[1] By taking evening classes at St. Xavier College, Thuener completed a bachelor's degree in 1920.
At the time, the Jesuit college for men in Cincinnati, Ohio, did not permit women to study during regular class hours, but nuns from neighboring congregations were allowed to take special extension classes, scheduled for late afternoons, Saturdays, and summers, and in this way, Sister Mary Domitilla earned her bachelor's degree.
She went on to complete her master's degree in 1923, at the women's college associated with the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.[1] In 1929, she left her work at Thomas More College for additional study at the Catholic University of America, completing a PhD in 1932 in mathematics and education.
Her dissertation, supervised by Aubrey E. Landry, was On the Number and Reality of the Self-Symmetric Quadrilaterals In-and-Circumscribed to the Triangular-Symmetric Rational Quartic.
While she served in that capacity for two successive terms as administrator and religious leader, she also sat on the board of trustees of Villa Madonna College.