The daughter of Bhuban Mohan Bose, she passed the First Arts examination from Dehradun Native Christian School in 1880.[1] At that time Bethune School, to which she wanted to enter; did not admit non-Hindu girls, and as such she had to be admitted at the First Arts (F.A.) level in Reverend Alexander Duff's Free Church Institution (now the Scottish Church College).[2] In 1876, because of the discriminatory official stances towards gender, she had to be given special permission to appear for the F.A. examination. As the only girl to appear for the examination that year, she had ranked first, but the university had to hold a series of meetings to decide whether her results could be published. Before Kadambini Ganguly, Chandramukhi Bose had already cleared her Entrance Examination in 1876, although the university refused to enlist her as a successful candidate.