Even though Obama's Columbia grades fall below the Harvard norm, likely even below the affirmative action-adjusted black norm at Harvard, Obama began Harvard Law School in 1988.
Friends say he did not want anyone to assume they knew his mind and because of that, even those close to him did not always know exactly where he stood.
"He then and now is very hard to pin down," said Kenneth Mack, a classmate and now a professor at the law school, referring to the senator's on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand style.
Mack added, "Obama stood out from the beginning. He seemed more mature. Everyone understood he was a liberal. He didn't hide that."
Harvard Law Benefactor How exactly did Barack Obama pay for his Harvard Law School education?
The way the Obama campaign has answered the question was simply hard work and student loans, even though Obama's financial disclosures found no trace of any outstanding college loans, going back to 2000. Michelle Obama contradicted this claim by saying that the couple had "only just" paid off their student loans after receiving book royalties paid out in 2005 and 2006.
But new questions have been raised about Obama's student loans and Obama's ties to a radical Muslim activist who reportedly was raising money for Obama's Harvard studies during the years 1988 to 1991.
The allegations first surfaced in late March, when former Manhattan Borough president Percy Sutton told a New York cable channel that a former business partner who was "raising money" for Obama had approached him in 1988 to help Obama get into Harvard Law School.
In this video interview, Sutton says he first heard of Obama about twenty years ago from Khalid Al-Mansour, who Sutton described as advisor to "one of the world's richest men," Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal.