The Educated Celebrity- Really?

Posted on March 31, 2009
Filed Under East meets West, Guest Columnist |

by Ronda Suder

Many assume celebrities, actors in particular, don’t have college degrees. In many cases, this is true. However, there are several celebrities who are college graduates and known to be rather intelligent souls. Who are some of them?

jodie-foster0202009 Calista Flockhart: Graduated with a degree in theatre from Rutgers University.

 Natalie Portman: Graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She’s also fluent in five languages.

 Gloria Estefan: Graduated from the University of Miami with a degree in communications and psychology.

 Jodi Foster: Graduated magna cum laude from Yale with a degree in literature and also graduated valedictorian from Lycee Francais de Los Angeles (French).

brooke_shields_milk0303009 Brooke Shields: Graduated from Princeton with a degree in French literature.

 Conan O’Brien: Graduated magna cum laude from Harvard with a degree in U.S. History. 

Julia Stiles: Graduated from Columbia University with a major in English.

Jon Stewart: Graduated with a degree in psychology from the College of William and Mary.

 Oprah Winfrey: Graduated with a degree in speech and performing arts from Tennessee State University on a scholarship.

jessica-simpson090909On the other hand, many celebrities like Reese Witherspoon, George Clooney, Tom Cruise and Jessica Simpson dropped out of or never attended college to pursue their careers.

So this begs the question, does it matter if you have a college degree or not?

It is true for many that experience can be equivalent to a degree, depending on your line of work. Actors often drop out of or never attend college to pursue acting full-time, and if they have the talent and ability (and a great promoter, agent and manager), they don’t need the college degree to be successful. And if successful, they typically have plenty of money coming in so they don’t have to worry about a ‘Plan B’. Until, that is, they get to a point in their career when they aren’t booking the roles like they used to. When this happens, it would be nice if they had something else to fall back on, and a college degree would help. This is true for anyone in any industry.

 It’s 100% true that college isn’t for everyone, and many are very successful without a college degree. However, it’s equally as true that many companies won’t hire individuals without a college degree, and even if they do, a college degree looks good on a resume (regardless the discipline). A college degree states you have the ability to learn, persevere and accomplish something. It’s a nice tool to have in your pocket.

 So celebrity or not, it can be helpful to have that college degree for the reasons stated here.



Comments

Leave a Reply




  • Weekly newsletter

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

  • Guest Column

  • Indian Headlines

  • Recently Written