Euler was at this point studying theology, Greek, and Hebrew at his father's urging, in order to become a pastor, but Bernoulli convinced Paul Euler that Leonhard was destined to become a great mathematician.
S trinajstimi leti se je leta 1720 vpisal na Univerzo v Baslu in tam leta 1723 prejel naziv magistra filozofije z dizertacijo o primerjavi Descartesove in Newtonove filozofije.