Malia College: At 16, Malia Obama Narrows College Options To Berkeley And Stanford

A Malia college rumor is spreading like wildfire. According to several media outlets, Malia Obama has apparently started looking at colleges, and thus far the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford are at the top of her list.

The headline “Malia college choice” is featured on many news outlets this weekend. At the age of 16, Malia Obama, who is currently in her junior year of high school, is getting ready to leave her parents and begin her higher learning.

According to reports, Malia Obama visited two Californian colleges in the summer of 2014 with her parents, Barack Obama and Michelle Obama.

While in the Golden State, Malia Obama, who is a student at Sidwell Friends School, was also able to work on the set of Halle Berry‘s science-fiction series Extant.

Malia, who wants to be a filmmaker, toured the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford. After the visits, the first daughter has apparently decided that California is definitely the state where she wants to be, but is having a tough time deciding between Berkeley and Stanford.

Berkeley and Stanford are two very different colleges, so Malia Obama will either be following in the footsteps of a liberal like Chelsea Clinton, (Clinton also attended Sidwell Friends School), or a conservative like Condoleezza Rice.

The liberal UC Berkeley is known for its Department of Film & Media. The conservative Stanford, located in Palo Alto, is a private university with media studies, and is said to be the perfect fit for Malia who practices many sports.

While Berkeley, which was founded in 1868 is 20th on the list of top colleges; Stanford, which was founded in 1885, ranked in number 4, tied with Columbia University after Princeton, Harvard, and Yale.

If Malia picks Berkeley, the president and the first lady, will be paying about $34,000 for tuition. But if Miss Obama opts for Stanford, the tuition is about $41,000.

David Hawkins, an official at the National Association for College Admission Counseling in Arlington, Va, explained no matter which college Malia picks, it will make headlines. Hawkins added:

“Given the educational attainment of her parents, which is exceptional in itself, I can only assume she is going to be a bright and well-qualified student.When you add to that who she is, all of that makes her a desirable candidate for pretty much any college.”

Rumors claimed that after touring the colleges, Malia was spotted at Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts with a Stanford University T-shirt while on a bike ride with her parents.

It is also being reported that Michelle Obama is hoping that Malia will study abroad or even take one year off. While a Malia college choice is already making headlines in the early days of 2015, the teenager has a whole year to think it through.

There is a possibility that after all has been said and done, she opts to follow her father’s footsteps and go to Columbia University in New York or Princeton like her mother.