projects. In the end, I’m not sure what I learned from that course except that I did like to argue about and discuss things.
You said earlier you developed an interest in engineering. You seemed like a curious kid, too. So, I’m assuming you wanted to go to college…
I always wanted to go to college. My parents, neither of whom had a college education, put a great emphasis on the importance of education as a secret to upward mobility. When I was in the third grade, there was a big snow storm, but the schools weren’t closed. My mom said that we could skip school nonetheless, if we wanted to. My three siblings were delighted. I turned down my Mom’s invitation to stay at home and play saying. “I’ve got to go get my education.” And I trudged off in the snow to school.
Where did you apply and why?
Case Western Reserve ‘cause it was near home and lots of my nerdy friends were going there. Several of them ended up there. Notre Dame because they had this five year program called Arts and Letters Engineering which enabled you to get both an engineering degree and an Arts and Letter degree in five years. I wanted to be an engineer at the time but in keeping with my interest in practically everything, I wanted to be a well-rounded engineer. I also applied to various in state schools, to MIT and I was intending to apply to the University of Chicago and Harvey Mudd but my mom threw my applications away when I got into Case Western Reserve because she thought that I would definitely go to Case since I had been planning on going to Case since I was like a freshman. But I ended up not wanting to go there ‘cause I actually wanted to get away from my nerdy friends many of whom were going there.
The plan?
Go to college, learn a lot of new things, make some new friends, let life take you where it would carry you. Mostly I had a thirst for new adventures.
How did it feel to get your acceptance letter(s)?
I don’t remember it being like with students these days. I knew I would go somewhere. In those days, it wasn’t really about chasing prestige or dreams of this or that future. For example, Notre Dame, where I ended up going was just a place I applied to on a lark, because they sent me this
