Sr. Marie was educated at Notre Dame Academy, Boston before attending Emmanuel College where she graduated. She taught secondary school in Lawrence, Massachusetts and in Boston, Massachusetts before starting her teaching career at Emmanuel College after earning her Master’s Degree from Boston College. Sr. Marie Augusta earned her doctorate in 1963 from Harvard University.
In 1965, She became the Director of the Research Committee of the Conference of Major Superiors of Women’s Institute (CMSW) which conducted an examination of the resources of nuns in the United States for the work of the Church in a post-Conciliar (i.e. post-Vatican II) period. She was also involved with studies of Jesuits in the California and Oregon Provinces, a multi-national study of the SND Congregation, and a survey of Catholic schools in South Africa, a study that she refused to participate in until it was agreed to include black schools, as well as, white schools. The study survey exposed the vast inequities between the white and black schools. Sr. Marie Augusta Neal was awarded the Distinguished Contribution to Teaching Award by the American Sociological Society in 1986. She retired from Emmanuel College in 1991 as head of the Sociology Department. and was granted the rank of Professor Emeritus. Sr. Marie died in 2004.