If you’re a world famous model, musician or actor, you might think your resume doesn’t need a graduate degree embellishment. However, more and more celebrities are using their free time to go back to school and earn a degree, usually to help them in their careers or give them skills for life after stardom.

While many celebrities choose to study subjects related to their careers, others have earned surprising postgraduate degrees in all sorts of crazy disciplines. The following 5 celebrities show how a postgraduate degree can give you an excellent foundation for a career change, even if it’s an unfamiliar subject.

1. Christy Turlington: Supermodel turned super student

Considered along with Elle Macpherson and NaomiCampbell as one of the original “supermodels,” Christy Turlington has spent most of her life being the face of big brands like Calvin Klein and Maybelline Now 44. She has decided to use both her face and her mind in founding the charity ‘Every Mother Counts’ aims to reduce maternal mortality worldwide. The passion Turlington has for her work is evident in the fact that she returned to university to study public health policy issues and now holds a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University.

2. James Franco: The Eternal Student

James Franco’s obsession with education goes beyond that, Franco is known for attending multiple universities simultaneously and starring in Oscar-nominated films. After returning to UCLA for his bachelor’s degree in 2008, Franco attended at least five other universities: Columbia, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Brooklyn College, Yale, and the University of Houston (at least three of them simultaneously). . Columbia awarded Franco a Masters in Fine Arts in 2011. He is currently pursuing his PhD in English at Yale University.

3. Brian May: Guitarist by day, astrophysicist by night

Queen guitarist Brian May didn’t always have plans to be a rock star and had already completed his Bachelors in Mathematics and Physics at Imperial College London before embarking on his musical career. When he left Imperial to join Queen, he was in the middle of his PhD in astrophysics. However, 30 years later he decided to finally complete his PhD and was awarded his doctorate in a special ceremony in 2008.

4. Shaquille O’Neal: Champion basketball player, protégé

After leaving Louisiana State University to joinThe NBA, basketball giant Shaquille O’Neal promised his mother that one day he would go back to school and finish his education. Not only did O’Neal deliver on that promise with his bachelor’s degree in 2000, but he also earned an MBA from the University of Phoenix in 2005. After retiring from the NBA, O’Neal received an Ed. D from Barry University in 2012 and has been vocal about his plans to work toward another degree.

5. Dexter Holland from The Offspring: From Rock Musician to Rock Molecules

Dexter Holland might be a world-famous rock musician and possibly one of the greatest rock singers of all time, but he’s also a self-confessed geek at heart. Much like May, Holland has always balanced his love of music with his love of science: He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in molecular biology from the University of Southern California. Holland was also a graduate student in molecular biology there before The Offspring had to put his PhD plans on hold due to time commitments. Science isn’t just Holland’s secret talent, though: he’s also a certified pilot.