Even though she started her medical degree at the University of Southern California, in a 1974 interview with Karin Kay and Gerald Peary published in "Cinema", Arzner said "With a few summer months in the office of a fine surgeon and meeting with the sick, I decided that was not what I wanted. I wanted to be like Jesus – 'Heal the sick and raise the dead', instantly, without surgery, pills, et cetera." It was then, two years into her degree, that she left and decided to find a job so she could acquire economic independence. Arzner, in spite of having abandoned the degree, had a broad education, which included architecture and art history courses. As soon as she left the university she began working for Paramount Studios doing jobs such as that of a cutter or editor, for which she would be specifically recognized in "Blood and Sand (1922)". Later, the studios would offer her a two-year contract as a director, but it was not until the contract was finished that she would start a freelance career.