Joe Biden has been in the public eye for what feels like forever. Seriously. He was elected to the Senate before he was even technically old enough to take the seat. But before the silver hair and the Corvette and the presidency, he was just another guy trying to survive midterms and figure out his life. If you've ever wondered what college did joe biden go to, the answer isn't just a single campus. It’s a mix of a state university, a law school in New York, and a whole lot of "C" grades that he’s surprisingly open about now.
Honestly, his academic path wasn't exactly a straight line to the Ivy League. He didn't go to Harvard or Yale like a lot of his predecessors. Instead, Biden’s education is a very "Blue Collar Joe" story. It’s rooted in the University of Delaware and Syracuse University.
The Newark Years: University of Delaware
In the fall of 1961, Biden pulled up to the University of Delaware in Newark. He wasn't there to be a scholar, at least not at first. He was there to play football and, well, be "Joe College."
At Delaware, he was a double major. He studied History and Political Science. While that sounds like the perfect prep for a future president, his heart was mostly on the field. He played on the freshman football team (back then, freshmen couldn't play varsity). He was a halfback, and by all accounts, he was pretty good. But then the first semester grades hit.
They weren't great. Like, 1.9 GPA great.
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His parents, Joseph Sr. and Jean, weren't having it. They basically told him that if he didn't get his act together in the classroom, football was over. He had to quit the team to focus on his studies. He eventually tried to make a comeback as a junior, and he actually moved up the depth chart quite fast. He was slated to be a starting defensive back. But then life happened. He went to Florida for spring break, met a girl named Neilia Hunter, and decided that driving to Syracuse to see her was more important than Saturday morning practices. He quit football for good and graduated from Delaware in 1965.
Moving North: Syracuse University College of Law
After Delaware, Biden followed Neilia to New York. He enrolled at the Syracuse University College of Law. If he thought undergraduate history was a slog, law school was, in his own words, "the biggest bore in the world."
He struggled. A lot. During his first year, he even got caught up in a plagiarism scandal. He submitted a 15-page paper for a legal methods course that lifted five pages from a Fordham Law Review article without proper citations. He claimed it was an accidental mistake—just a 23-year-old who didn't know how to cite things right. The school let him retake the course, but the incident would come back to haunt him decades later during his 1988 presidential run.
His ranking at Syracuse is something people love to bring up. Out of a class of 85 students, Biden graduated 76th. He wasn't the top of the class. He wasn't even in the middle. He was firmly near the bottom. He earned his Juris Doctor (J.D.) in 1968, just as the country was tearing itself apart over Vietnam and the Civil Rights Movement.
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Clearing Up the Rumors
When we look at what college did joe biden go to, we also have to look at what he claimed back in the day. During a 1987 campaign stop in New Hampshire, Biden got a little defensive with a voter. He claimed he graduated in the top half of his law school class, that he had three undergraduate degrees, and that he went to school on a full academic scholarship.
None of that was true.
He eventually had to release his records and admit he "exaggerated." He actually had two majors (not three degrees) and was, as mentioned, 76th out of 85. He also had a partial scholarship based on financial need, supplemented by student loans and a job as a resident adviser. It was a "human" moment that almost ended his career before it really began, but it also cemented his image as someone who is... well, prone to a bit of a "tall tale" every now and then.
Why His Education Matters Today
You don't need to be a Rhodes Scholar to lead the country. That's the takeaway many people find in Biden’s story. While his predecessors like Obama or Clinton had sparkling academic pedigrees, Biden’s "B" and "C" average at Delaware and Syracuse made him relatable to a specific segment of the American public.
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He eventually went on to teach, interestingly enough. He was an adjunct professor at Widener University-Delaware Law School for 17 years, teaching constitutional law. Later, he was named a "Professor of Practice" at the University of Pennsylvania, though that was more of a speaking and honorary role than a "grading papers" kind of job.
Key Takeaways for Your Research
If you’re digging into Biden’s background for a project or just curiosity, keep these specific points in mind:
- Undergrad: University of Delaware (Class of 1965).
- Majors: Double major in History and Political Science.
- Law School: Syracuse University College of Law (Class of 1968).
- Athletics: Played freshman football at Delaware; almost played varsity but chose his future wife (and grades) instead.
- Class Rank: 506 out of 688 at Delaware; 76 out of 85 at Syracuse.
If you want to verify these records yourself, the most reliable places to look are the official University of Delaware archives or the Syracuse University Law alumni records, which have been heavily scrutinized by the press since the late 80s. You might also find his memoir, Promises to Keep, a good read—he’s pretty blunt about how much he disliked the "grind" of law school.
To see how this compares to other presidents, you could look up the educational backgrounds of his peers, though you'll find that Biden remains one of the few modern presidents to have attended a state university for his undergraduate degree. This "non-Ivy" status became a cornerstone of his political identity, often used to contrast himself with the "elites" of Washington.