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Still not shining at academics, Kennedy had to repeat a grade at Andover, but when he graduated in 1979 he could attend any school he pleased. Instead of Harvard, he chose Brown University, in Providence, R.I., which was enjoying a popularity boom in part because it had no core-curriculum requirements. Kennedy was beginning to look more like his father and--the tabloid language is irresistible--much more like a hunk. He scarcely seemed to notice the attention he attracted from curious students, and eventually he became a no-big-deal part of the scene. Stripped to the waist and gleaming after a long run, squiring one of his girlfriends around the quiet campus or ducking into a party thrown by some son or daughter of the international elite, he was clearly beginning to get the hang of the strange but pleasurable life opening up before him. There were difficult moments: the Rolling Stones' Sympathy for the Devil would start playing in a room where Kennedy was hanging out, and he'd exit before Mick Jagger sang, "I shouted out, 'Who killed the Kennedys?'"
When it came time to think about what to do with his life, "he was torn between his desire for public service and his desire for a career in theater or the arts," says Ted Van Dyk, a family friend. Van Dyk ran the Center for Democratic Policy, a liberal think tank in Washington, where Kennedy served an internship during the summer between his sophomore and junior years at Brown. "He had never really been to Washington," says Van Dyk. "He didn't even know where the White House was." Jackie had made a conscious decision to shield him from the capital, and now that he was there, she would call every day to see how he was doing. He followed Van Dyk on fund-raising trips to California, and that's where he discovered something new: all the Hollywood types fawned over him. "I think that was first time he learned he was a celebrity," says Van Dyk.
Graduating in 1983, Kennedy did some traveling in India and moved back to Manhattan, getting involved in charitable work, doing the club and party scene, dating. He was frequently photographed by the tabloids, and he didn't seem to mind. There was even a touch of exhibitionism in the way he made his body available to the paparazzi. "He seemed to want the attention a bit," says Van Dyk. Kennedy dabbled in acting, but Jackie thought it an unserious, and thus unsuitable, career choice. When he and Christina Haag did a show together in 1985, he made sure to tell reporters, "It's just a hobby."
In 1986, in part to please Jackie, he enrolled in New York University's law school, completing his study in three years and--infamously--requiring three cracks at the bar exam before he passed. But book smarts aren't the only kind; Kennedy had a highly developed emotional intelligence, an intuitive feel for people. It was on display in his work as an assistant district attorney in the office of Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau, where he showed great concern for the damaged people who came through the system. He confessed a few times to sympathizing with the defendants he was supposed to be putting away.