There are more than 200 colleges and universities in New York State. And Barron Trump is enrolled at one of them—if his father is to be believed.
Last week, former president Donald Trump teased that his youngest son Barron would go to college in New York, rejecting his family’s 60-year Ivy League legacy at the University of Pennsylvania.
“He’s all set in a certain school that’s very good,” Trump told the New York Post. Trump confided that Barron, 18, would go to school somewhere in New York and the family would make an announcement “soon.”
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That was seven days ago. In the interim, schools across the Empire State have started their freshmen orientation programs. And yet, there has been no confirmed sighting of the 6-foot-7 teenager or his mother Melania—or their Secret Service entourage.
So where is Barron? And what “very good” school did he pick?
Judged by rankings, Cornell and Columbia are tied as the top universities in New York, according to U.S. News and World Report’s list of best colleges. Both schools are ranked #12 overall while New York University is ranked #35.
Barron Trump has not been seen at a college and neither has his mother Melania. The two were seen together in November 2022 at Mar-a-Lago when Donald Trump announced he would run for a second term in office.
Jonathan Ernst/ReutersIn April, the Daily Beast first reported that Barron’s “top choice” was NYU in lower Manhattan. Since then, multiple sources have insisted that Barron is going to NYU, which is just 3.5 miles from Trump Tower.
If true, Barron would become the first Trump to attend a New York City college since his father enrolled at Fordham University in the Bronx in 1964 before transferring two years later to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Barron, who largely steers clear of his father’s limelight—he was last seen in public on July 9 at one of his father’s rallies and did not attend the Republican National Convention—graduated in May from the Oxbridge Academy in Palm Beach, Florida.
The elder Trump, who has refused to release his own academic transcripts and threatened any schools that do so, has boasted for months about his son’s college prospects and toyed with the press about where he would enroll.
Barron Trump graduated in May from the Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach, Florida, with both parents attending the ceremony.
Marco Bello/Reuters“He's amazing actually in a certain way,” Trump, who is 6’3”, told Fox and Friends Weekend in June. “He’s tall, good-looking guy. He’s a very good student, and he’s applied to colleges and gets into everywhere he goes. He’s very sought-after from the standpoint he’s a very smart guy. He’s a very tall guy and he’s a great kid. He’s cool. He’s pretty cool, I’ll tell you.”
Many speculated that the youngest Trump would follow in his family’s Ivy League footsteps at UPenn, ranked #6 in U.S. News & World Report.
Trump graduated from Wharton in 1968 after transferring from Fordham, which was never his first choice. He hoped to attend the University of Southern California, where he planned to study film and become a movie producer, but his application was rejected.
While Trump frequently mentions his degree from UPenn and pretended for years that he graduated #1 in his Wharton class, he has rarely spoken about his years at Fordham, a Catholic college which is ranked #89 by U.S. News.
Like their father, three of Barron’s siblings—Don Jr., Ivanka and Tiffany—also graduated from UPenn. Eric, his third child, graduated from Georgetown University.
Barron Trump’s father Donald (front, far left) went first to Fordham University and then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania. His mother Melania (second left) did not complete her college education in Slovenia. His sister Ivanka (second right) went to U.Penn, brother Eric (right) Georgetown, brother Don Jr. (second row, right) U.Penn, and sister Tiffany (not photographed) attended U.Penn.
Brendan McDermid/ReutersBarron’s mother Melania briefly attended the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia to study design but dropped out to pursue her modeling career in Europe.
After Trump hinted his son would go to college in New York, there were social media posts of Barron sightings at Cornell in Ithaca.
But The Cornell Daily Sun reported that Barron “does not appear in the student directories of Cornell, Columbia and New York University. Registered first-year students at Cornell are typically listed.”
In June, Trump explained that his son’s final decision had been influenced by “rioting” on campuses after the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel that killed 1,200.
“Colleges six months ago,” Trump said on Fox and Friends Weekend, “you look at a college and you want a certain college, and then you see all of these colleges are rioting. And maybe you want to go to a different kind of a college, because there’s plenty of colleges that we also like that are different and they don’t riot.”
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung declined multiple requests to offer details about Barron’s whereabouts.
Have you seen Barron Trump on your campus? Let us know: Tips@TheDailyBeast.com
