Bush's Personal Aide to Enroll at Business School

[northzax]

From the Harvard Crimson

Bush’s Personal Aide To Enroll at Business School
Gottesman, college dropout and former beau to Bush daughter, to begin in the fall
Published On Monday, May 22, 2006 2:12 AM
By PARAS D. BHAYANI
Crimson Staff Writer

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A 26-year-old college dropout who carries President Bush’s breath mints and makes him peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches will follow in his boss’s footsteps this fall when he enrolls at Harvard Business School (HBS).

Though it is rare for HBS—or any other professional or graduate school—to admit a student who does not have an undergraduate degree, admissions officers made an exception for Blake Gottesman, who for four years has served as special assistant and personal aide to Bush.

Gottesman, a Texas native who attended Claremont-McKenna College in California for one year, has long had ties to the Bush family. He dated the president’s daughter, Jenna Bush, nearly ten years ago when he attended St. Andrew’s Episcopal School of Austin.

[bluestateguy]

1. I wonder which qualified applicant's spot was given away to him

Though it is rare for HBS—or any other professional or graduate school—to admit a student who does not have an undergraduate degree, admissions officers made an exception for Blake Gottesman, who for four years has served as special assistant and personal aide to Bush.


Just a good ole boys...

[Supersedeas]

5. he is probably one in a long list of 'legacy' admissions-but racial quotas

are obscene to these people...yea, this might be why!!!

[devilgrrl]

2. Is he going to learn to drive a business into the ground...

like his sugar daddy?

[Roland99]

3. Little punk better come out of there with a new economic theory that fixes

all of his boss's fuckups!

[Divernan]

4. The rest of his (brilliant) classmates & faculty will make his life hell.

as is evident in the snide description of him in the Harvard Crimson article. Harvard is the most competitive, cutthroat university around. With the exception of the legacies (like W) you are looking at the most brilliant students in the country - not necessarily well-balanced, but brilliant and competitive. And even the legacies have to pass the hurdle of having completed an undergrad degree somewhere before getting into a graduate program. This suckup had one year of college 7 years ago!
(More from the article)

"After completing his freshman year at Claremont in 1999, he left to join the Bush presidential campaign and later served as a junior aide to former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. In February 2002, he became the president’s personal assistant.

"In his current role, Gottesman performs a wide range of duties, from dog-sitting the president’s Scottish terriers, Barney and Miss Beazley, to carrying the president’s speeches and giving him the “two-minute warning” before a speech begins.



"HBS spokesman James E. Aisner ’68 explained the decision to accept Gottesman, even though he is not a college graduate, by telling The Economist that “extraordinary circumstances will sometimes compel it to drop rule” of only admitting students who hold bachelor's degrees. Aisner also pointed out to The Economist that Harvard would surely admit applicants like Bill Gates and Michael Dell, both of whom are college dropouts.

But the often-snarky British weekly noted: “Needless to say, holding the president’s hand-sanitizer is a far cry from heading a Fortune 500 company.”