In the spring of 1969 I was overwhelmed with dealing with my mother’s and sister’s immigration problems and could not keep up with taking 4 subjects at Lincoln College at the same time. I could not afford to fail any of them, since I was required to submit my report cards to the Selective Service board and a failure would have ended my student deferment immediately. So I made the decision to stop night school and instead look seriously at becoming a full-time university student. After discussing it with Jeanne and with my mother and sister, I started applying.

I was accepted at Boston University, but I decided to try for MIT first. I called the foreign student admissions office and was invited for an interview. When I arrived, they told me that since I was a permanent resident I did not qualify as a foreign student, and they brought in Mrs. Anne McLeland from the regular admissions office. After a conversation with her, I was admitted as a special student for the summer semester in the Engineering and Computer Science program, Course 6A. I took 3 subjects — physics, programming, and mathematics — and received 3 A’s. After that I was accepted as a regular student.

Because I was not a foreign student, I was required to complete all the normal humanities requirements, and since I had not served in the US Army I also had to satisfy all the physical education requirements in order to graduate. I received some credits for my coursework at Charles University and Lincoln College. For physical education I took pistol shooting, then rifle — which seemed appropriate given my 2 years in the Czechoslovakian Army. For humanities I chose mostly political subjects — courses on communism and related topics — since those were the areas where I had something to say and where the classroom discussions were most interesting to me. American students had very different perspectives and the exchanges were sometimes heated.

One afternoon there was a demonstration in the main MIT vestibule. A North Vietnamese flag was hanging from the second floor railing and a policeman was standing nearby doing nothing. I was very upset and went to him and asked why he was not doing something about it, since we were at war with North Vietnam. He answered me very calmly that it was freedom of speech and perfectly legal. I stood there for a moment and thought about that. In Czechoslovakia, the wrong flag in the wrong place could end your life. Here a policeman explained freedom of speech to an angry immigrant and went back to standing quietly. I did not agree with the demonstration, but I have never forgotten that policeman’s answer.

I loved studying at MIT. In every subject you could go as deep as you wanted, and the material was always challenging enough to reward that. After every final exam I was convinced I had failed. But MIT graded on a curve, and I ended up average or better in most subjects, finishing with a mix of B’s and C’s. Before receiving each set of final grades I would go to see Mrs. McLeland, certain that I needed to quit. She always reassured me and told me to continue.

She was the MIT angel.

But attending MIT was not cheap, and I felt I could not rely on Jeanne and my sister to support me indefinitely. At the same time, Jeanne’s ex-husband was pressing us to move out of Babcock Street. I was 27 years old by then and no longer subject to the draft. The engineering job market was weak — there was a recession and firms were not hiring. So I started thinking about going into business for myself.