Elayne Arrington grew up in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Homestead High School in 1957 where she was valedictorian, receiving the country's second highest mathematics SAT score (797 out of 800).[2] She was recommended for a scholarship to study mechanical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, but the sponsor, the Mesta Machine Company, withdrew her application for the scholarship, saying that the money had to be given to a man because women do not finish engineering programs.[3] In 1961 she became the first woman to graduate from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Engineering. She earned a master's in mathematics from the University of Dayton, Ohio. While working on her master's Arrington also took math courses at Oxford University.[2] She became the 17th African-American woman in the United States to earn a PhD in mathematics.[4][2]