What primary documents exist about Donald Trump’s academic record at the University of Pennsylvania and where can they be accessed?

1. Graduation confirmation and degree listing: the baseline primary fact

The clearest primary record publicly acknowledged is that Trump graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in May 1968 with a Bachelor of Science in economics; this is the fact routinely reported in encyclopedic and news sources citing Penn’s records. ^{[1] [5]} The university has historically declined to release detailed academic records beyond confirming graduation, which is the starting point for any inquiry into honors or class rank. ^[3]

2. Commencement programs and published honors lists: what researchers have used as evidence of omission

Investigative reporters who have searched campus archives point to the 1968 commencement program and other contemporaneous lists of students receiving honors as primary-source artifacts; Donald Trump’s name does not appear on Wharton’s published list of honors for that year, a negative but documentable piece of evidence that reporters have used to challenge Trump’s claims of graduating “first in his class.” ^[2] The Daily Pennsylvanian, the student newspaper, and commencement materials are primary documents that can be consulted to verify who was publicly listed for honors in 1968. ^{[3] [2]}

3. Dean’s List and student newspaper archives: primary-source absence as proof by omission

Multiple investigations report that Trump’s name is missing from the Dean’s List and other campus-published academic honor rolls for 1968; those omissions are concrete, contemporaneous primary-source data points that journalists and historians can inspect in Penn’s archive or the newspaper’s archives. ^{[2] [6]} Reporters treating absence in these public lists as evidence have emphasized that such “proof by omission” is an imperfect but important primary-document trail when official transcripts are inaccessible. ^[2]

4. Transcripts and personnel/admissions files: the unreleased primary records

The single most definitive primary document for a student’s grades and honors is the official transcript; however, federal privacy protections and university policy prevent release of transcripts to third parties without the student’s written authorization, which means those primary records are not publicly accessible unless Trump or his estate permits disclosure. ^[4] News outlets cite that Penn will only confirm graduation and will not release grades or class rank—so researchers are blocked from seeing the primary documents that would settle disputes over class standing. ^{[3] [4]}

5. Secondary corroboration, contested claims, and limits of the public record

Secondary sources—biographies, profiles and retrospective reporting—rely on the mix of the confirmed degree, the commencement program, student newspaper lists, and recollections from former professors or classmates; for example, long-serving faculty recollections and later reporting assert Trump did not graduate with academic distinction, but those are not substitutes for an official transcript. ^{[7] [2]} The public record therefore combines verifiable primary public documents and notable absences, while the decisive primary-file documents remain sealed by privacy rules unless released by Trump. ^{[2] [4]}

6. Where to go to see the available primary materials

Researchers can consult the University of Pennsylvania archives and library collections for 1968 commencement programs and back issues of the Daily Pennsylvanian—documents that reporters have already cited as primary sources—and contemporary press coverage archived in news databases; mainstream outlets reporting on these materials include PennLive and Philadelphia magazine, which reproduce and interpret those primary documents. ^{[3] [2]} To obtain transcripts or sealed administrative records would require the subject’s permission or an extraordinary legal process; reporting notes that Penn and the College Board have refused to release such materials without authorization. ^[4]