18 Year-Old Supermodel To Study at Cambridge

Straight As in English, Politics, and Philosophy and Ethics A-levels have earned a place at Cambridge University for Lily Cole - the 2004 British Fashion Awards 'Model of the Year'. She was offered the conditional place after achieving A grades at AS-level English, History, Drama and Philosophy last year.

Unlikely as it might seem, Lily Cole is only the latest in the line of smart supermodels.

Laura Bailey has a First in English Literature from Southampton University and Alek Wek (a refugee from the Sudanese civil war) studied Fashion Technology and Business at the prestigious London College of Fashion.

Lily's Storm Models Agency stablemate, Cindy Crawford won an academic scholarship to study Chemical Engineering at Northwestern University, USA and Christy Turlington has a BA degree in Eastern Religion and Philosophy from New York University. Michelle Alves, the face of Valentino and Christian Dior, was a top student in Civil Engineering at Brazil's Londrina State University prior to taking up her modelling career, and is a fluent speaker of Portuguese, Italian, French and English.

As Lily Cole will be starring in the forthcoming film 'Phantasmagoria: The Visions Of Lewis Carroll' (directed by rock star Marilyn Manson), she might also be reassured to know how many fellow actresses have enviable academic qualifications too.

American alumni include Natalie Portman, who went to Harvard in between Star Wars shoots, Angelia Jolie, who studied Film at New York University (after graduating from Beverly Hills High a year and a half early), and Julia Stiles, who was an English Literature major at Columbia.

Keeping our end up, British actress Emily Mortimer is an Oxford graduate (English and Russian), as are Rosamund Pike and Emilia Fox. Cambridge University can already boast Tilda Swinton and Thandie Newton amongst its celebrity graduates.

Lily will be swapping the catwalk for Cambridge in 2007, when she will begin her degree in Social and Political Sciences at King's College.

Being the star of numerous ad campaigns for Prada, Chanel and Moschino, and with a film career on the cards, it's safe to expect her Gap Year earnings will be considerable more than those of the average UK student.

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