Barron Trump at New York University, not UPenn or Georgetown, breaking family tradition
Barron Trump, sole child of Donald and Melania Trump, is bucking family tradition. His college decision was NYU in New York.
Sorry, UPenn and Georgetown: Barron Trump is attending New York University.
Barron Trump, the sole child of Donald and Melania Trump, picked NYU and started fall 2024 classes on Wednesday, Sept. 4 (the day after Labor Day), Donald Trump reportedly told the Daily Mail.
The announcement ends a months-long query: Where is Barron Trump going to college?
The former president dropped hints long after his youngest son graduated from Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach in May 2024: First, in a July 9 Trump rally at the family golf club in Doral, Florida; then in an Aug. 20 New York Post story: “He’s all set in a certain school that’s very good,” the former president told the New York Post in an exclusive interview. “He’s always been a very good student, he’s smart.”
On Sept. 4, the day after Labor Day, when fall 2024 classes officially started at NYU, Donald Trump revealed to DailyMail.com that Barron was a student at New York University's Stern School of Business, sealing his college decision amid speculation of which New York school he would attend.
The 6-foot-7 (or in some reports 6-foot-9) son of former president Donald Trump has been keeping a really low-profile: Barron Trump was the only Trump family member who did not make an appearance at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July. His half-niece, 17-year-old Kai Trump, who's a year younger than him, did appear at the RNC and has (publicly) announced her college choice: the University of Miami, not far from where she goes to high school now.
As Donald Trump has been campaigning for the 2024 presidential election against his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, it is not known whether he or Barron Trump's mother, former first lady Melania Trump, attended college move-in events. It's also not known whether Barron Trump will live off-campus.
What is known, however, is that Barron Trump will not attend the University of Pennsylvania or Georgetown University, which have strong ties to the Trump family. Donald Trump and his other children — Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump and Tiffany Trump — have attended or graduated from the prestigious universities in Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., respectively.
With Barron Trump attending New York University, it is notable that he is breaking away from family tradition. Here's a roundup of who (and who didn't) graduate from college in the Trump family and the famous family's ties to UPenn and Georgetown.
Where is Barron Trump going to college?
Donald Trump revealed to DailyMail.com that Barron is a student at New York University's Stern School of Business, sealing his college decision amid speculation of which New York school he would attend.
Barron Trump is attending NYU. Barron Trump started fall 2024 classes there
In April 2024, rumors about Barron Trump possibly attending New York University started flying around. The NYU campus is not far from Trump Tower in Manhattan, where Barron Trump spent much of his childhood and lived until his father was sworn in as the 45th president in early 2017. Barron Trump lived in the White House with his parents until 2019, when Donald and Melania Trump permanently relocated to Trump's private club, Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.
Living on campus at NYU is optional, but "first-year residents of Manhattan-based schools are assigned to Manhattan residence halls only. There are no exceptions," the university's site says. College move-in dates for NYU, which has its own NYU housing handle on Instagram, were August 24 and 25, 2024. More than "5,000 first-year students will arrive at NYU's campus!" an April 11 IG post states.
Where did Donald Trump attend college?
Donald Trump graduated from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in May 1968 with a bachelor's degree in economics.
Where did Melania Trump attend college?
Melania Trump, the former first lady of the U.S. from 2016 to 2020, briefly attended college, but never graduated. Then Melania Knauss, the Slovenian "began modeling at age 16, and two years later she signed on with an agency in Milan. She enrolled at the University of Ljubljana but dropped out after one year to pursue her modeling career," according to the Melania Trump bio on biography.com.
In her early days of modeling, the site states, Melania Trump worked in Milan and Paris before moving to New York in 1996. She met future husband Donald Trump two years later at a New York fashion party. (The Trumps were engaged in 2004 and married in 2005.)
Melania Trump, then known professionally as Melania Knauss, appeared on the covers of Harper's Bazaar (Bulgaria edition), Vanity Fair (Italy edition), GQ (for which she posed nude in January 2000) and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
The University of Ljubljana, or UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia.
Where did Donald Trump Jr. attend college?
Donald Trump Jr., Donald Trump's eldest son with first wife Ivana Trump, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2000. Like his father, Donald Trump Jr. has a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Finance.
Where did Eric Trump attend college?
Eric Trump, son of Donald Trump and Ivana Trump, graduated from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., with a bachelor's degree in finance and management in 2006.
Where did Ivanka Trump attend college?
According to a March 2017 story in the Georgetown Voice, Donald Trump's eldest daughter with Ivana Trump, Ivanka Trump, was a student at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., but transferred after two years to the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Ivanka Trump graduated cum laude with a bachelor's degree in economics from Penn in 2004.
Where did Tiffany Trump attend college?
Like her father, Tiffany Trump attended the University of Pennsylvania and graduated in 2016 with a bachelor's degree in sociology. Four years later, Tiffany Trump, daughter of Donald Trump's second wife, Marla Maples, graduated from Georgetown Law School as part of the class of 2020. Like many class of 2020 seniors (for high school and college), Tiffany Trump's college graduation was a virtual commencement ceremony because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Contributing: Lianna Norman, Paste BN Network-Florida
Sangalang is a lead digital producer for Paste BN Network-Florida. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram at @byjensangalang. Support local journalism. Consider subscribing to a Florida newspaper.