| PRESIDENT | SCHOOL |
| 1789-97 | George Washington | Formal education ended at age 15. No tertiary education but was mentored by older half-brother, Lawrence.1 |
| 1797-1801 | John Adams | Harvard-educated lawyer2 |
| 1801-09 | Thomas Jefferson | studied at the College of William and Mary3 |
| 1809-17 | James Madison | attended Princeton (then called the College of New Jersey).4 |
| 1817-25 | James Monroe | College of William and Mary5 |
| 1825-29 | John Quincy Adams | Harvard College6 |
| 1829-37 | Andrew Jackson | received sporadic education7 |
| 1837-41 | Martin Van Buren | attended the village schools; studied law; admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Kinderhook, N.Y., in 18038 |
| 1841 | William Henry Harrison | Hampden-Sydney College9 |
| 1841-45 | John Tyler | College of William and Mary10 |
| 1845-49 | James K. Polk | University of North Carolina11 |
| 1849-50 | Zachary Taylor | No formal education12 |
| 1850-53 | Millard Fillmore | No formal education13 |
| 1853-57 | Pierce, Franklin | Bowdoin College14 |
| 1857-61 | Buchanan, James | Dickinson College15 |
| 1861-65 | Lincoln, Abraham | self-educated16 |
| 1865-69 | Johnson, Andrew | wife, Eliza McCardle, educated Andrew17 |
| 1869-77 | Grant, Ulysses S. | West Point18 |
| 1877-81 | Hayes, Rutherford B. | Kenyon College and Harvard Law School.19 |
| 1881 | Garfield, James | Williams College20 |
| 1881-85 | Arthur, Chester | Union College21 |
| 1885-89 | Cleveland, Grover | No college22 |
| 1889-93 | Harrison, Benjamin | Miami University23 |
| 1893-97 | Cleveland, Grover | No college24 |
| 1897-1901 | McKinley, William | Allegheny College25 |
| 1901-09 | Roosevelt, Theodore | Harvard; Columbia University's School of Law26 |
| 1909-13 | Taft, William H. | Yale27 |
| 1913-21 | Wilson, Woodrow | from Princeton (then the College of New Jersey) and the University of Virginia Law School.28 |
| 1921-23 | Harding, Warren | Ohio Central College29 |
| 1923-29 | Coolidge, Calvin | Amherst College with honors30 |
| 1929-33 | Hoover, Herbert | Stanford University31 |
| 1933-45 | Roosevelt, Franklin D. | Harvard University and Columbia Law School.32 |
| 1945-53 | Truman, Harry | Kansas City (Mo.) Law School33 |
| 1953-61 | Eisenhower, Dwight | West Point34 |
| 1961-63 | Kennedy, John F. | Harvard35 |
| 1963-69 | Johnson, Lyndon | Southwest Texas State Teachers College (now known as Texas State University-San Marcos)36 |
| 1969-74 | Nixon, Richard | Whittier College and Duke University Law School37 |
| 1974-77 | Ford, Gerald | University of Michigan38 |
| 1977-81 | Carter, Jimmy | Naval Academy39 |
| 1981-89 | Reagan, Ronald | Eureka College40 |
| 1989-93 | Bush, George H.W. | Phillips Academy41 |
| 1993-2001 | Clinton, William J. | Georgetown University42 |
| 2001-present | Bush, George W. | Yale University43 |
| President-elect | Obama, Barrack | Columbia University, Harvard University44 |