Bo Xilai's son Bo Guagua continues his studies at Columbia University

Bo Guagua, the son of disgraced former Chongqing party secretary Bo Xilai, appears to be enrolled in the prestigious Columbia Law School at Columbia University, according to public records available on the school’s website.

The university directory shows that a student with the unusual name of Bo Guagua is registered as a student at Columbia Law School.

“I learned from a source closed to Bo Guagua that he was going to law school, so I was curious and checked the websites of some law schools,” said Vincent Ni, a Beijing-based journalist who used his Twitter account to release a screenshot of Guagua’s online student listing on Monday. “I think Columbia is a good choice for him,” said Ni.

Columbia, located in New York City, is rated the fourth best law school in the United States, according to US News & World Report, and is the most expensive law school in the country, according to Business Insider’s 2012 rankings, with tuition set at US$57,838 for the 2013-2014 academic year. Guagua would most likely enter the juris doctor programme, a typically three-year degree after which graduates could sit for licensing exams to become professional lawyers.

Columbia has yet to confirm Guagua’s enrolment with the South China Morning Post, but Guagua’s potential classmates have already begun to speculate about his sources of funding.

“Bo Guagua has his family’s financial resources at his back, but that’s not unusual for Columbia students,” said a current Columbia Law School student who asked not to be named. “I think my classmates would resist the temptation to judge him based on his parents’ troubles.”