Want to Succeed in Politics? Here are the 10 Colleges You Should Consider

By Elena Novak on September 4, 2013

If you take a look at the U.S. Constitution’s requirements for presidents and congressmen, you won’t see a requirement for a college degree. Yet most prestigious politicians have at least an undergraduate degree, and they tend to flock to particular universities. What are these universities, and what factors drive future politicians’ migration to them?

In 2011, The Daily Beast put out a rankings list of 25 U.S. colleges offering the greatest chance of success based on the alma maters of current political leaders. Though the ranking was based solely on the number of presidents, state senators, and state representatives linked to each university, the list is a fair approximation of the country’s most politically magnetic universities. Here are the top ten.

10. Columbia University

Despite Columbia’s place on the list, the university can claim America’s current Commander-in-Chief as one of its notable alumni, along with President Dwight D. Eisenhower (who was also president of the university from 1948-1953) and, though he dropped out of Columbia Law School, President Theodore Roosevelt. A few of America’s Founding Fathers attended New York City’s prestigious university as well, including Alexander Hamilton and John Jay.

Photo by  allaboutuni2307 on flickr.com

9. George Washington University

Despite George Washington University’s convenient location in America’s political metropolis, it ranks a little lower on the rankings than you might expect. However, a few highly influential politicians cite GWU as their alma mater, such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

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8. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

UNC Chapel Hill can boast a multitude of political alumni, including America’s 11th president, James K. Polk. Frank Baumgartner, Distinguished Professor of Political Science at UNC Chapel Hill, feels the standing of the university as a Public Ivy. “If you want to be a politician in the state of Texas you want to go to UT. And if you want to develop your social network then you want to go to UNC Chapel Hill,” Baumgartner said, “I went to University of Michigan myself and I know that that’s the only game in town really if you’re an ambitious, smart, hardworking student; you want to go to that flagship university.” To Baumgartner, the public universities are mostly about the networking. “It’s the place where you make connections with other social elites in your state, so that helps in politics,” he said. “I don’t think it has anything to do with the type of training….We’re not training people to become elected officials.”

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7. University of Michigan

Gerald Ford was the presidential alumni of the University of Michigan, who named their School of Public Policy after him. Samuel Barnes, Professor Emeritus of the university’s Political Science department, attributes political magnetism to the strength of a university’s law school. “There are only a certain number of law schools in the country,” he said, though he believes every state might have at least one, “People who have political ambition in that state are very likely to go to the law school in that state. Michigan is one of the few law schools that gets people interested in law and politics and so on in a much broader sense.” He also has noted that “a very large percentage of politicians and people elected and people at the national level are lawyers.” Barnes also served on faculty for eleven years at Georgetown University, whose law school is comparably prestigious.

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6. University of Texas at Austin

Two professors at the University of Texas are particularly convinced of the university’s prowess at attracting budding politicians. Bruce Buchanan, a professor in the Department of Government, thinks “UT produces more than its share of politicians because the state of Texas was once an independent republic which formed a unique political culture. Since joining the U.S., Texas has been politically very influential at the national level. These things give young Texans at UT and other Texas colleges lots of high profile political models to emulate.”

Buchanan cites Colonel House, close adviser to President Woodrow Wilson, U.S. House Speaker Sam Rayburn, President LBJ, the Bush family, Dwight Eisenhower (who was born in Texas but raised elsewhere), and numerous current examples like Governor Ann Richards. Sean Theriault is an associate professor for UT’s Department of Government, and he believes UT attracts the politically ambitious for three reasons. “First, it’s big — nearly 50,000 students. Second, it’s the flagship school of a big state — indeed, the second most populated state in the country. Third, it’s in an exciting city — Austin usually is near the top of ‘America’s most innovative cities,’” he said.

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5. UCLA

UCLA’s location in California gives it leverage over other U.S. universities, especially as it is considered a Public Ivy, along with the other University of California satellites. Perhaps the most notable politician with a big media presence to come out of UCLA is Kirsten Gillibrand, U.S. Senator for New York.

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4. Stanford University

Bruce Cain, Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, has an honest assessment of the university’s background in producing politicians. “To date, only one Stanford grad has become President–Hoover. Stanford lists JFK, but that is not a serious claim as he did not not graduate from its business school,” he said. “Stanford has done very well in terms of U.S. Senate, Congress and House of Representatives. Partly, this is because as the most prominent private school in the West, they draw some of the best students from Western states in particular–hence Baucus, Bingamen, Romney (although not a grad), Scoop Jackson, Feinstein, Davis, etc. So the Ivies divy up the elite in the east, but Stanford has fewer private school competitors in the West.” Stanford also has high standards for its students, who must be well-rounded and successful in areas outside academics. “This over-achiever emphasis will attract a certain number of people determined and disciplined enough to run for office–e.g. Booker, Romney, etc.,” he said. He is unsure if Stanford will continue to provide America’s politicians, a number of whose students “are now computer science majors and under the seductive sway of the Silicon Valley.”

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3. Georgetown University

Like George Washington University, Georgetown has the advantage of being located in Washington, D.C. Georgetown gave us President Bill Clinton and Associate Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia among others. Professor of Political Theory, Joshua Mitchell, links Georgetown’s success to the curriculum, which “orients students to a life of service. It helps, too,” he said, “that our School of Foreign Service has a number of diplomats and State Department officers in its ranks. That shows our students what real life in the political ranks looks like.”

Photo by helmutgusztav on flickr.com

2. Yale University

Yale can boast a remarkable multitude of America’s politicians, such as Bush Jr. and Sr., Vice President Dick Cheney, President Bill Clinton (who earned his J.D. at Yale), President Gerald Ford, President William Howard Taft, and two Supreme Court justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Samuel Alito. Despite its success, it still lags behind Harvard, widely lauded as the mother of the majority of America’s political births.

Photo by  Sarah_Ackerman on flickr.com

1. Harvard University

Whether one agrees with the rankings of this list or not, most can agree that Harvard pumps out a significant amount of noteworthy individuals, including politicians. An astounding eight U.S. presidents earned a degree at Harvard: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Rutherford Hayes, John F. Kennedy, George W. Bush (MBA), Barack Obama (J.D.), Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. “Harvard attracts students with lots and lots of ambition,” said Professor of Political Philosophy Harvey Mansfield. “There are other universities that are more intellectual, though of course Harvard has great prestige in that regard…But Harvard gets and wants students with any kind of ambition and that means especially political.” Mansfield thinks politics is in the air at Harvard. “It’s the political atmosphere of Harvard. It wants to have an influence on politics,” he said.

Photo by  Patricia Drury on flickr.com

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