5 Things You Should Know About Sen. Rand Paul

Sen. Rand Paul examines a patient's eyes in his Bowling Green, Ky., office in 2010. Paul, an opthamologist, worked on his father's campaign while in medical school. Joe Imel/AP hide caption

Sen. Rand Paul examines a patient's eyes in his Bowling Green, Ky., office in 2010. Paul, an opthamologist, worked on his father's campaign while in medical school.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is expected to announce his bid for the White House Tuesday in Louisville. The 52-year-old former ophthalmologist's Libertarian roots set him apart from the expansive field of Republican hopefuls, most notably in foreign policy and issues like defense spending.

His father Ron Paul, also a physician, gained notoriety in the late-1980s as a presidential nominee for the Libertarian party, but there are signs the younger Paul is moving more mainstream Republican.

Here are five things you may not know, or remember, about Paul:

He doesn't have a bachelor's degree

Paul holds a medical degree from Duke University, but he was a few courses shy of earning a bachelor's degree from Baylor University. The Kentucky senator was enrolled at Texas Christian College, where he studied biology and English, from fall 1981 to summer 1984. He left the program after receiving his acceptance to medical school. At the time, Duke did not require a bachelor's degree for admittance, but the policy has since changed.

A fact-check conducted by the Washington Post revealed two instances on the same day in February where Paul stated that he held degrees in Biology and English. A spokesman for the senator later argued to the paper that a medical degree is a biology degree.

He worked on his father's presidential campaign while attending medical school

Despite the demanding workload of medical school, Paul worked as a volunteer for his father, Ron Paul's, 1988 Libertarian Party campaign for president. According to The New York Times, the two would hold regular debates during road trips on topics such as foreign policy and military interventions, with Paul taking stances that skewed closer to Republican ideology.

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5 Things You Should Know About Sen. Rand Paul