The College Backgrounds of America's Leading Newspaper Opinion Columnists

http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/

http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-bio-rbrooks-b,0,3677134.blurb

Rosa Brooks: Is a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. Prior to joining the Georgetown faculty, Brooks taught at the University of Virginia and at Yale. She has also served as a fellow of the Kennedy School of Government's Carr Center. Brooks received her A.B. from Harvard in 1991, followed by a master's degree from Oxford in 1993 and a law degree from Yale in 1996.

http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-bio-mdaum-b,0,366880.blurb

Meghan Daum: Has taught nonfiction writing at New York University and at the California Institute for the Arts, where she was a visiting artist in 2004.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meghan_Daum

She received her bachelor's degree from Vassar College and her Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University.

http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-bio-jgoldberg-b,0,2657347.blurb

Jonah Goldberg: Nothing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonah_Goldberg

Graduated from Goucher College in 1991. Goldberg also served for three years on the Board of Trustees of Goucher College.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-bio-morrison-b,0,3072276.blurb

Patt Morrison: Served for eight years as adjunct professor at the University of Southern California's School of Journalism. She is a graduate of Occidental College, which named her alumnus of the year in 1995. She was elected to its Board of Trustees in 1998.

http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-bio-grodriguez-b,0,6620625.blurb

Gregory Rodriguez: Nothing

http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-bio-stein-b,0,7772463.blurb

Joel Stein: Has taught a class in humor writing at Princeton.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Stein

He majored in English at Stanford and wrote a weekly column for The Stanford Daily. He graduated in 1993 with a BA and an MA and moved to New York.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-bio-rutten-b,0,73868.blurb

Tim Rutten: Majored in political science while attending California State University, Los Angeles.

THE NEW YORK POST OPED COLUMNISTS

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/opedcolumnists.htm
[NOTE: I found background information hard to come by for The New York Post. I have included the information on college backgrounds I was able find for columnists I knew as writers on national and international affairs. TW]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Morris
Dick Morris: attended Columbia University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, graduating a year early, in 1967.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Peters
Ralph Peters: Educated at St. Mary's University, M.A. (international relations), 1988. Alma mater Pennsylvania State University. Peters attended Officer Candidate School and received a commission, eventually attending the Command and General Staff College, and still later graduated from the U.S. Army War College, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirsten_Powers
Kirsten Powers: Graduated from the University of Maryland and attended Georgetown University Law School for a year and half.

http://www.ecssr.ac.ae/CDA/en/ProfileBank/ViewProfile/0,2061,806,00.html?null
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amir_Taheri
Amir Taheri: Was a member of the board of trustees of the Iranian Institute for International Political and Economic Studies in Tehran from 1973 to 1979. [No other information on Taheri’s college background was available. TW]

George Will: See below under the Washington Post.

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: NEWS COLUMNISTS

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/columnists/

[NOTE: I also had a hard time finding the information I wanted for the columnists at The New York Daily News. I have included the information on college backgrounds I was able find for columnists I knew as writers on national and international affairs. TW]

Michael Daly: nothing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Gonzalez_(journalist)
Juan González: enrolled in Columbia University, where he began a career of political activism that would include occupying Boylan Hall—at Brooklyn College—in a public demonstration. He eventually graduated from Columbia in the 90s after completing one law and one physical education requirement. He enrolled in a journalism course at Temple University during the 1970s. For two years, González was the Belle Zeller Visiting Professor in Public Policy and Administration at Brooklyn College/CUNY, with an appointment in both the Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, as well as the Political Science Department.

Michael Goodwin: nothing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Errol_Louis
Errol Louis: Holds a B.A. in Government from Harvard, an M.A. in Political Science from Yale, and a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School.


THE WASHINGTON POST

http://www.postwritersgroup.com/writersgroup.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Krauthammer
http://www.postwritersgroup.com/krauthammer.htm
Charles Krauthammer: Attended McGill University and obtained an honors degree in political science and economics in 1970. From 1970 to 1971, he was a Commonwealth Scholar in politics at Balliol College, Oxford. He later moved to the United States, where he attended Harvard Medical School. In his first year there in 1972, Krauthammer was paralyzed in a serious diving accident. Continuing medical studies during his year-long hospitalization, he graduated with his class, earning an M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1975, and then began working as a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital. In October 1984, he became board certified in psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.

http://www.postwritersgroup.com/broder.htm
David Broder: Received his bachelor's degree and an M.A. in political science from the University of Chicago. He has been a Fellow of the Institute of Politics of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Fellow of the Institute of Policy Sciences and Public Affairs at Duke University.

http://www.postwritersgroup.com/cocco.htm
Marie Cocco: Graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University, were she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and won the Peter S. Belfer prize in political science. She earned a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, where she won the Robert E. Sherwood prize for studying and reporting on American issues.

http://www.postwritersgroup.com/writersgroup.htm
Richard Cohen: Earned his undergraduate degree from New York University.

http://www.postwritersgroup.com/dionne.htm
E.J. Dionne Jr: Graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. from Harvard University in 1973 and received his doctorate from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He began teaching at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute as University Professor in the Foundations of Democracy and Culture in the fall of 2003.

http://www.postwritersgroup.com/gerson.htm
Michael Gerson: Studied theology at Wheaton College in Illinois.

http://www.postwritersgroup.com/goodman.htm
Ellen Goodman: A 1963 cum laude graduate of Radcliffe College, Goodman returned to Harvard in 1973-74 as a Nieman Fellow, where she studied the dynamics of social change. As the first Lorry I. Lokey Visiting Professor in Professional Journalism at Stanford University, she taught opinion writing for the winter semester in 1996.

http://www.postwritersgroup.com/hoagland.htm
Jim Hoagland: Graduated cum laude from the University of South Carolina and later did graduate work at the University of Aix-en-Provence in France and at Columbia University in New York.

http://www.postwritersgroup.com/ignatius.htm
David Ignatius: Graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1973. He received a Frank Knox Fellowship from Harvard and studied at King's College, Cambridge University, where he received a diploma in economics.

http://www.postwritersgroup.com/marcus.htm
Ruth Marcus: Studied history at Yale. Graduated from Harvard Law School, where her writing ability somehow survived the footnote-intensive process of serving on the Harvard Law Review.

http://www.postwritersgroup.com/navarrette.htm
Ruben Navarrette Jr: Graduated from Harvard in 1990. Earned a master's in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

http://www.postwritersgroup.com/parker.htm
Kathleen Parker: As an undergraduate, Parker studied in both the United States and abroad, including the University of Valencia in Spain. She holds a master's degree in Spanish from Florida State University.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Parker
Attended Converse College before transferring to the University of San Francisco for a year of study in Spain, majoring in Spanish Literature. She holds a Master's degree in the subject.

http://www.postwritersgroup.com/peirce.htm
Neal Peirce: Is a graduate of Princeton University.

http://www.postwritersgroup.com/robinson.htm
Eugene Robinson: Was educated at the University of Michigan, where during his senior year he was the first black student to be named co-editor-in-chief of the award-winning student newspaper, The Michigan Daily. During the 1987-88 academic year, on leave from The Post, Robinson was a Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University.

http://www.postwritersgroup.com/samuelson.htm
Robert Samuelson: Is a 1967 graduate of Harvard with a B.A. in government.

http://www.postwritersgroup.com/alvaro.htm
Alvaro Vargas Llosa: Is a graduate of the London School of Economics.

http://www.postwritersgroup.com/will.htm
George Will: Was educated at Trinity College in Hartford, and Oxford and Princeton universities. Prior to entering journalism, Will taught political philosophy at Michigan State University and the University of Toronto.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Will
Attended Trinity College, in Hartford, Connecticut (B.A.). He subsequently read PPE at Magdalen College, University of Oxford (B.A., M.A.), and received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in politics from Princeton University. Will then taught political philosophy at the James Madison College of Michigan State University, and at the University of Toronto. He taught at Harvard University in 1995 and again in 1998.