Congratulations, the high school class of 2025 (rah-rah-rah!) is ready to matriculate! Your freshly sprouted scholar spent the last four years growing their GPA, acing their APs and crushing their SATs in preparation for brain-bending curriculum. But are they ready for the most advantageous aspect of life at a top college: socializing with stardom?
It’s Mathematics 101. Half of Hollywood canoodling x 20 years = a crop of celebrity scions who are now ruling the campuses of New England’s oldest institutions, as well as the increasingly competitive so-called “new Ivies” (schools like Notre Dame, New York University, Duke, Emory, Rice, Vanderbilt, Northwestern and Washington University).
Currently one of the biggest names on campus is Violet Affleck. Now a Yalie, she jerked tears out of her A-lister parents, Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck, when she headed for New Haven last fall. “Tell me you have a graduate without telling me you have a graduate,” Garner said in an emoji-laden post on Instagram. “Bless our hearts.” But Violet isn’t resting on her parents’ laurels; in May, she published an academic research paper in Yale’s Global Health Review as part of her ongoing studies titled “A Chronically Ill Earth: COVID Organizing as a Model Climate Response in Los Angeles.”
She’s not the only bright and boldface name at Yale. Conan O’Brien’s son, Beckett, is said to have arrived on campus last fall — joining his sister, Neve, who is studying history as part of the class of 2026. Fellow late-night comedian Stephen Colbert and wife Evelyn McGee-Colbert’s son John is also at Yale — as is Jeff Bezos’ son George and Gwyneth Paltrow’s stepson, Brody Falchuk.
Meanwhile, Paltrow’s youngest college-age progeny with Chris Martin, Moses, opted for Providence, R.I., and is now a sophomore at Brown. Paltrow told the Hollywood Reporter that having her youngest in higher ed is “kind of giving me a nervous breakdown.” The empty nester’s daughter, Apple, is a rising junior at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.
Brown’s campus is no stranger to famous names. “Harry Potter” star Emma Watson graduated back in 2014. Leaving campus with degrees this May were Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas’ daughter, Carys Zeta Douglas, and Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick’s son, James.
Over at “a school near Boston,” “Fresh Off the Boat” star Ian Chen is imitating art by joining Harvard College’s class of 2028 (just like his character on the show). Harvard has, of course, always had plenty of star students, from Natalie Portman and Matt Damon to Barack and Michelle Obama (who both earned law degrees there). The Obamas’ daughter Malia followed in her parents’ Crimson wake, graduating in 2021 (daughter Sasha graduated from the University of Southern California with a sociology degree in 2023). And “Black-ish” actress Yara Shahidi, who reportedly studied interdisciplinary sociology and Black American studies, graduated with a Harvard B.A. in 2022.
A little closer to home in New Jersey, Jodie Foster’s son Kit just bid farewell to Princeton University. After earning a degree in chemistry with the class of 2024, he’s still pursuing his scientific interests. In April, he walked the carpet at the Breakthrough Prize, dubbed the “Oscars of Science,” with his legendary mom (plus Paltrow, Seth Rogen, Kate Hudson, Christina Aguilera, Katy Perry, Edward Norton and Jessica Chastain).
Still, it’s not all about the Ivies — even for the stars. Over on the West Coast, top schools like Stanford, USC and the University of California, Berkeley are stacked with talent.
“It’s weird when your children go away to college,” Reese Witherspoon told Ellen DeGeneres in 2019 after her look-alike daughter, Ava Phillippe, headed off to Berkeley — a school famous for educating everyone from writer Joan Didion to actor Chris Pine. “It’s hard. I might have gone into her empty room, laid down on her bed and cried when she went to college.”
Steps from San Fran is the California coast’s answer to Harvard or MIT: Stanford. Its Romanesque-meets-Mission-Revival campus has educated leaders like former Presidents Herbert Hoover and John F. Kennedy (who graduated from Harvard but also took classes here). But it’s no stranger to today’s famous faces. Jennifer Connelly, Witherspoon and Sigourney Weaver all spent time studying there as well.
Down in LA, USC is a hub for Hollywood types and their children, with an alumni roster that looks like the Walk of Fame. Think: John Wayne, Ron Howard, George Lucas, Tom Selleck, Will Ferrell and Judd Apatow.
More recently, it’s attracted students like 2025 grad Storm Reid and freshman Sasha Schreiber (above left), son of Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber. Watts posted a packing-for-college pic with her son last month, complete with multiple sobbing emojis, while Liev reflected: “Gonna miss my ride or die. Having said that, USC is gonna get one of the deepest, kindest, bravest and most beautiful boys I have ever known.” Sasha will follow in the Trojan footsteps of Dr. Dre’s daughter Truly Young (left, School of Cinematic Arts), Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver’s son Patrick (Marshall School of Business) and Jamie Foxx and Connie Kline’s daughter Corinne (who studied p.r.).
Can’t stand the thought of sending your baby genius across the continent? Right here in Manhattan, NYU is often considered a mecca for nepo baby networking — and no wonder. It’s currently educating the likes of Isabella, daughter of Academy Award winner Matt Damon and Luciana Barroso Damon. She’s at the university’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Jaya, daughter of actress Laura Dern and musician Ben Harper, is also on campus, along with Deacon, son of Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe.
But standing above the rest — literally at 6 feet and 7 inches — is First Son Barron Trump (right). He opted to attend NYU’s Stern Business School (rather than following in his father’s footsteps at UPenn’s Wharton School) and starts his sophomore year this fall.
Suri Cruise, meanwhile, is keeping a low profile. She graduated from high school last fall under the name Suri Noelle and is now studying at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University. She hinted at her college choice in a “Commitment Day” TikTok by donning the school’s signature sweatshirt. Later, her “Dawson’s Creek” star mom, Katie Holmes, was spotted helping her move into her dorm room.
Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld’s son Shepherd also opted for a selective “new Ivy” address at Duke University in Durham, N.C. His billionaire sitcom star dad has a relationship with the school, acting as commencement speaker for the class of 2024.
A short drive away in Winston-Salem, Brooke Shields lauded her daughter Rowan Henchy’s graduation from Wake Forest University in May.
“Watch out world, here she comes!” the actress and Alexa cover star cooed in a post on Instagram. “She did it!”