College Life for Sofia
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After completing secondary school, Sofia was determined to continue her education at the university level, however the only univeristies open to women were in Switzerland. This would have possible but young, unmarried women were not aloud to travel alone, so Sofia entered into a marriage with Vladimir Kovalevksy in September of 1868. After spending a few months together in Russia, the couple ventured off to Heidelburg, Germany where Sofia Earned an outstanding reputation through her academics.
In 1870, Sofia decided to study at the University of Berlin, under Karl Weierstrass, one of the most renowned mathemeticians of his time. Although Weierstrass did not take Sofia seriously, he discovered after challenging her with a problem, that she was a mathematic genius. Within the University Weierstrass decided to privately tutor Sofia for four years. After these four years she was able to produce three papers, "On the Theory of Parital Differential Equations," in hopes of earning her degree. In July of 1874, Sofia was finally granted her Ph.D. from the Univerisy of Gottingen. Studying under Weierstrass during her college life made her academic abilities more appealing, however, being that she was a woman, it was difficult to find employment.