He received college acceptances with full scholarships from Brown, Harvard, and Yale, but chose to study at Yale because of their renowned art program. But, after his sophomore year, Halley was denied entry into the art major and decided to move to New Orleans, where he lived for one year. He returned to Yale the following year to study art history, and wrote his senior thesis on Henri Matisse before graduating in 1975. After graduation, Halley returned to New Orleans and, in 1976, enrolled in the University of New Orleans MFA program. He received his MFA in 1978 and lived in New Orleans until 1980 (also traveling to Mexico, Central America, Europe, and North Africa during this time).