As a child, Hathaway was in a Montessori program at Brooklyn Heights Montessori School as a preschooler and was then able to enter first grade at the Wyoming Elementary School in Millburn, New Jersey while she was technically still a kindergartner. Hathaway graduated from Millburn High School where she participated in many school plays; her high school performance as Winnifred in Once Upon a Mattress garnered her a Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Award nomination for Best Performance by a High School Actress. During this time, Hathaway was in plays including Jane Eyre and Gigi at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse (which is located in Millburn, across the street from Hathaway's middle school).She spent several semesters studying as an English major and Women's Studies minor at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, before transferring to New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study

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