In 1957 she graduated from Harbord Collegiate Institute, a downtown public high school with predominantly Jewish students and a history of many earlier notable alumni. Pursuing an academic career in science was unusual for a woman in North America in the post-war 1950s, where young men entered science in great numbers and women were pressured to make way. At Harbord, however, Freedhoff did not face opposition, recalling "In high school it never occurred to me that I would have to play dumb to get dates. Nobody ever really discouraged me. The teachers really encouraged me, and nobody taught me that there was anything wrong with having a career".