Before he was elected US President, Woodrow Wilson served as president of which university?

Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) was an American statesman, lawyer, and academic leader who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. He was the first Southerner to be elected president since the American Civil War (1861-1865). Before being elected President, Wilson held a political office as the 34th governor of the state of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913.

Prior to his political career, in late 1883, Wilson entered John Hopkins University, a new graduate institution in Baltimore modeled after German universities. Wilson hoped to become a professor. He received a Ph.D. from this institution in 1886.

He accepted teaching positions at two different institutions of higher learning before his time at Princeton- Bryan Mawr College and Wesleyan University.

In 1890, with the help of friends, Wilson was elected by the Princeton University Board of Trustees to the Chair of Jurisprudence and Political Economy, at an annual salary of $3,000 (equivalent to $83,656 n 2018). He quickly gained a reputation as a compelling speaker.

In June 1902, Princeton trustees promoted Professor Wilson to president. Wilson aspired as he told alumni, "to transform thoughtless boys preforming tasks into thinking men." He tried to raise academic standards and to replace the "gentleman's C" with serious study. He instituted academic departments and a system of core requirements. Wilson's efforts to improve Princeton earned him national notoriety.