Where Your Favorite Celebrities Went to College
Michelle McNally Charlotte Chilton
Here, we rounded up a list of celebrities and where they attended college, from John Legend to Emma Watson.
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Marie Claire Magazine
Ken Jeong

Duke University

The former doctor studied pre-med at Duke University before obtaining his medical degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The physician-turned-comedian told students during a speech at the University of Miami that "everybody has a right to pursue what they want. Whatever reality gives you, you make the most of it and make it your own."

Kate Beckinsale

Oxford University

Beckinsale landed her first major film roles while studying French and Russian literature as a student at Oxford University. According to a former classmate, journalist Victoria Coren, the actress was "whip-clever, slightly nuts, and very charming," during her time at University. Beckinsale dropped out before her final year as her acting career was picking up, though the actress has recently voiced her desire to finish her degree.

Téa Leoni

Sarah Lawrence College

Leoni attended the liberal arts college in Bronxville, New York, but did not complete her studies. Instead, the actress moved to St. Croix in the Caribbean and later decided to pursue a career in acting. In 1989, she landed a major role in the television show Santa Barbara and a few years later appeared in A League of Their Own.

Amy Poehler

Boston College

Poehler graduated from Boston College with a Bachelor's degree in media and communications. She was a member of the college's improvisational comedy troupe called "My Mother's Fleabag."

At the 2014 Golden Globes, Poehler made a joke about her time at Boston College when she linked it to a nominee of the award she was giving. "Masters of Sex is the degree I got from Boston College," she said, high-fiving Tina Fey.

Kristen Bell

New York University

Bell studied musical theater at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and made her Broadway debut while still a student in a musical version of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Bell, who is an advocate on the importance of openness and acceptance when suffering from depression, first started feeling unlike herself while in college.

"I was at New York University, I was paying my bills on time, I had friends and ambition—but for some reason, there was something intangible dragging me down," Bell said. "Luckily, thanks to my mom, I knew that help was out there—and to seek it without shame."

Mindy Kaling

Dartmouth College

At Dartmouth College, Kaling majored in theatre. She created her own comic strip, "Badly Drawn Girl," and performed with the Dog Day Players, an improv group. She also took a semester off to intern for Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

In an interview with New York Magazine, Kaling said, "At Dartmouth College, I was freakin' Jaws in a community swimming pool. I wrote plays, I acted, I sang, I was the student newspaper cartoonist."

She followed with advice for students who were not particularly a "star" at their high school.

"I recommend going to college in the middle of nowhere. I got all the attention I could ever have wanted. If I had gone to NYU, right now I'd be the funniest paralegal in a law firm in Boston."

Lil Wayne

University of Houston

Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., a.k.a. Lil Wayne, attended the University of Houston where he majored in political science. In a 2005 interview with MTV, Lil Wayne talks about his decision to go to college.

"I'm not going back to school," clarified Wayne, who's been making music professionally since he was nine years old and recently acquired his GED. "I'm really going to school for the first time."

Brooke Shields

Princeton University

Shields attended Princeton University to pursue her Bachelor's degree in French literature. She was a member of the Princeton Triangle Club and the Cap and Gown Club. Her autobiography, On Your Own, was published in 1985, three years before she graduated.

In recent years, Shields has opened up about losing her virginity to her college sweetheart, the future TV Superman Dean Cain.

Emma Watson

Brown University

Watson received her Bachelor's degree in English literature from Brown University. Unlike some celebrities who became famous post-college, Watson had been famous (very famous) for years. In an interview with NY Daily News, a source stated that sometimes Watson's classmates "would respond [to her answer] with a quote from 'Harry Potter.'" The most popular choice was "Three points for Gryffindor."

"I was in denial," Watson said in an E! News interview. "I wanted to pretend I wasn't as famous as I was. I was trying to seek out normality, but I kind of have to accept who I am, the position I'm in and what happened."

Denzel Washington

Fordham University

Washington earned a B.A. in drama and journalism from Fordham University. During his time there, he played basketball as a guard under coach P.J. Carlesimo.

In 2011, Washington gave $2 million to Fordham University to endow the Denzel Washington Chair in Theatre, and also a gift of $250,000 that established the Denzel Washington Endowed Scholarship, which is dedicated to an undergraduate student studying theatre.

James Franco

University of California, Los Angeles

Franco is arguably the most educated actor. He enrolled at UCLA as an English major, but dropped out after his first year to pursue a career in acting. He later reenrolled with a creative writing concentration. He even received permission to take as many as 62 course credits per quarter compared to the normal limit of 19, while still continuing to act.

He then moved to New York to simultaneously attend graduate school at Columbia University's MFA writing program, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for filmmaking, and Brooklyn College for fiction writing.

Ashley Judd

University of Kentucky

At the University of Kentucky, Judd completed a major in French, and minors in Anthropology, Art History, Theater, and Women's Studies. She was also part of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority.

Later she graduated from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government with an M.P.A. At Harvard, she was awarded the Dean's Scholar Award for her work in the Harvard Law class, Gender Violence: Law and Social Justice.

Jodie Foster

Yale University

Foster majored in literature at Yale. She wrote her thesis on Toni Morrison and graduated magna cum laude.

"I chose Yale basically for writing and literature," she said. "Of course, you can't be sure—you get your first D and could decide to be a chemistry major."

She returned to Yale in 1993 to address the graduating class, and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the university in 1997.

Conan O'Brien

Harvard University

At Harvard, O' Brien concentrated in history and literature and graduated magna cum laude. During college, he was the drummer in a band called "The Bad Clams," and wrote for the Harvard Lampoon humor magazine. He served as the magazine's president his sophomore and junior years.

O' Brien has also admitted to stealing the outfit worn by Robin in the '60s TV show Batman when it was displayed on campus.