Floyd was educated at home and at a nearby log schoolhouse before enrolling in Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania at the age of thirteen. He became a member of the Union Philosophical Society in 1797. Although he matriculated with the class of 1798, he had to withdraw due to financial troubles. His guardian had failed in his payments and family accounts relate Floyd was so poor that "he was obliged to borrow a pair of panteloons from a boatman" to return to his home in Kentucky.