# Who was the first college-educated First Lady? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 15, 2008, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-college-educated-first-lady/433626 "2008-01-15T16:36:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2008, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-college-educated-first-lady/433626/1 "2008-01-15T16:36:06Z")
Who was the first First Lady to have attended/graduated from college? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2008, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-college-educated-first-lady/433626/2 "2008-01-15T16:38:22Z")
A _Jeopardy!_ question not long ago. _Who is Lou Hoover?_ ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2008, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-college-educated-first-lady/433626/3 "2008-01-15T16:49:57Z")
Whoops. I misremembered that. Grace Coolidge graduated from the University of Vermont in 1902. Lou Hoover, per _Jeopardy!_, was the First Lady who could speak Chinese. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2008, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-college-educated-first-lady/433626/4 "2008-01-15T17:51:03Z")
Hillary Clinton wa the first First Lady with an advanced college degree (post-Bachelors; in her case a law degree). ---
**Author:** ![lalenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@lalenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lalenin)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2008, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-college-educated-first-lady/433626/5 "2008-01-15T18:24:37Z")
From [this site](http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/lh19.html) , it seems that Lucy Ware Webb Hayes might get the title: “She graduated from the Wesleyan Female College in Cincinnati at 18, unusually well educated for a young lady of her day.” Which means she graduated in 1849. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2008, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-college-educated-first-lady/433626/6 "2008-01-15T18:45:07Z")
Many colleges and universities in the 19th century contained secondary schools; for example, my high school was spun off from Marquette University’s secondary school program in 1907. If Lucy Ware Webb Hayes “graduated” at age 18, it’s more likely that she graduated from a secondary school curriculum, not a baccalaureate curriculum. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2008, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-college-educated-first-lady/433626/7 "2008-01-15T19:36:05Z")
This is a difficult question to answer - the varying answers track the evolution of female education progress in general. Sarah Childress Polk attended the best available school for girls at the time - the Moravian Academy in Salem, NC. Today this school is Salem College, and is considered by founding date to be the oldest college for women in the country, and the 13th oldest overall. She was quite a remarkable woman in her own right - during the Civil War she managed to keep Polk House as neutral ground and received Confederate and Union visitors throughout the conflict. One can imagine that many better or worse educated people couldn’t have managed to pull this off.