Jay Gatz's educational background was an impact in the novel “The Great Gatsby”. He had lied about his education to make himself seen cool or smart. When he was talking with everyone at the hotel when he said “ it was in nineteen-nineteen. I only stayed for five months, that's why I can't call myself an Oxford man”(Fitzgerald )Before he told them he showed the medals he got from school making it seem like he had graduated from oxford. When that all was said he was nervous that people would know the truth. In the 1920s school was for the rich and especially going to a university, the more education you had the more successful you could be. Since the Gatsby family was poor and just farmers it was hard for him to get in without a scholarship.