She enrolled at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana where she stayed from 1923 to 1925, majoring in home economics. To help pay for college costs she worked at various jobs, and played tennis in her free time. During the summers she stayed active with the 4-H Club as a club leader. After two years at Purdue she transferred to the University of California at Berkeley, where she graduated in 1927 with a degree in dietetics. Berkeley had set up the first department of nutrition in America in 1912.