Obama rejected by Swarthmore

dadx3
Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:49:02 +0000

It is not completely surprising that Barack Obama did not get admitted to Swarthmore in 1979. He was reportedly a B average student in high school who had let his grades slip in his junior and senior years. Although he was a member of a state championship basketball team, he was not a starter. Here’s how he was described in a NYTimes article:

“To his high school classmates, Barack Obama was a pleasant if undistinguished student, the guy who seemed happiest on the basketball court, the first to dive into the pumpkin carving at Halloween, the one whose oratorical prowess was largely limited to out-debating classmates over the relative qualities of point guards.”

Obama clearly became a more focused student in college and at Harvard Law, but as a 17 year old high school senior applying to college, his high school record as he and others describe it wasn’t one that foretold the great things that were to come. So I would not draw any conclusions at all about the chances for current high school seniors thinking about Swarthmore.

But it is a fun story anyway.