Ware received her A.B. from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie in 1920, her A.M. from Radcliffe College, a women's college associated with Harvard University in 1924, and her Ph.D. in 1925. Ware was an associate professor of history at Vassar from 1925–1930 and from 1932-1934. After graduating from Vassar College with an A.B. (artium baccalaureus), Ware taught summer school in the state of Kentucky's mountains. At the age of eighty-four, Ware reflected that her first trip to the south was the first time she had encountered segregation. In the fall, Ware began teaching at a preparatory school for girls in Pennsylvania, the Baldwin School. The school was founded in 1881 with the purpose of preparing young women for admission into Bryn Mawr College.