Famous Black Women Who Attended Ivy League Colleges

With all the stories in the news about young men and women around the country beating the odds and being accepted in a handful of Ivy leagues schools (we love those stories!), we thought we’d show some love to all the ladies who attended Ivy League colleges over the years (including Brown, UPenn, Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale, and Cornell–none tried Princeton). Not every woman on the list was able to graduate (some left to pursue surefire opportunities in the fields they majored in), but kudos to them for getting accepted in and being able to walk the halls of the “ancient eight” schools at one time or another.

And before you check me, everyone already knows Michelle Obama attended Princeton and Harvard, so that’s the only reason her fabulous self isn’t on this list. Enjoy!

Aisha Tyler

The funny lady and co-host of the CBS show The Talk attended Dartmouth. She obtained her degree in environmental policy (very far from the comedic work she does now), and was very involved in campus activities. She was part of the co-fraternity, The Tabard, and started an all-female acapella group called The Dartmouth Rockapellas.

YaYa DaCosta

Before Yaya was a serious actress, or even fighting to be America’s Next Top Model (she came in second to Eva Marcille), DaCosta was a student at Brown. She majored in Africana Studies and International Relations at Brown, which she obtained BAs in, but she also dibbled and dabbled in theater as a hobby.

Shonda Rhimes

A Dartmouth University graduate, Rhimes obtained her Bachelor’s in English literature and creative writing in ’91, and has been invited to come back and speak at commencement exercises in June.

Lupita Nyong’o

In case you missed this tidbit of info during the awards season, Nyong’o obtained a Master’s Degree from Yale’s prestigious School of Drama, which has also churned out other major actresses like Angela Bassett. She was cast in 12 Years a Slave right before she finished up her studies at Yale, and won the Herschel Williams Prize for outstanding acting ability for her work in plays during the 2011-12 school year. 

Aunjanue Ellis

Ellis, known for her work in films like The Help, Ray and a wealth of TV work, transferred from Tougaloo College to Brown University where she obtained a Bachelor’s in African American Studies in 1993. While it wasn’t her major, she also studied acting at the same time before deciding to go to NYU to get a Master’s from their well-known acting program.

Toni Morrison

No honorary degree here if that’s what you’re thinking. After getting a Bachelor’s at Howard, Morrison obtained a Master’s of Arts degree from Cornell University in 1955.

Lauryn Hill

As her career began to take off as a member of The Fugees after the release of their first album, for a time, Hill did try to juggle music and an education. She attended Columbia University until her sophomore year when the group’s second album, The Score, became a huge hit, selling into the millions (it sold six million in the U.S.).

Joy Bryant

The former model and actress actually attended Yale on a scholarship, but dropped out to focus full-time on modeling. She once said in Elle that a major motivation to attend an Ivy League College was to make her grandmother proud, but when she died, she decided to leave school for the first modeling opportunity that came her way: “My reason for going to an Ivy was to someday makes lots of money so that Nana and I would never have to want for anything. But when she died halfway through my freshman year, I lost the drive to stay there.”

Rashida Jones

The daughter of Quincy Jones, Rashida attended Harvard University, where she studied and obtained a Bachelor’s degree in religion and philosophy in 1997. But that’s not all she did. Jones also was heavily involved on campus. She was part of a a theatrical group (Hasty Pudding Theatricals), the Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club, the Black Students Association, and an a capella group called Harvard Opportunes.

Tracy K. Smith

Talented poet and Pulitzer Prize Winner Tracy K. Smith actually went to two Ivy League colleges. She got her Bachelor’s from Harvard in 1994 and a Master’s in creative writing at Columbia University in 1997. In 2005 she became professor of creative writing at Princeton University. Her book, A Life on Mars, won her the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2011.

Nikki Giovanni

Speaking of poets, after graduating from Fisk University in 1968, Nikki Giovanni attended both UPenn and Columbia University. While she didn’t graduate, Giovanni was most recently asked to speak at the School of Social Policy and Practice’s graduation at the University of Pennsylvania earlier this month.

Sanaa Lathan

Like Lupita Nyong’o, Sanaa Lathan attended Yale University to obtain a degree from their School of Drama. She was in quite a few plays by Shakespeare while at school, and started her career doing off-Broadway work before venturing into TV, and then movie work.

Alicia Keys

Similar to Lauryn Hill in the fact that both women tried to attend Columbia University, Keys also decided to drop out of the school to focus on her music career and a different kind of Columbia: Columbia Records and the record contract they gave her.

Tammi Terrell

Before having huge success singing some of the classics alongside Marvin Gaye, and after singing backup for (and being in an abusive relationship with) James Brown, Terrell decided to retire from music for a while. She went ahead and enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania and majored in pre-med, which she studied for two years. But the music bug bit her again, and she went on to have solo success.