"I hated school," she told New Orleans magazine in July 1994. "I started college because everyone else was going. I majored in communications, I think. Or communications and drama. And I just remember sitting in there, and they were talking about the history of the Greek theater or something, and thinking, 'This is not what I want to know.'"

Classmates and teachers remember her as being "quiet in class," but having a positive attitude and "great sense of humor," according to "Ellen: The Real Story of Ellen DeGeneres." DeGeneres also played tennis and sang in choir.