As the summer winds down and the school shopping begins, many of our children will be heading off to college or at least are beginning to think about college choices for the future. For most students, college means a better life, a more stable career and the time in your life you’ll always cherish.

Maybe your daughter wants to go to your Alma matter; or maybe where her friends are going. Maybe your son just wants to go where the hot girls are going…

Whatever the reason, it’s a big decision and one that shouldn’t be taken lightly. So to help lighten up this daunting task, I thought it would be fun to browse through some of our favorite celebrity transcripts and find out where they went and what they majored in—if anything.

On my search, I discovered there are some real smarty-pants stars out there in tinsel town!

Did you know?

• New mom and actress, Natalie Portman is a graduate of Harvard University where she studied and graduated with a degree in Psychology.
• Former Talk Soup host and repeat guest star on one of America’s most successful sitcoms of all time, Friends, Aisha Tyler has a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and is fluent in Russian, Swahili and French.
• Mayim Bialik, who you may remember as Blossom from the ‘90’s hit television show, has a bachelor’s degree from UCLA in Neuroscience, Hebrew and Jewish studies and a PhD in Neuroscience. And in my “opinionation” that’s pretty flipping’ awesome.
• Actress and R&B singer-songwriter Alicia Keyes (Secret Life of Bees) graduated Valedictorian of her high school at 16 and received a scholarship to Columbia University. She later dropped out to pursue her music career.
• Peter Krause, star of NBC’s drama, Parenthood majored in English at Gustavus Adolphus College and received his master’s in acting from New York University.
• Before actor and author, Hill Harper portrayed Dr. Sheldon Hawkes on C.S.I, he graduated magna cum laude from Brown University and also graduated with a J.D, cum laude, from Harvard Law School alongside classmate Barrack Obama, he also holds a Master of Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
• Former model and Academy Award winning actress, Geena Davis (Beetlejuice) is one of the few actors associated with Mensa International, a high IQ club for people who are above the 98^th percentile—basically geniuses. Fluent in Swedish and a graduate of Boston University this actress is also googled quite often for having her first child at 46 and having twins at 48.
• We all loved The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and little Ashley Banks, played by Tatiana Ali, who now holds a degree in government and African-American studies from Harvard.
• Last but certainly not least, Matthew McConaughey (The Lincoln Lawyer) is the actor known to never have a shirt on but is more than a pretty face and a well-toned physique. He graduated in 1993 from the University of Texas, Austin with a degree in film direction.

So are you surprised at how many celebrities hold degrees from such prestigious schools and do you think it helped their career?