Newlin entered elementary school at age 5 and finished it at age 8. She graduated from high school when she was 12 and was admitted to the freshman class at Michigan State University, where her parents taught. In her junior year, she enrolled for study at the University of California at Los Angeles, where Schoenberg was currently teaching. She returned to Michigan State in 1939, where at age 16 she graduated with her bachelor's degree in French literature. She then returned to Los Angeles to continue studying with Schoenberg, accompanied by her mother because she was so young.