Friday, September 5, 2008
In America, most people attend and graduate from one college. The exception is beginning at a two-year college and then transferring to university. The latter option can be a smart economic alternative to four years at a university.
But according to the Los Angeles Times, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, inexplicably attended five colleges in six years before finally graduating in 1987.
The schools included: Hawaii Pacific University, North Idaho College, the University of Idaho, Matanuska-Susitna College and then University of Idaho again.
Due to Federal privacy laws prohibit the schools from disclosing her grades, none of the schools contacted by the Associated Press could say why she transferred. Even stranger, there was no indication any were contacted as part of the vetting process of Palin by presidential candidate John McCain’s campaign.
From the Left 
I wonder if she was kicked out of the school? This could explain her peripatetic college behavior.
I can fathom why you wouldn’t stay in Hawaii?
Preferring the brown, bareness of Idaho to Hawaii just strikes me as peculiar. But then again, everything about this woman strikes me as peculiar.
I didn’t know she was in the military.
Seriously, I know she wasn’t, but that’s the only reasonable explanation for such “college hopping” – being forced to change schools every few years due to military moves.
But five colleges in six years is excessive, even for a veteran.
McCandy was no veteran.
Maybe she dug guys in uniforms but she was no veteran. Maybe they tossed her skank ass out for being busted one too many times for wall humping during school hours?
I found getting into university to be challenging and competitive. I was urged to apply to at least 4 colleges so if my first choice rejected my college application, I would have a couple of back ups. In fact, this is precisely what happened, so I don’t understand attending so many schools in so many different states. Odd, to say the least.
As the Sarah Palin world turns…..
As I was drinking my coffee, trying to wake up and scanning through the threads, I though this one said “Sarah Palin is a Grasshopper!”
Oh well! I really can’t imagine putting yourself through this amount of upheaval as a student. Plus the expense involved with flying to and from Hawaii, renting apartments, college application fees, moving books and furniture.
Maybe she was running from something?
Maybe she was running from something?
Herself, perhaps?
Hey, am I alone in thinking Palin looks a lot like those transvestites you see on the Discovery TV programs?
I know she has a boatload of kids but I’m just saying.
If I saw her on the street I would she was a man cross-dressing.
I understand the fascination with her college records but what I want to see is the birth records.
There’s something just ain’t copacetic with the infant, Trig or Trigger, or whatever they named him.
I just think Miss Thang is lying.
She reminds me of Roseanne Barr after she got all the plastic surgery done and lost weight and wore makeup.
Even that nasally, sarcastic voice of reminiscent of the character she played, Roseanne Connor, who was really just another side of her personality.
She does look like Roseanne!
I hadn’t thought of it. Too funny. A radical, rightwing Roseanne. Hey, has anyone seen or heard from Hillary?
She seems to be staying on the sidelines hoping Obama fails.
Hillary is marching down to Florida to campaign for Obama.
Sarah Palin continues to be vetted by everyone else because those that were supposed to didn’t so they should stop whining and deal with it. What troubles me is the opinions of those who have worked closely with or for her or knew her in the past that keep remarking how difficult she can be and not open to discussions or others inputs…perhaps she went through so many schools because she is an iron maiden without an open mind.
dang how she ever get any credits to graduate
Sounds like she had to keep transferring to find a college that would actually give her a degree.
She really was sleeping…..hm, er, I mean,…. studying around.
It certainly raises eyebrows, doesn’t it?
I suspect academic problems are the reason, but I can’t prove it. Perhaps some of her erstwhile classmates will step forward.
This is why I was surprised when everyone praised her speech at the RNC. She didn’t write a single word of it. Marc Scully wrote it, didn’t he? He also wrote most of the Bush speeches. At least we need to give Palin credit for her delivery. However, I believe people are afraid to criticize her too much, because you’ll be attacking the mother of a special needs child and a pregnant teenager. She hasn’t met with the press yet, which bothers me. At first I was shocked, but now I think McCain knew what he was doing, since he only gave America 2 months to learn about an unknown. (and look how far people have to travel to get to Alaska! lol)
Hawaii! Why, that’s that strange, exotic, alien, THREATENING place described by Cokie Roberts!
You should really drop by and have a look at our latest offering. Family values indeed!
I was a fuck up in high school so college was nearly beyond my grasp. I had to take summer school classes to catch up and qualify for admission to a state university. I was so relieved to be admitted. I can’t imagine upsetting the apple cart 6 times after I started. Too stressful for me.
At least Sarah Palin graduated from college without getting an affirmative action degree like Obama.
Connie, you racist little devil you. Barack Obama didn’t get into Harvard via Affirmative Action — I know, it’s an eye-opener to racists like you that some Black people get into college without the help of Affirmative Action, but you really should try to get your facts right. Maybe you were thinking of Clarence Thomas? But then, all Black people look the same to y’all, isn’t that right?
And this woman is expected to hold an actual conversation with the likes of Angela Merkel? Seriously?
This woman is an idiot. I don’t want her anywhere near the White House.
The comments are long on speculation and light on facts, eh? Everyone has got their own little Rorschach* card which they’re projecting their own evil onto.
I think it’s unusual to go to so many colleges. I also think it’s unusual to transfer from Oxy to Columbia, but I don’t speculate on why Obama did that.
Randy Arroyo, you have no basis for your statement that Obama was not an affirmative action acceptance at Harvard (or Oxy, or Columbia, for that matter). He could have been, and in a technical sense he had to be. Minority students are evaluated by different standards and his acceptance was conditioned on those, not general standards. Whether he would have been accepted under general standards is unknown. I will note that his SAT’s and LSAT’s have never been released (unlike GW Bush).
*Gov Palin would be Card VI. Inside joke.
Please don’t go there with the whole “at least Sarah Palin didn’t get affirmative action like Obama”. If anyone has benefitted from affirmative action it’s George W. Bush. Do you think W. got into and graduated from Yale and Harvard on his own merits? Please. He got in and was able to stay in thanks to Daddy and Grandaddy’s connections. And shall we talk about the fact that he was able to make it to the Whitehouse despite the fact that every single business he has touched, he has run to the ground? There’s a record to run on. Not to mention the fact that he left in total shambles the state he governed and now the country. But that’s okay because he’s always got powerful connections to clean the mess he’s left behind. THAT’s benefitting from affirmative action. It’s called “the old boys network”. So please don’t insult someone who actually has a brain in his head and was able to get through college on his own merit.
Bush likely did benefit from being a legacy admission. He did, however, graduate in a period when grades were not guaranteed on the basis of legacy, and went on to complete graduate school there. His IQ is about 125-126, about 95th percentile, and his SAT’s were only about 20 points below the average for entering freshmen that year.
I doubt that Obama is stupid, but there is simply no objective evidence that he has intelligence much above the average. People sense that he is intelligent, but such “sensings” are colored by social factors too much to be of much use.
I am not going to bother to respond to your other opinions about how awful Bush is. You have to handle simple matters before going on to more complicated ones.
I attended four colleges in nine years to get my engineering degree, though all but about 30 credits were at one university. Perhaps Sarah Barracuda decided to attend summer school at different universities. I don’t see what the uproar is about.
BTW, my SATs were above those of Dubya and Gore. Because BH “never attended a publicly funded educational institution” Obama hasn’t released his SATs, nor has JF “what a doofus Dubya is even though his grades at Yale were higher than mine” Kerry, I don’t know how I compare to them. Democrats are oh so much smarter than Republicans, but they appear less willing to release SATs and grades. I wonder why.
In this discussion of Obama and “affirmative action”, please note that his Juris Doctor degree from Harvard was “Summa cum Laude”, so he clearly was able to graduate with very high grades.
Also, he was head of the Harvard Law Review,
in charge of 200 law editors.
Finally, he taught constitutional law at the prestigious University of Chicago for 16 years.
So even if he got in to Columbia and Harvard due to “affirmative action” (which I seriously doubt),
his success at these institutions validates his intellectual standing.
Contrast this with Sarah Palin, with undergraduate experience at 6 third-rate colleges.
Not the academic background I’d want for a possible future president of the USA!
Bet it has to do with beauty pageants. Probably hopping from school to school in the hopes of winning an “entry” pageant to qualify her for the always prestigious Miss Idaho.
Connie, “an affirmative action degree like Obama”??
You must have a few screws loose. He was PRESIDENT of the HARVARD Law Society, not a community college grasshopper like Bimbo Palin.
I can’t wait until Biden shows up her stupidity in the debate this week.
I went to 5 different schools as an undergrad FT. I then went on to grad school and a career in medicine. I can’t speak to Gov. Palin experiences, but money, course availability and sheer desire to get the hell out of dodge can all play a roll.
To assistant village idiot: I’m SENSING you are either a sorry racist bastard or just a sorry ass Rove lacky. “there is simply no objective evidence that he has intelligence much above the average.” Right.No objective evidence with his grades or any of that stuff he was given because he was black. Oh, by the way, how many colleges did pretzldent genius apply to? Was he ever rejected?
Right. Um, yeah, I’m thinking it’s likely Bush DID benefit from affirmative legacy action-5th generation?
I’m so glad we have a president who mastered simple matters-like “nu-q-ular” before going on to such complex issues as Iraq and bailing-out Wall Street.
Fuck you very much village dumbass.
She’s completely unqualified. Anyone who doesn’t see through her yet is just plain stupid. She will also step all over McCain who is smitten with her and she will be running the show. She’s clueless about what’s going on in the world. Please VOTE everyone…early or on Nov. 4 and send her back to Alaska…and McCain back to the senate floor for retirement.
also…on the Obama stuff…one only has to listen to him to know he’s highly intelligent. I can’t believe anyone would even say affirmative action. Must be in your bag of what to say if nothing else can be said. He is absolutley correct that the terrorists are in Afganistan NOT Iraq. We are spending 10 billion a month in Iraq and nothing in Afganistan. Meanwhile the terrorists get stronger. That’s called being DUMB. If you want safety and stability send a man who understands logic to the White House.
LOL! Democrats are grasping at straws and running scared! They have to turn to SNL and gossip coumns to try to slam Sarah Palin and still don’t succeed. I am also mystified as to why you feel her venacular is to home spun when the commenters here use wuality words such as “skank” and “Bimbo”. Furthermore she is qualified for VP. John McCain’s experience and policies make him much more qualified for president than Obama. Just for fun folks-why don;t you “google” Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and top political contributions. Maybe that will be your wake up call. Go on-I dare you…..
Sherry I am sure you are as qualified as Palin to run for VP.
Palin and you need to know that a JACKASS does not run in a HORSE race.
She needs to pack up and go back to Alaska to take care of her constituents and family. She also need to visit the the outer islands in Alaska that she is in charge of.
SHE MAKES ME SICK!
As a white woman she does not represent me at all.
I must say, that even though Palin’s college credentials or lack there of, is not even her biggest flaw. Even though, once upon a time our presidential candidates needed intelligence, answers for questions asked of them, and a knowledge of the issues going on in the world.
However, more importantly the famed and beloved Palin once belonged to a society that’s main goal was the secession of Alaska from the United States. Now they proceed to call out the people hanging around with Barrack O’bama or those who endorse him; which he has no control over. In addition, the acclaimed terrorist turned himself in and paid his debt to society and now has done nothing but advocate the betterment of the U.S. culture. Also, maybe you should think about the things he saw wrong with the United States,(and by all means I love this country, but we are far, far from perfect.) Is it possible that maybe, just maybe he thinks Barrack can put us on a path, to regaining our once respected, once exalted position in the world. So for the Nay-Sayers of Barrack O’bama and Joe Biden, we don’t only have to call out Palin’s college career. Your man MCCAIN, graduated 5th from the bottom of the naval academy; huh, probably explains why he got caught.
Sherry – If you Goggle Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and donations, you get Rick Davis. Palin is qualified to run for national office, she’s just not qualified to win. Since when did the Founding Fathers turn over the country to anti-intellectuals? If they were the smartest men (unfortunately no women included) in the colonies, why would they intend that a “Joe Six-pack” – type would lead the country 232 years later? No, they wouldn’t and no, we won’t. Desperate describes McCain, as his personal, dishonorable, and cowardly attacks on Obama prove. Palin is just a whore for verbal sewage and the Alaskan terrorist secessionist group. Goggle that.
Thank you, Jay, for your on the mark response to The Village Idiot(who really is)- oh– sorry– the Assistant Idiot of the village- hypothesizing that Obama was an affirmative action acceptance. Besides- he stands on his own merits. Ask Colin Powell- another man with integrity whose opinion and recent endorsement I regard highly.
Oh- and Assistant Village Idiot– definity a Limbaugh lacky.
Sherry- you’re a lost lamb– being pushed toward the cliff by a bunch of lost sheep being herded by a desperate, confused, washed up man (who I won’t deny sacrificed his freedom for our Country as a POW- which in no way is an entitlement to the Presidency) and his hapless “Washington Outsider” brought into the folds by the “Washington Insiders”.
Save yourself…
fuck lol
I believe McCain is so insecure that he (disregarding the welfare of the people of this once great country) couldn’t bring someone in on the ticket smarter than him. He had to dig deep. Always better to play tennis with someone better than you.
While the men of this election have been up front with their biographies, education and medical records, it is evident that Mrs. Palin has something to hide.
Her educational and medical history should be confirmed and brought forth, before the Republicans have yet more explaining to do.
Come on Sarah, fess up!
Obama didn’t graduate with honors from Columbia, so he likely was an affirmative action admit to Harvard Law School. (He also had an alumni connection to Harvard, because his father I don’t see any big problem with Sarah Palin attending four (not five) colleges before she graduated. She explains in her book that she had to leave school periodically to make money to afford tuition. What difference does it make as long as she got a degree?
One of the reasons that explains moving from one college to another is that if your GPA is so low that a student is asked repeat, a course(she took 5 years as a full time student-sounds like low GPA to me), under 1980’s rules, she could leave a college where she was failing, take good credits to the next college that took her check, and keep moving downhill, academically.(It is harder to do if one is a Pell recipient as Grant money has always been tied to performance , at least a 2.0 level then, I believe.
Students were routinely given the benefit of the doubt and allowed to reinsert themselves into college and continue as a student as if nothing happened.
However, I don’t understand why her GPA from various schools has not been discovered. In many colleges in the the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s,(certainly in in NY state’s and NYC’s CUNY system), SS numbers were used as ID numbers. There was no widespread credit card stealing and fraud then,(the Internet was still the playthiung of DARPA and ARPA), and SS numbers were not used as legally binding ID, as US government law stipulates.
Find out her ID numbers and enter them in the college’s central computer and the records ought to be right there.
Besides, in those days, almost ALL college grades were also made public, attached to ID numbers.
My own experience in college is that they will often forgive a false start in the interest of aiding a student who may have needed extra time to mature.
In fact, the whole scheme for abandoning bad credits,(from failed classes, which can hold down a GPA, was explained to me by the head professor of my college history department( who later, when I did well offered me a shot at free graduate education and part time work at a mid Western University-like discovering gold!- because, after two false starts at college, I got on the Dean’s List and stayed there. But I was afraid my old, 1970’s bad credits were holding me back.
He told me I ought to have returned to college at a different school where I could have dropped my old credits and started fresh.
I think this is something like what what Palin did, and with great success. She IS a politician, after all.
most community college offers a good educational standard at par with the ivy league schools;“