Blackwell arranged for Zakrzewska's entry into the Western Reserve University's medical program that was unique in accepting female students. With her acceptance, she had to be willing to learn sufficient English. As she was planning to move out west to attend the program, she ran into further obstacles. She was one of only four women out of two hundred students attending the medical school. No one wanted to share an apartment with a female doctor, so Blackwell arranged for temporary housing at the home of Caroline Severance. The men on campus welcomed her with disgust and hostility. They petitioned the institution to refuse to enroll the women after the winter term. Despite the bumpy road, she obtained her medical degree in March 1856 at the age of twenty-seven.