Presidential Biographies | Bush Administration - Education

Education

Bush was educated at some of the most elite private schools in the nation, attending Greenwich Country Day School and Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. After graduating from preparatory school in 1942, he enrolled in the U.S. Navy Reserve. At the age of 18, Bush was commissioned as a navy flight pilot in 1943, and served in the Pacific for the duration of World War II (1939–45). He flew 58 combat missions during his 39 months of service and was shot down twice while flying missions over the Pacific.

In September 1945, after the war, Bush enrolled at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. An ambitious, highly competitive student, Bush was active in campus social and athletic activities. He was the captain of the baseball team and a member of Skull and Bones, Yale's most venerated "secret society." He graduated with honors in 1948, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics in three years.

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