Presidential Biographies | Wilson Administrations - Career

Career

Wilson's father wanted his son to either follow him into the ministry or become a successful lawyer, and young Woodrow (as he began calling himself in his early adulthood) sought to satisfy that ambition by enrolling in the University of Virginia Law School. He dropped out after the first year for health reasons, but after passing the bar in 1882 he set up a practice in Atlanta, Georgia. Wilson was more interested in politics and statesmanship than the law, however, and he abandoned his practice after less than three years. He resolved to further his ambitions by returning to graduate school at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland to study and teach his first love: U.S. government. After stints of teaching at Bryn Mawr in Pennsylvania and Wesleyan in Connecticut, Wilson was named professor of jurisprudence and political economy at his own alma mater, Princeton University, in 1890.