Bryce Dallas Howard graduates from college nearly 21 years after she first enrolled

Bryce Dallas Howard is a college graduate.

The "Jurassic World" actress shared with her Instagram followers Thursday that she earned her diploma nearly 21 years after she first enrolled in New York University as an undergraduate student.

Editor’s Picks

Read Oprah Winfrey's commencement speech to the class of 2020

Student goes viral with post-graduation dance: ‘I was always the kid who was dancing’

81-year-old grandfather graduates college

She took a leave of absence to work as an actor, she explained, but always wanted to go back to school.

"I am so overcome with joy to share that I have officially graduated from NYU!!" she wrote. "It’s been a long dream of mine to complete my formal education and though all of us NYU grads couldn’t wear glorious purple robes together today, I want to say thank you to everyone who supported and encouraged all of us graduates every step of the way. To the class of 2020, WE MADE IT."

Howard, 39, left NYU because she got an off-Broadway acting job, she wrote in a letter to her classmates, and eventually, other opportunities came her way. She earned a Golden Globe nomination in 2007 for her role in "As You Like It," and went on to win a Screen Actors Guild award for her work on the film, "The Help." Her personal life blossomed too; she married her college sweetheart, actor Seth Gabel, in 2006. They have two children. However, she never lost sight of her goal to become an NYU grad.

"As the years passed, a passion for personal development and learning blossomed. Similarly, a desire to exist within a community of individuals who were also experiencing the transformative effects of an education," she wrote. "I remained focused and determined to complete my degree and often fantasized about walking at graduation. I wasn’t at all intimidated by the fact I would be decades older than the majority of graduates. Seth (my husband) and I did the math and realized that many babies born the year I first started NYU were probably graduating alongside me, which made me even more excited. How wild, how weird, and what a great story."