Trump the extremely stable genius? Former admissions officer reveals how president got into Ivy League school
'I certainly was not struck by any sense that I’m sitting before a genius,' says former admissions officer who met with future-president
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has called himself an “extremely stable genius” over the years, pointing to his Ivy League education from Pennsylvania’s Wharton School for businesses as an example of the “super genius stuff” he claims to be capable of achieving.
However, a new report featuring insight from the school’s former admissions officer who met Mr Trump during his application process has shed new light on just how easy it was for the president to get into the university in the 1960s.
James Nolan, the former admissions officer who reportedly was the only official from his department to meet with Mr Trump during the admissions process, said he was not significantly impressed by the future president when the pair met at the time.
"I certainly was not struck by any sense that I’m sitting before a genius," Mr Nolan said in a Washington Post report published on Tuesday. "Certainly not a super genius."
Mr Nolan described Mr Trump’s process of getting into the university as “not very difficult” while noting the majority of applicants were accepted to Wharton at the time (the school now boasts a 7.4 per cent admissions rate).
He said Mr Trump’s older brother, Fred Trump Jr, called his phone in 1966 and requested an interview for his brother.
“He called me and said, ‘You remember my brother Donald?’ Which I didn’t,” Mr Nolan said. “He said, ‘He’s at Fordham and he would like to transfer to Wharton. Will you interview him?’ I was happy to do that.”
Mr Trump reportedly brought his father along to the admissions interview, who then attempted to “ingratiate” himself with Mr Nolan. Mr Nolan’s boss would make the ultimate decision in determining whether to accept Mr Trump into the university.
The former admissions officer told Washington Post that while he could not remember the admissions rating he gave the president, “It must have been decent enough to support his candidacy.”
The interview contradicts numerous past claims made by Mr Trump regarding his own acceptance to the Ivy League university, along with other claims that Wharton was “the hardest school to get into” at the time.
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