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updated 3:27 p.m. ET Dec. 13, 2004

NEW YORK - Donald Trump taught Kevin Allen and Sandy Ferreira, his oh-so-close firees on NBC’s “The Apprentice, a valuable lesson: go to school but don’t stay too long.

“Ultimately, I think I came to the table with an entrepreneurial spirit,” Ferreira, 28, told The Associated Press. “I just didn’t have the degree that Trump wanted. I couldn’t pull it out of the air.”

On the flip side, Trump called law student Allen, 29, overeducated and underexperienced before firing him — even though finalist Kelly Perdew has the same number of degrees and Jennifer Massey has a similar amount of business experience. What gives?

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“I think at that point, down to final four, Trump was looking for a specific thing,” Allen told the AP. “He just couldn’t find a way to articulate that when it came time to fire me.”

The choice wasn’t easy, according to Ferreira. Their “final four” boardroom showdown last week, which included a verbal catfight between Ferreira and Massey, took over four hours.

“We had to leave the boardroom three times,” said Ferreira, “because Trump couldn’t make a decision. I think he was equally impressed with all of us.”

Trump will hire either Massey or Perdew during the live three-hour “Apprentice” finale to air Thursday from New York’s Lincoln Center.

Both Allen and Ferreira think Perdew is the man for the six-figure salary job with The Trump Organization, but Allen doesn’t think Trump will tell Perdew “you’re hired!”

“I think Mr. Trump has got his eye on Jen,” said Allen. “Unfortunately, I think she’s going to win. She had something that Mr. Trump favored, and it’s been apparent. He’s been favoring her for a while. But you never know.”