Solomons interest in science began as a child watching The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau'. In high school she placed third in a national science competition, with a project that measured the percentage of oxygen in a gas mixture.
Solomon received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Illinois Institute of Technology in 1977.  She then received an M.S. in chemistry in 1979 from the University of California, Berkeley, followed by a Ph.D. in 1981 in atmospheric chemistry.