Did Donald Trump graduate with honors from the University of Pennsylvania after transferring from Fordham?
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Executive summary
Donald Trump transferred from Fordham to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and earned a Bachelor of Science in economics in May 1968 [1] [2]. Multiple contemporary and retrospective records — including the 1968 commencement program and Dean’s List published by The Daily Pennsylvanian — show his name does not appear among students graduated with honors or on the Dean’s List, contradicting his later claims of graduating “top of his class” or with honors [3] [4] [5].
1. The basic record: transfer, Wharton degree, year of graduation
Trump entered Fordham in 1964 and transferred to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania as a junior; Penn conferred upon him a Bachelor of Science in economics in 1968, as recorded in university and biographical profiles [2] [1]. These points are consistent across reporting and are the factual basis for later disputes about honors and ranking [1] [2].
2. The claim Trump made — and the documentary counter-evidence
For decades Trump and some profiles have stated he graduated near the top of his class or “first in his class,” but contemporaneous Penn materials undermine that. The 1968 commencement program lists students who graduated with honors — cum laude, magna cum laude, summa cum laude — and Trump’s name is absent; the university’s Dean’s List for the year, representing roughly the top 15 percent, does not include him either, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian’s reporting [4] [3].
3. Who has investigated this and what they found
Investigations and fact-checking by The Daily Pennsylvanian (Penn’s student newspaper), regional outlets such as PennLive, and specialty fact-check pieces have examined archived commencement programs and alumni recollections. Those pieces conclude he did not graduate with honors and was not listed among top students in 1968 [3] [5] [6]. Penn magazine and Philadelphia coverage have similarly noted the omission from honors lists, calling into question long-running narratives that he finished first in his class [4] [5].
4. Context on the origin of the “top of his class” narrative
The “first in his class” assertion appears in profiles dating back decades, including some national newspaper stories in the 1970s that conflated Wharton’s undergraduate program with its prestigious graduate MBA program or repeated anecdotal claims [4]. Alumni interviewed by student and local press remembered Trump as focused on weekend real-estate activity and not prominent on academic honor rolls, suggesting the boast has been self-promoted and amplified by secondary reporting rather than grounded in commencement records [5] [6].
5. What the university has said — and what it won’t disclose
A Penn spokesman has noted privacy limits on releasing individual academic records, but the archival commencement program and Dean’s List are public contemporaneous documents; those public items do not list Trump among honors graduates or on the Dean’s List [7] [3]. Available sources do not mention any university statement formally confirming or refuting Trump’s personal claims beyond pointing to the archival materials [7].
6. Competing interpretations and limits of the evidence
One interpretation is straightforward: public Penn records show no honors designation for Trump and no Dean’s List appearance, so claims of graduating with honors or “top” in his class are contradicted by contemporaneous lists [4] [3]. Another line of reporting notes that admissions and grade practices in the 1960s differed and that anecdotal accounts from classmates describe Trump as a transfer who spent weekends in New York, implying academic priorities shaped his record — but not providing documentary support that he earned honors [5] [6]. The evidence is strong that honors lists do not include him, but the university’s privacy rules mean full grade transcripts have not been publicly released [7].
7. Why this matters — and how it’s been used politically and journalistically
The discrepancy matters because academic claims have been part of a broader pattern in which Trump’s résumé and public statements have been scrutinized for accuracy; outlets and historians use the commencement program and Dean’s List as primary sources to check boasting about being “top” of his class [4] [5]. Journalists point to those archival lists to correct the record; some defenders emphasize he graduated from Wharton — a factual and notable accomplishment — while critics highlight the absence of honors to argue the “top student” narrative is exaggerated [1] [4].
Limitations: all claims above rely on the provided reporting and the cited archival materials; available sources do not include a full public transcript or an explicit contemporaneous university statement listing Trump’s GPA, nor do they show any honors designation for him in the 1968 public lists [7] [3].