Did Barron Trump attend Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School or St. Andrew's?

Checked on December 20, 2025
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Executive summary

Barron Trump attended both institutions at different points in his youth: contemporaneous reporting and biographical summaries say he attended Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School for his early schooling and was later enrolled at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School while his family lived in Washington, D.C. during the White House years; subsequently he attended Oxbridge Academy and graduated from there before matriculating at NYU [1] [2] [3] [4].

1. Early schooling: Columbia Grammar named in biographical summaries

Multiple biographies and news summaries list Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School as Barron’s primary-school or early-school placement, with Wikipedia’s entry explicitly saying he “attended Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School for his primary education” and contemporary profiles repeating that detail [1] [2]. That specific claim appears in widely consulted reference material and was amplified in coverage at the time Melania Trump allowed him to finish a school year there after his father’s move to the White House in 2017, which many outlets noted as a deliberate choice to preserve continuity [2].

2. The White House years: enrollment at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School

When the family moved to Washington for Donald Trump’s first term, reporting indicates Barron was enrolled in St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Potomac, Maryland, where the Secret Service provided protection during his education—an arrangement chronicled by biographical accounts and cited by journalists tracking the family’s attempts to keep Barron out of the political spotlight [1]. Kate Andersen Brower and other commentators framed the move as part of the family’s efforts to shield him from media scrutiny, a narrative that helps explain why different outlets emphasized St. Andrew’s when discussing his school years in D.C. [1].

3. Post-White House shift: Oxbridge Academy and then NYU

After the Trumps left Washington following the 2020 election, several later reports document another school shift: Barron attended Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach, Florida, and graduated from there in May before beginning college at New York University’s Stern School of Business [3] [4]. The Associated Press and other outlets reported his Oxbridge graduation and his subsequent freshman year at NYU, making the case that his secondary education included at least three institutions across different phases of his childhood and adolescence [4] [3].

4. Reconciling the apparent contradiction: timeline matters

The different school names attached to Barron in public reporting are not mutually exclusive but chronological: Columbia Grammar for early/primary years, St. Andrew’s while living near Washington during the White House, and Oxbridge Academy after 2020—followed by NYU for college [1] [3] [4]. Many summaries compress these moves and, depending on what period a writer emphasizes, will highlight one school over another; that selective emphasis explains apparent contradictions in coverage rather than demonstrating factual error in the sources that focus on a single institution [2] [1].

5. Sources, incentives and limits of reporting

The primary provenance for the Columbia Grammar claim is biographical compilations and media backgrounders which often rely on parental statements, school announcements and archival reporting; the St. Andrew’s detail comes from contemporaneous White House-era coverage that noted the family’s decision to enroll Barron in a school farther from the White House [1] [2]. Later accounts about Oxbridge and NYU come from AP and regional reporting tied to his graduation and college enrollment [4] [3]. Each source carried different incentives—encyclopedic entries aim for summary completeness, feature pieces seek narrative coherence, and local outlets report immediate milestones—so readers should weigh timeline and context when reconciling them.

6. Bottom line

Direct answer: Barron Trump did attend Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School at one stage of his upbringing and was also enrolled at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School during the family’s Washington years; neither claim is exclusive, and both are supported in published reporting, with later reporting showing a transfer to Oxbridge Academy and eventual matriculation at NYU [1] [2] [3] [4].

Want to dive deeper?
What timeline of schools did Barron Trump attend from elementary through high school, with dates and sources?
How did the Secret Service and the White House shape schooling choices for first-family children during the Trump administration?
How have media outlets differed in reporting Barron Trump's education and why do some profiles emphasize one school over another?