Ben Stein grew up in the Woodside Forest neighborhood of Silver Spring. He attended Montgomery Hills Junior High with Sylvester Stallone in the late 50s. Stein then moved on to Blair High School, where he was a year ahead of Goldie Hawn and graduated with journalist, Carl Bernstein (teamed with Bob Woodward to do much of the original reporting on the Watergate Scandal, which led to the eventual resignation of President Richard Nixon).
He majored in economics at Columbia University’s Columbia College and graduated with honors before graduating as valedictorian from Yale Law School.