The recent announcement of Chelsea Clinton’s engagement to her long-term boyfriend, Marc Mezvinsky, got me to thinking about how much she’s grown up from the girl who lived her teen years in the White House.

While she was known as President Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton’s daughter for eight years of her life, Chelsea has transformed into an independent women with a clear sense of her own direction in life. She earned her undergraduate degree in history at Stanford University (where she also met her fiancé) and later completed her graduate degree in international relations at Oxford University in England. Having worked as a consultant for global management firm McKinsey & Company and then as a hedge fund manager for Avenue Capital Group, the world of academia once again called to her—Chelsea is back in grad school for degree #3, this time studying public health at Columbia University.

Although Malia and Sasha, the 10- and 8-year-old daughters of President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, have quite a few years before they need to make their own college decisions, they’ve got some pretty big shoes to fill as First Daughters when it comes to academics. Don’t forget that Barbara and Jenna Bush, the twin daughters of President George Bush and Laura Bush, also attended top colleges; Jenna got her degree in English from the University of Texas at Austin (her mama’s alma mater), and Barbara earned her degree in humanities from Yale (her daddy’s alma mater).

Since Barbara and Jenna followed in the college footsteps of their parents, I wonder if the Obamas will try to encourage Sasha and Malia to attend their alma maters; both parents graduated Harvard Law, while President Obama attended Columbia and Mrs. Obama attended Princeton for undergrad.

If Malia and Sasha ever need some unbiased advice about college when the time comes, we’re hoping that they’ll look us up at The CollegeBound Network.

–Barbara Bellesi