Trump loves to put his name on hotels and skyscrapers, but no buildings bear his name at the University of Pennsylvania, where Wharton is located. School officials don’t like to talk about him, though he’s one of their most famous alumni. A pro-Trump student group has shut itself down, and student Republicans say he’s an embarrassment. Even the Penn bookstore, where tables are piled high with works by alumni, had just one copy of Trump’s best-seller from the 1980s, “The Art of the Deal,” on a shelf in the back.
Trump sent two of his children, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, to Wharton, and his daughter Tiffany graduates in May from Penn’s College of Arts and Sciences. Yet in “The Art of the Deal,” Trump said fancy diplomas don’t matter: “Perhaps the most important thing I learned at Wharton was not to be overly impressed by academic credentials ... That degree doesn’t prove very much.”
And if you assumed his degree was an MBA, you’d be wrong. Trump holds a bachelor of science degree in economics from Wharton, earned after transferring in as a junior from Fordham University. Several early Trump profiles, including a 1973 New York Times piece, stated that he graduated first in his class at Wharton, but that has since been disputed.
A 1968 commencement program does not list his name among students who graduated with honors.
Trump and Wharton: A complicated relationship
