What do Kourtney Kardashian, Paul Rudd, Oprah Winfrey and Shaquille O’Neal have in common? They all attended public colleges!
State universities have given a huge lift to countless students who wouldn’t have been able to afford private college price tags. While price may not have been a barrier for someone like a Kardashian, other public college grads, like David Letterman, came from more humble backgrounds (his father was a florist and his mom a church secretary). Tom Hanks has written about how grateful he was to attend California State University-Sacramento for $95 a semester, which he said was “just barely affordable” for him at the time.
A significant amount of attention in the Democratic presidential race was placed on how to help students graduate debt-free from college, and most of the policy proposals were focused on public schools. Hillary Clinton’s latest proposal is to waive tuition at state universities for students whose families make $125,000 or less annually.
It’s a debate that’s rightly taking time in the presidential election because who knows, the next David Letterman or Tom Hanks could be out there, and they just need a hand.
Take a look at the list below for 35 celebrities who attended public colleges:
