School, Ballet, Reading and the IQ Myth

Ballet at an arts school, Shakespeare in his hands, and in the end no regular high school diploma: Tupac Shakur’s educational path fits no conventional mold. He attended schools in three cities, read Machiavelli in his cell, and earned his high school equivalency only later via the GED. This page sorts out what is documented about his school days and his reading-and clears up the myth surrounding an exact IQ score.

School in Three Cities: The Road to the GED

According to Wikipedia, Tupac attended elementary school P.S. 28 (Wright Brothers) in Harlem. In 1984, the family moved to Baltimore: he attended eighth grade at Roland Park Middle School, then ninth grade at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, before transferring to the Baltimore School for the Arts in tenth grade. There, he studied acting, poetry, jazz, and ballet; he became friends with his classmate Jada Pinkett.

In 1988, the family moved to Marin City. At Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, he acted in several plays. He did not graduate with a regular diploma; later, he earned his GED, completing high school equivalency through second-chance education.

Donald Hicken, then head of the theatre department at the arts school, described him in Baltimore Magazine as extremely charismatic and eager to learn, but not as a good student. During lunch breaks, he sat in the library. More about this period can be found under Poetry, Shakespeare and Theater.

On Stage as the Mouse King, No Evidence for Sports

At the arts school, according to Wikipedia, Tupac danced the Mouse King in The Nutcracker. School friend Darrin Keith Bastfield recounted the Baltimore years in his book Back in the Day (book page).

Wikipedia also notes his music from these years: Kate Bush, Culture Club, Sinéad O’Connor, and U2-by no means just rap. By contrast, sources provide no reliable information on sports; claims about football or basketball are therefore disregarded.

Shakespeare on the Street, Machiavelli in the Cell

What is known above all is what he mentioned himself. In a 1995 conversation with the Los Angeles Times, he translated Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth into the language of the street and raved about Les Misérables. In the Vibe interview on Rikers Island, he spoke of reading entire books in a single day while in prison (Ready to Live). There, Machiavelli’s The Prince also fell into his hands, from which the name Makaveli arose (Makaveli and Machiavelli).

According to Jeff Pearlman’s 2025 biography, as summarized by Complex, as a teenager he wrote more than a hundred letters to his girlfriend Mary Baldrige-the testimony of an adolescent who thought through writing.

A “Tupac reading list” circulating online does not hold up as a source: it mixes titles he mentioned with those merely attributed to him. Only what rests on a statement of his own or on witnesses is reliable. His own poetry is collected in the volume The Rose That Grew from Concrete (Poems) and has reached higher education: in 1997, according to MTV News, the University of California at Berkeley offered a course on his lyrics.

There Is No Evidence for the Alleged IQ Score

Online, an exact IQ score is often cited, along with the claim that he was “above-averagely gifted.” Yet no known source mentions an intelligence test, a date, or a result. The figure is substantiated nowhere and is therefore left aside here.

What can be said is less catchy, but verifiable: school heads and classmates describe a curious, verbally gifted boy who was admitted to the arts school because he could audition. A test does not replace that.

Anyone wishing to talk about Tupac’s intelligence is better off sticking to what is documented: lyrics, interviews, letters, and the years on stage.