[17] Beginning in 1953 when Biden was ten,[18] the family lived in an apartment in Claymont, Delaware, before moving to a house in nearby Mayfield.[19][20][14][16] Biden Sr. later became a successful used-car salesman, maintaining the family in a middle-class lifestyle.[16][17][21]
At Archmere Academy in Claymont,[22] Biden played baseball and was a standout halfback and wide receiver on the high school football team.[16][23] Though a poor student, he was class president in his junior and senior years.[24][25] He graduated in 1961.[24] At the University of Delaware in Newark, Biden briefly played freshman football,[26][27] and, as an unexceptional student,[28] earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965 with a double major in history and political science.[29][30]
Biden has a stutter, which has improved since his early twenties.[31] He says he reduced it by reciting poetry before a mirror,[25][32] but some observers suggested it affected his performance in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential debates.