfield was famously an ambidextrous multilingual.
10:43He could write in Latin with one hand and Greek with the other at the same time.
10:48And while serving in Congress, Garfield published an original proof of the Pythagorean theorem.
10:54But even though IQ tests didn't exist back then,
10:57many historians believe Garfield was one of the smartest U.S. presidents,
11:02rivaling the intelligence of Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams.
11:05If only his presidency didn't get cut short.
11:09And Chester A. Arthur became president.
11:12A solid, smart guy who graduated from Union College as a top student
11:17and eventually passed the bar without law school.
11:20So yeah, Arthur was well-educated, polished,
11:23and had some of the best presidential facial hair in U.S. history.
11:27But let's stay focused.
11:28Cuz Grover Cleveland never went to college.
11:31He ditched high school early and learned the law the old-fashioned way
11:35by clerking in a Buffalo law office,
11:38studying at night,
11:39and grinding through legal textbooks until he earned admission to the bar.
11:43Cuz if you couldn't tell, Cleveland was a workhorse.
11:46He grinded from lawyer to mayor to governor to president of the United States.
11:51Proof that sometimes determination beats a diploma.
11:55Which is great news for me,
11:56cuz I barely made it through the Secret Service Academy.
11:59Heh heh.
12:00Um, but I work hard, sir.
12:02I make up for it with work ethic.
12:04Don't I?
12:04Eh, I'm just gonna shut up now.
12:06Let's move on to Benjamin Harrison,
12:08a well-educated gentleman who graduated near the top of his class
12:12at Miami University in Ohio.
12:15He studied classics, science, and mathematics,
12:18and later attended Cincinnati Law School,
12:20where he built a successful law career.
12:23Solid credentials, solid career.
12:25And, well, everything was pretty solid with Harrison.
12:28Kinda like William McKinley,
12:30who attended Allegheny College
12:32before the Civil War pulled him out of the classroom
12:35and into the Union Army.
12:37And after the war,
12:38McKinley graduated from Albany Law School.
12:41However, McKinley's true superpower
12:43was his remarkable memory for numbers.
12:45He could recall tariff data with his feet on the desk.
12:49And this was a big deal in a world without calculators.
12:53Cuz it was his brain that propelled the McKinley tariff,
12:56one of the most complex trade laws in U.S. history.
12:59But speaking of big brains,
13:02Teddy Roosevelt was one of the most highly educated presidents
13:05in American history.
13:06He graduated from Harvard with honors
13:09and briefly enrolled in Columbia Law School
13:11before jumping into politics.
13:13Cuz sitting still wasn't really his thing.
13:16But boy, did Teddy always make time to read.
13:19On trains, horseback,
13:21and even during meetings.
13:23Teddy's reading speed was so legendary,
13:25he finished a book a day.
13:27And I think that somehow rewired his brain.
13:30Cuz he also had a true photographic memory.
13:33He could glance at any book
13:34and repeat the entire thing weeks later.
13:37His memory was so strong,
13:39my memory-erasing device never worked on him.
13:41Heh heh, sorry sir.
13:43Let's move on to William Howard Taft,
13:45who graduated from Yale second in his class
13:48and won the gold medal for oratory
13:50and the gold medal for civil engineering.
13:53But Taft quickly evolved into a constitutional powerhouse.
13:57Cuz after graduating from Cincinnati Law School,
14:00he grew to become the best government lawyer of his era.
14:03This not only landed him the top job of POTUS,
14:07but afterwards,
14:08Chief Justice of the Supreme Court,
14:10the only person to ever hold both positions.
14:13Teddy Roosevelt even said,
14:15Taft has one of the best legal minds in America,
14:18sound,
14:19thorough,
14:19and fearless.
14:20So yeah,
14:22Taft was pretty dang smart.
14:23Kinda like Woodrow Wilson,
14:25who might have been the most educated president in U.S. history.
14:29Cuz Wilson graduated from Princeton
14:31and then earned his Ph.D. in political science from Johns Hopkins.
14:36And Wilson loved college so much,
14:38he never wanted to leave.
14:39Cuz he went on to become a professor
14:41and president of Princeton University.
14:44Which was quite unusual for the time.
14:46Cuz in the late 1800s,
14:48only 2% of Americans stepped foot in a college classroom.
14:52And somehow,
14:53Warren G. Harding was one of them.
14:55He started in a one-room schoolhouse,
14:58attended Ohio Central College,
15:00and became one of the most popular kids on campus.
15:03But Harding wasn't much of a scholar.
15:05He was a great communicator
15:07who preferred giving speeches over reading books.
15:10In fact,
15:11some studies place Harding among the lowest IQ presidents.
15:15But hey,
15:16he was likable.
15:17And that counts for something.
15:18Right?
15:19Kinda like Calvin Coolidge,
15:21who graduated from Amherst College,
15:24winning awards for both oratory and debate.
15:27Which is ironic,
15:28given that he later became famous for not talking.
15:31Cuz Silent Cow read law,
15:33passed the bar,
15:34and had a respectable education.
15:36But because he was so quiet,
15:38people just assumed he didn't know the answers.
15:40So,
15:41modern historians rank him amongst the lowest IQ presidents as a result.
15:46Don't worry, Cow.
15:47You're more of a silent but deadly type.
15:49I like that about you.
15:50But let's take things up a notch with Herbert Hoover,
15:54who became one of America's earliest STEM millionaires.
15:57Cuz Hoover enrolled in Stanford University's very first class
16:01and earned a BS in geology.
16:04But after college,
16:05he became a world-class mining engineer,
16:08traveling the globe,
16:09speaking multiple languages,
16:10and becoming a self-made millionaire
16:12all before entering politics.
16:14Hoover was one of the few presidents
16:16who turned his education
16:18into massive real-world success.
16:20Unlike Franklin Roosevelt,
16:22who took the classic East Coast elite route.
16:25Cuz he attended the prestigious Groton School,
16:28Harvard College,
16:29and then Columbia Law School,
16:31before dropping out
16:32because he thought it was too boring.
16:34Psst, sir, wake up!
16:36The professor's coming!
16:37But even after dropping out,
16:39FDR passed the bar and practiced law.
16:42He wasn't an academic like Wilson,
16:44but more of a brilliant political mind.
16:46A master of building coalitions,
16:48managing egos,
16:49and sensing the public mood.
16:51Some things you just can't teach in the classroom.
16:54And Harry Truman could absolutely relate.
16:57Cuz he briefly attended two business colleges in Kansas City
17:01before dropping out to work on his parents' farm.
17:04You see, Truman didn't need school.
17:06He just taught himself.
17:08Before 14 years old,
17:10little Truman read every book in the local library,
17:12practiced piano for two hours every day,
17:15and had a near-photographic memory.
17:18Not bad for a kid from rural Missouri!
17:21On the other hand,
17:22Dwight Eisenhower went to the United States Military Academy
17:25and graduated from the famous Class from the Stars,
17:29a class that produced a freakishly high number of future generals.
17:33What's up, boys?
17:33We hittin' the weights later?
17:35Anyway, there he studied engineering,
17:38math, and military tactics,
17:39finishing 61st out of 164 cadets.
17:43So, middle of the pack.
17:45Cuz, hey,
17:45Eisenhower preferred solving problems on the battlefield.
17:48But up next,
17:49John F. Kennedy was truly one-of-a-kind.
17:52Cuz he graduated from Harvard,
17:55wrote a senior thesis so good,
17:57it was published as a book,
17:58and was a full-on speed reader,
18:00cruising through 1,200 words a minute,
18:03more than three times the average adult rate.
18:05But what really set JFK apart was his combo of brains,
18:10charm,
18:10and charisma.
18:11I mean,
18:12just look how handsome he is.
18:14Um,
18:15I mean,
18:15looking good today, sir.
18:17Mighty fine weather we're having.
18:18Meanwhile,
18:19Lyndon Johnson graduated from Texas State University,
18:22and then took night classes at Georgetown Law,
18:25but never graduated.
18:26Instead,
18:27LBJ had an extremely high emotional intelligence.
18:31He could walk into a room of a hundred senators,
18:34and instantly know who was angry,
18:36scared,
18:36or drunk.
18:37And once he found your weakness,
18:39he would push that pressure point
18:41until he got what he wanted.
18:42Kinda like Richard Nixon,
18:44who graduated from Whittier College
18:46and Duke University School of Law.
18:48He was disciplined,
18:50relentless,
18:50and a legitimately talented musician.
18:53Cuz he could play piano,
18:54violin,
18:55saxophone,
18:56clarinet,
18:57and accordion.
18:58He even composed his own piece,
19:01which he played with the National Symphony Orchestra.
19:04Sir,
19:04I feel like no one sees your soft side enough.
19:06But while some presidents were in the band,
19:09others were on the football team.
19:11Cuz Gerald Ford went to the University of Michigan,
19:14and was a star football player,
19:16captain,
19:16and led the Wolverines to two national championships.
19:20Afterwards,
19:21he attended Yale Law School,
19:23and even coached Yale's football team on the side.
19:25Sir,
19:26I'm open!
19:27I'm open!
19:31But while Ford was an all-American student-athlete,
19:34Jimmy Carter attended Georgia Southwestern College
19:37and Georgia Tech,
19:39and then earned an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy,
19:42where he studied engineering and naval science
19:44until graduating 59th out of 820.
19:48But Carter really kicked into overdrive after graduation,
19:52cuz he became a submariner
19:54and trained in the Navy's elite nuclear propulsion program,
19:57one of the most demanding technical tracks in the U.S. military.
20:01Sheesh,
20:02this stuff is hard.
20:03I'm gonna go work on something a bit easier
20:05with my boy Ronald Reagan.
20:07Cuz Reagan graduated from Eureka College
20:10with a degree in economics and sociology.
20:12He played football,
20:14led student protest,
20:15and earned a reputation as a decent student.
20:18Ah,
20:19this is a lot more my speed, sir.
20:21But even though Reagan went on to become a Hollywood actor,
20:25he was also a voracious reader,
20:27crushing books every morning and every night.
20:30Meanwhile,
20:31George H.W. Bush served as a Navy pilot in World War II
20:34before attending Yale.
20:36He was sharp,
20:37disciplined,
20:37and developed into one of the smartest foreign policy presidents
20:40in U.S. history.
20:42I mean,
20:43his resume before becoming president
20:45was just insane.
20:46But speaking of impressive resumes,
20:49check out Bill Clinton's background.
20:51He graduated from Georgetown University as class president,
20:55won the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship
20:57and went on to Oxford University,
20:59then earned his law degree from Yale
21:01where he was a standout student.
21:03And like many other U.S. presidents,
21:06Clinton was a voracious reader
21:07and had a near photographic memory.
21:10Sir,
21:10I've been rereading the same sentence for the past 20 minutes.
21:13Can you help me out?
21:15anyways,
21:15like his father,
21:16George W. Bush graduated from Yale University
21:19and later got an MBA from Harvard Business School.
21:23And yeah,
21:23he might not have been the sharpest tool in the shed,
21:26but he had the credentials and name recognition
21:28to find himself in the most powerful position
21:30in the history of the world.
21:32Sir,
21:32I don't know if you're paying attention earlier.
21:34Just don't press the red button,
21:36okay?
21:36On the flip side,
21:37Barack Obama began his college days at Occidental College
21:40before transferring to Columbia
21:42to get a degree in political science.
21:44And afterwards,
21:46he enrolled at Harvard Law School,
21:48became the first African-American president
21:50of the Harvard Law Review,
21:51and graduated magna cum laude.
21:53Pretty impressive, sir.
21:55Yet it was Obama's smarts,
21:57combined with his natural public speaking skills,
21:59that really launched him into the White House.
22:02Kinda like Donald Trump,
22:03because he attended Fordham University for two years
22:06before transferring to the Wharton School at UPenn,
22:09where he graduated with a degree in economics.
22:12And sure,
22:13his grades were average,
22:14but Trump would never admit that,
22:16because his real strengths
22:17showed up in the business world,
22:19where he had a strong name-face memory,
22:22elite marketing instincts,
22:23and even his critics acknowledge
22:25very high social intelligence.
22:27Trump could improv with reporters,
22:29verbally spar with opponents,
22:31and work a crowd like a stand-up comedian.
22:34In fact,
22:35one of his jokes aimed at the next president's education.
22:38Cause Joe Biden graduated in the bottom 25% of his class
22:42at the University of Delaware,
22:44and then in the bottom 12% of his class at Syracuse Law.
22:48But hey,
22:49Biden's pretty open about his mediocre performance,
22:52chalking it up to partying,
22:53playing sports,
22:54and cramming for tests at the last minute.
22:57Isn't that what most of us did in college anyway?
22:59You're just like us, sir.
23:01But speaking of doing the job with a hangover,
23:03this is every U.S. president's favorite drink.
23:06From showing up hammered at inauguration,
23:08to installing a secret Diet Coke button in the Oval Office,
23:12to pre-gaming cabinet meetings with Orange Gatorade.
23:15These beverages are so crazy,
23:17you'll be wondering how anyone did their job sober.
23:20Except me,
23:21cause I'm always sober,
23:22professional,
23:23and definitely not hiding a flask in my jacket.
23:26But if anyone asks,
23:27it's just Red Bull.
23:28So click this video and keep watching.
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