scorecardGeorge W. Bush, Skull and Bones

George W. Bush, Skull and Bones

"W's" family name had become synonymous with Skull and Bones by the time he arrived on Yale's campus. There were rumors that Bush almost missed getting tapped by the group, but he ended up becoming the third Bonesman to become president.

We don't know much about Bush's time in the club. "My senior year I joined Skull and Bones, a secret society, so secret I can't say anything more," he wrote in his 1999 autobiography, "A Charge to Keep." Bush, however, carries a certain disdain for Yale's brand of East Coast elitism, as The Atlantic pointed out.

Christina Sterbenz contributed to a previous version of this story.

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