For Andy Kim, college started at a cattle ranch.

The Democratic senator-elect from New Jersey spent the first two years of his undergraduate study at Deep Springs College, an isolated campus sequestered in the California desert 40 miles from the nearest town. Deep Springs’ pupils — never more than 30 in number — split their time between intensive seminar classes and the manual labor of running the college, which doubles as a fully functioning cattle ranch. In exchange for a full-ride scholarship, the college’s website states, “Deep Springs students are expected to dedicate themselves to lives of service to humanity.”

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The Colleges That Shape Congress

We analyzed the educational backgrounds of every current and incoming member of Congress. Here’s what we found.

By Declan Bradley | December 5th, 2024

For Andy Kim, college started at a cattle ranch.

The Democratic senator-elect from New Jersey spent the first two years of his undergraduate study at Deep Springs College, an isolated campus sequestered in the California desert 40 miles from the nearest town. Deep Springs’ pupils — never more than 30 in number — split their time between intensive seminar classes and the manual labor of running the college, which doubles as a functioning cattle ranch. In exchange for a full-ride scholarship, the college’s website states, “Deep Springs students are expected to dedicate themselves to lives of service to humanity.”

Kim would go on to earn his undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago, one of the nation’s most selective colleges. So would lots of his fellow lawmakers, many of whom graduated from the Ivy League or other highly selective institutions. More than 96 percent of Congress holds a bachelor’s degree or higher. Only two-fifths of American adults are similarly educated.

It’s a striking moment to examine the relationship between Congress and college, as higher ed becomes a political punching bag. America’s most influential colleges have faced increasing scrutiny in the wake of student protests over the Israel-Hamas war, with three presidents of Ivy League universities resigning their posts under pressure from Capitol Hill. And colleges are contributing to a political rift: Voters’ choices at the ballot box diverge along degree lines, with the college-educated more likely to vote blue. Democrats see their strong relationship with the college vote as a liability in an electorate increasingly souring on the value of a degree. Meanwhile, many of the Republican party’s strongest higher-ed critics themselves boast Ivy League degrees.

This comprehensive review conducted by The Chronicle — using data from the official congressional directory and campaign websites — examines the institutions that influence the nation’s future leaders.

Congress 119

Bachelor's Degree Attainment

More than 96 percent of the 119th Congress — set to take office in January — holds a bachelor’s degree or higher. Only 38 percent of American adults hold equivalent degrees.

A third of Congress holds a graduate degree, including 29 percent of the Senate and 37 percent of the House.

Roughly half of senators and a third of representatives hold law degrees.

Only a handful of members of Congress hold medical degrees or doctorates.

And less than 5 percent hold an associate degree.

Among two-year-college graduates, almost all also hold other degrees. Only one senator, Markwayne Mullin, holds an associate degree as his highest credential. More than 10 percent of American adults hold a similar degree.

Congress is disproportionately likely to graduate from a handful of highly selective institutions. One in 10 senators and 6 percent of representatives hold an undergraduate degree from one of the eight Ivy League colleges, which educate less than 1 percent of U.S. undergraduates.

Less than 4 percent of members hold undergraduate degrees from historically Black colleges and universities.

Congress 119

Large Colleges

Four in every 10 members of Congress graduated from institutions with more than 20,000 students, a category that includes large public flagships and big-name privates like Brigham Young and New York Universities.

Three in 10 graduated from colleges with enrollments less than 20,000 but greater than 5,000.

The remaining three of 10 graduated from institutions with fewer than 5,000 students. Democrats were more likely to graduate from institutions with small enrollments, such as highly selective liberal-arts colleges.

In the incoming 119th Congress, 31 percent of Senate Democrats graduated from colleges with fewer than 5,000 students, compared to only 15 percent of Senate Republicans.

More than 70 percent of Senate Democrats hold degrees from private colleges, compared to 37 percent of Senate Republicans, a more significant split than in the previous Congress.

In the prior 118th Congress — currently finishing its term — 62 percent of Senate Democrats and 42 percent of Senate Republicans attended private colleges. In the House, those shares were slightly lower: Fifty-six percent of Democrats and 34 percent of Republicans.

Such institutions represent only 25 percent of American colleges overall.

Republicans were more likely to earn their undergraduate degree in the state they currently represent. Only 20 percent of Democrats in the incoming 119th Senate received their degrees from institutions in the state they represent, compared to 48 percent of Senate Republicans.

That’s a wider gap than in the previous 118th Congress, in which 28 percent of Senate Democrats studied in the state they represent, compared to 50 percent of Senate Republicans.

Republicans remain more likely to go to college in the Southeast; Democrats, in the Mid-Atlantic. More than 30 percent of Senate Democrats received their bachelor’s degree from a college in one of the six states that make up New England. Less than 6 percent of Senate Republicans did so.

Explore the Data

Undergraduate Alumni in House and Senate, Congresses 118 & 119

Methodology

Data in this story were compiled from the Congress Bioguide, which serves as the legislature’s official directory, and Ballotpedia, and fact checked against politicians’ campaign websites.

When identifying the alma maters of members of Congress, reporters set the following standards:

1) If a member transferred or attended multiple institutions while working toward an undergraduate degree, their affiliation is considered to be with the institution from which they graduated.

2) If a member completed credits at one or more institutions but did not graduate, they are not considered to have an affiliation with that college and are not counted at that degree level in summary statistics.

3) A handful of members completed undergraduate credits before proceeding directly to a graduate or medical degree without first receiving a bachelor's degree. These members are counted in summary statistics for any graduate degrees they obtained (including “bachelor's or higher”) but are not listed as having completed a bachelor's degree alone.

4) Likewise, a handful of members received undergraduate degrees outside the United States. They are counted toward institutional characteristics (e.g. public/private), but not geographically.

Institutional characteristics for summary statistics were computed from the directory file of the 2023 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System published by the U.S. Department of Education. A small number of members attended institutions which have since permanently closed or are otherwise no longer tracked by IPEDS. In these cases, institutional information was manually filled from historical records and articles.

A handful of members are registered as Independents and not affiliated with either major party. They appear in all visualizations except the party breakdown chart, from which they are excluded. Likewise, they are included in all summary statistics excepting those which reference party affiliation, from which their data was removed prior to all calculations.