Karp was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Central High School in 1985. Karp has a bachelor's degree from Haverford College, a J.D. from Stanford University, and a doctorate in neoclassical social theory from Frankfurt University. Karp's advisor at Frankfurt University was the well-known German critical theorist, Sociologist and Philosopher, Jürgen Habermas, a student of Theodor Adorno, a leading thinker of the Frankfurt School.
