Though Trump says on her website that she obtained a degree in design and architecture from a university in Slovenia, her biographers have made clear that she left college after her first year to pursue a career as a model.
Not finishing — or even attending — college is a first lady background that’s been more common in Republican administrations over the past 75 years, perhaps reflecting the greater gender traditionalism on the GOP side of the aisle.
Obama, for her part, is a graduate of Harvard Law School. And while her educational background is unusual in American first lady history, having earned a graduate degree is something Obama shares with Hillary Clinton, who also earned a law degree, and with Laura Bush, who holds a master’s degree in library sciences.
Melania Trump, should her husband win the White House, would represent the return of an earlier type of first lady, one who did not graduate from college and instead pursued a career in a less verbal, more visual arena.