In general, more than college life, it seems to have been an unhappy period for him. Although he did like in Yale where he did achieve a pass, he did learn to fly, but then lost his wings. There are no indications that he progressed in self-awareness, self-regard and certainly not in self-actualization. As for his interpersonal skills, this would have been a time crucial to learning good team building and group skills, especially for an officer and potential future political leader. But, he did set any examples and appeared to be more of a loner, preferring to get away from base to party, vacation or campaign for his father. Again this points to very poor skills at relating to people and situations, building sound relations based on respect and social ease, and most of all a lack of social responsibility in terms of being able to co-operate and contribute to one's social group, be socially responsible and accept the norms, rules and regulations as they are.

Clearly, both the college and the National Guard experiences don't suggest a person who has begun to set himself life goals and set himself benchmarks in terms of behaviours, skills and achievements need for him to get there. Instead he doesn't seem to have known who he was and where he was going. If he did already harbour any aspirations to high political office at this time, especially the Presidency, he certainly had no idea about how important it was for him to practice self-discipline and application, as well as to strive towards achievements and self-development, in the knowledge that his performance would be taken into account for the future.