[3][4] She finished high school at the Convent of Sacred Heart in New York and pursued her undergraduate studies at Barnard College, earning her bachelor's degree in 1958.

Paul completed his Ph.D. at Brandeis in 1965 and joined the faculty at the University of Chicago that same year.

[9] After completion of her doctoral studies, Sally spent 1971–1972 in a postdoctoral position at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

[10] She received a Bunting Fellowship at the Mary Ingraham Institute at Radcliffe College for the 1981-1982 academic year.

[2] She wrote a research monograph Number of generators of ideals in rings that was published by Marcel Dekker in 1978.