 The McClintock family moved to Brooklyn in 1908 and McClintock completed her secondary education there at Erasmus Hall High School ; she graduated early in 1919 . She discovered her love of science and reaffirmed her solitary personality during high school . She wanted to continue her studies at Cornell University 's College of Agriculture . Her mother resisted sending McClintock to college , for fear that she would be unmarriageable . McClintock was almost prevented from starting college , but her father intervened just before registration began , and she matriculated at Cornell in 1919 . 
