Bachmann graduated from Anoka High School in 1974 and, after graduation, spent one summer working at kibbutz Be'eri in Israel. In 1978, she graduated from Winona State University with a B.A. In 1979, Bachmann was a member of the first class of the O. W. Coburn School of Law, then a part of Oral Roberts University (ORU). There she studied with John Eidsmoe, whom she described in 2011 as "one of the professors who had a great influence on me". Bachmann worked as a research assistant on Eidsmoe's 1987 book "Christianity and the Constitution", which argues that the United States was founded as a Christian theocracy and should become one again. In 1986, Bachmann received a J.D. degree from Oral Roberts University. She was a member of the ORU law school's final graduating class, and was part of a group of faculty, staff, and students who moved the ORU law school library to what is now Regent University.