 While still in high school she took independent courses at Ohio University where she learned to cast bronze in the school's foundry.She graduated in 1977 from Athens High School in The Plains, Ohio, after which she attended Yale University where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1981 and a Master of Architecture in 1986.According to Lin, she has been concerned with environmental issues since she was very young, and dedicated much of her time at Yale University to environmental activism.