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Before the election, there was a lot of talk about how smart Kerry is and how
dumb Bush is.
Yale grades portray Kerry as a lackluster student
By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff
During last year's presidential campaign, John F. Kerry was the candidate often
portrayed as intellectual and complex, while George W. Bush was the populist who
mangled his sentences. But newly released records show that Bush and Kerry had a
virtually identical grade average at Yale University four decades ago. In 1999,
The New Yorker published a transcript indicating that Bush had received a
cumulative score of 77 for his first three years at Yale and a roughly similar
average under a non-numerical rating system during his senior year. Kerry, who
graduated two years before Bush, got a cumulative 76 for his four years,
according to a transcript that Kerry sent to the Navy when he was applying for
officer training school. He received four D's in his freshman year out of 10
courses, but improved his average in later years. The grade transcript, which
Kerry has always declined to release, was included in his Navy record. During
the campaign the Globe sought Kerry's naval records, but he refused to waive
privacy restrictions for the full file. Late last month, Kerry gave the Navy
permission to send the documents to the Globe. Kerry appeared to be responding to
critics who suspected that there might be damaging information in the file about
his activities in Vietnam. The military and medical records, however, appear
identical to what Kerry has already released. This marks the first time Kerry's
grades have been publicly reported. The transcript shows that Kerry's
freshman-year average was 71. He scored a 61 in geology, a 63 and 68 in two
history classes, and a 69 in political science. His top score was a 79, in
another political science course. Another of his strongest efforts, a 77, came
in French class. Under Yale's grading system in effect at the time, grades
between 90 and 100 equaled an A, 80-89 a B, 70-79 a C, 60 to 69 a D, and
anything below that was a failing grade. In addition to Kerry's four D's in his
freshman year, he received one D in his sophomore year. He did not fail any
courses. ''I always told my Dad that D stood for distinction," Kerry said
yesterday in a written response to questions, noting that he has previously
acknowledged that he spent a lot of time learning to fly instead of focusing on
his studies. Kerry's weak grades came despite years of education at some of the
world's most elite prep schools, ranging from Fessenden School in Massachusetts
to St. Paul's School in New Hampshire.It is noteworthy, however, that Kerry
received a high honor at Yale despite his mediocre grades: He was chosen to
deliver his senior class oration, a testament to his reputation as a public
speaker. He delivered a speech questioning the wisdom of the Vietnam War, in
which he would soon see combat. Kerry gradually improved his grades, averaging 81
in his senior year. His highest single grade was an 89, for a political science
class in his senior year. Despite his slow start, he went on to be a top student
at Naval Candidate School, command a patrol boat in Vietnam, graduate from law
school, and become a prosecutor, lieutenant governor, US senator, and
presidential candidate. In his Navy application, Kerry made clear that he spent
much of his college time on extracurricular activities, including the Yale
Political Union, the Debating Association, soccer, hockey, fencing, and
membership in the elite Skull and Bones Society. Asked to describe nonschool
training that qualified him for the Navy, Kerry wrote: ''A great deal of sailing
-- ocean and otherwise, including some navigation. Scuba diving. Rifle.
Beginning of life saving." He said his special interests were ''filming,"
writing, and politics, noting that the latter subject occupied 15 hours per
week. Gaddis Smith, a retired Yale history professor who taught both Kerry and
Bush, said in a telephone interview that he vividly remembers Kerry as a student
during the 1964-1965 school year, when Kerry would have been a junior. However,
Smith said he doesn't have a specific memory about Bush. Based on what Smith
recalls teaching that year, Kerry scored a 71 and 79 in two of Smith's courses.
When Smith was told those scores, he responded: ''Uh, oh. I thought he was good
student. Those aren't very good grades." To put the grades in perspective, Smith
said that he had a well-earned reputation for being tough, and noted that such
grades would probably be about 10 points higher in a similar class today because
of the impact of what he called ''grade inflation. "Bush went to Yale from 1964
to 1968; his highest grades were 88s in anthropology, history, and philosophy,
according to The New Yorker article. He received one D in his four years, a 69
in astronomy. Bush has said he was a C student. Like Kerry, Bush reportedly
suffered through a difficult freshman year and then pulled his grades up.Michael
Kranish can be reached at kranish@globe.com.
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