Why did Donald Trump leave Fordham and transfer to Penn—was it academic, personal, or family reasons?
Executive summary
Donald Trump attended Fordham University from 1964–1966 and then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, graduating in 1968; reporting and biographical sources attribute the move to seeking a larger business network and a more prestigious business education rather than a single academic failure or a publicly announced personal crisis [1] [2]. Contemporary classmates remembered his departure as unannounced and unremarkable, while later accounts and biographers emphasize family influence and networking opportunities as key reasons for the transfer [3] [4].
1. Transfer described by contemporaries: quiet and unremarked
Classmates who went to Fordham with Trump recall that he left without fanfare and did not tell many people he was transferring to Penn; their memory is of a student more focused on other matters than socializing, and his exit was “unannounced and unremarkable,” suggesting no widely visible personal crisis at the time [3]. Fordham coverage likewise frames the move as a fairly ordinary transfer—students speculated it was simply “not the right fit” rather than the result of academic failure or scandal [5].
2. Trump’s own and biographers’ account: seeking larger business network and prestige
Biographical summaries and Trump’s own statements indicate he transferred to Wharton to “test” himself and to access a larger business network and an institution favored by his father; the Wikipedia summary and other profiles explicitly say he transferred “seeking a larger business network” and because Wharton was preferred by his family [1] [2]. Trump wrote about testing himself against a more prestigious program in his book The Art of the Deal, and later biographers emphasize Wharton’s specialized business curriculum and reputation as motivating factors [4] [6].
3. Family connections and admissions help: an often-cited facilitator
Several accounts report that family ties helped secure an interview or entry to Penn: Gwenda Blair and contemporaneous interviews suggest Fred Trump Sr. used social connections, and one admissions interviewer remembered being contacted by a friend of the family to meet the younger Trump, implying familial influence played a facilitating role in the transfer [4] [7]. Reporting in The Week recounts the anecdote that Fred Trump Sr. accompanied his son to an interview and sought to “ingratiate” himself with the admissions contact [7].
4. Academic performance: not portrayed as a failure in available sources
Available reporting notes Trump had about a “high B average” at Fordham and does not portray academic deficiency as the reason for his transfer; sources report he left Fordham with satisfactory grades and that transfers into Wharton were feasible for students with acceptable records [4]. Neither Fordham contemporaries nor the cited profiles explicitly state academic problems prompted the move [5] [3] [4].
5. Draft deferments and the broader context of the 1960s
Trump’s college enrollment allowed him to defer the Vietnam draft, a fact reported across profiles; while draft deferment was common for students at the time, the sources do not link draft status as a stated reason he switched schools, but they place his college years in the era when deferment was an important practical consideration for young men [3] [1] [8].
6. Competing narratives and limitations in the record
There are competing emphases in the sources: contemporaries emphasize the transfer was quiet and routine [3], while later profiles and biographers stress ambition, prestige-seeking, and family connections [4] [7] [1]. Available sources do not mention an explicit personal crisis, disciplinary action, or documented academic suspension as reasons for the move; they also do not provide a single, contemporaneous statement from Trump explaining the precise calculus beyond general ambition [5] [3] [4].
7. What we can reasonably conclude
Based on the cited reporting, the transfer appears driven by career and network considerations — Wharton’s reputation and family preference — with family connections easing admission; classmates’ recollections and grade reports do not support a narrative of academic failure or a dramatic personal reason at Fordham [4] [7] [3] [1]. Any stronger claim (for example, that draft avoidance, specific admissions backchanneling, or private family pressure were the decisive motive) is not definitively documented in the supplied sources and therefore is not stated as fact here (not found in current reporting).
If you want, I can assemble the specific quotes and dates from each source side-by-side to show exactly where reporters and biographers agree and diverge.