Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Educational Testing and Schweitzer College Application

At the end of January 1959 and at the end of July, Oswald received semiannual ratings of 4.0 in conduct both times, with proficiency scores of 4.0 and 4.2. The July ratings were repeated in September when he was transferred from MACS-9. On March 9, he was promoted to private first class (for the second time), effective March 1. He took GED tests on March 23, receiving an overall “satisfactory” rating, with best scores in English composition and physical sciences (76th and 79th percentiles) and his worst in English literature (34th percentile). In the spring, Oswald applied to Albert Schweitzer College in Churwalden, Switzerland, for the spring 1960 term, with the application dated March 19. He claimed Russian proficiency equal to one year of schooling, completion of high school by correspondence with an average of 85 percent, and listed interests in philosophy, psychology, ideology, football, baseball, tennis, stamp-collecting, and writing short stories on contemporary American life. He cited Jack London, Charles Darwin, and Norman Vincent Peale as favorite authors, and claimed membership in the YMCA and the “A.Y.H. Association.” In his statement of reasons for attending, he wrote of acquiring a fuller understanding of philosophy, meeting Europeans, receiving formal education, and broadening his knowledge of German. The college approved his application, and he enclosed a $25 registration fee in a June 19 letter. Few other marines knew of the application, though he told Delgado he planned to attend a Swiss school to study psychology.