Did Any of the Duggars Go to College? Find Out the Education Background of the ‘Counting On’ Stars

We have so many questions about the Duggars. The reality stars of 19 Kids and Counting and Counting On fame follow strict rules, they have courtships instead of romances, and they subscribe to a controversial home-schooling curriculum. But did any of the Duggars go to college?

In a blog post on the TLC website, Michelle Duggar, who, like her husband Jim Bob Duggar didn’t attend college, revealed her children, including John-David Duggar and Jana Duggar, have taken online courses through a program called CollegePlus!.

“The great thing about it is it’s a distance learning program, for the most part, and then you have a coach who will come alongside you and assist you in studying and preparing for your courses,” Michelle explained of the program. “Taking the courses online works with your schedule so that you’re still able to work or pursue other experiences while studying. Also, the cost is minimal compared to the brick-and-mortar universities, and as a large family with a debt-free policy we’ve been really pleased with that.”

“A few of our kids are taking courses right now, and I think some of them will go for their degrees in whichever areas they decide, and then I think some of them may not really go for the full degree — but they’re getting knowledge and information for skills that they want to gain,” Michelle added in the blog post. “All my kids are different, and it will be interesting as time goes on to see which direction each one will take.”

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At one point, Jessa Duggar was pursuing a business degree through CollegePlus, according to a family blog post in 2011, and Jinger Duggar was trying to acquire a bachelor’s in music through the program.

Joseph Duggar, however, took classes at Crown Bible College for a year before stepping away from his studies to continue working with the family. “Joseph just completed a year at Crown Bible College and is now back working with the Duggar family business doing construction. He now plans to acquire his real estate license and his CDL license,” the Duggars revealed on Facebook in 2016.

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While Jill Duggar expressed interest in becoming a nurse, she eventually became a licensed certified professional midwife in 2015.

As for the Duggar spouses, Jessa’s husband, Ben Seewald, graduated from National Park College in 2015 with a degree in political science before taking classes at the Moody Bible Institute.

Meanwhile, Jill’s husband, Derick Dillard, graduated from the University of Arkansas’ law school in March 2021. And Jinger’s husband, Jeremy Vuolo, attended classes at Hartwick College before transferring to and graduating from Syracuse University in 2010. John-David’s wife, Abbie Duggar, has a nursing degree from Pontotoc Technology Center.

Explaining the family’s home-schooling practice, Jim Bob said the inspiration came from scripture, telling KLTV in 2011, “Bible says to train up your children when you get up in the morning when you sit down, walk by the way, and when you go to bed at night … and we really felt like in order to do to fulfill that command, we really wanted to home-school our children.”