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Trump touts ‘super genius’ education at Wharton, but a former admissions officer saw it differently - The Boston Globe

posted onJuly 9, 2019
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Article snippet: PHILADELPHIA — James Nolan was working in the University of Pennsylvania’s admissions office in 1966 when he got a phone call from one of his closest friends, Fred Trump Jr. It was a plea to help Fred’s younger brother, Donald Trump, get into Penn’s Wharton School. ‘‘He called me and said, ‘You remember my brother Donald?’ Which I didn’t,’’ Nolan, 81, said in an interview. ‘‘He said, ‘He’s at Fordham and he would like to transfer to Wharton. Will you interview him?’ I was happy to do that.’’ Soon, Donald Trump arrived at Penn for the interview, accompanied by his father, Fred Trump Sr., who sought to ‘‘ingratiate’’ himself, Nolan said. Nolan, who said he was the only admissions official to talk to Trump, was required to give Trump a rating, and he recalled, ‘‘It must have been decent enough to support his candidacy.’’ For decades, Trump has cited his attendance at what was then called the Wharton School of Finance as evidence of his intellect. He has said he went to ‘‘the hardest school to get into, the best school in the world,’’ calling it ‘‘super genius stuff,’’ and, as recently as last month, pointed to his studies there as he awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to conservative economist Arthur Laffer. But Trump, who questioned the academic standing of President Obama, has never released records showing how he got into the school — or how he performed once he was there. And, until now, Nolan’s detailed account of Trump’s admission process has not been ... Link to the full article to read more

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