Late in 1969, I applied to 5 Universities. Yale, Georgia Tech, Northwestern, Northeastern and one other that I forget (memorable place!). I was accepted at all but Yale. Yale had interesting ideas: They wanted to be a world-class university, so that necessitated abandoning any acceptance of a local. A B student in California or Paraguay had more chance than a A plus student from New Haven. There was no fame in accepting local students! But I had another strike against me....I wanted to be an engineer. Yale could not be really concerned with the nitty-gritty of how the world operates, so their engineering program wasn't even certified at the time.
I declined to every other college but Northeastern and Northwestern. Why I forgot to tell Northwestern, I have not a clue. But it lead to an interesting situation where I was accepted at both schools and getting massive financial aid from both. It was really a toss-up. Finally the thought that I could come home more often from Boston-based Northeastern won out.
Somewhere else I probably related how I inherited my mother's nervousness and anxiety, and as the date approached to go 'away to college', the more anxious I felt. It even came to the point where I convinced my father to drive me up one day later. They had a general moving-in day and freshman orientation on a Sunday. Monday was off, followed by a Tuesday Registration. So why the heck go on Sunday????
My first visual impression of Boston was the Christian Science Center, which was an ugly eyesore undergoing construction. Over the years I'd wander through the half constructed features, until the time when it was completed. The Center used water for air-conditioning and as such had a huge pool, about the size of a football field, about 3 feet deep in the center. In the summer, just about everybody swam in it, to the chagrin of the Christian Scientists. Of course this was before legionnaire's disease....
When we arrived at Hemenway St, where some of the freshmen were staying, my father looked at the dirty street filled with normal living debris (including people) and said, "We can go home right now." I considered it for a second, but with all situations in my life, I decided just to jump into it.
One of the drawbacks of arriving a day late was the fact that I got all the damaged furniture in the room. I had 3 roommates and I'm surprised I can still remember their names: Steve Shapiro, David Langmaid, Carl Corsello (well the last last name I'm not entirely sure of).
Freshman year was very strange for many reasons. For me, it was the first time I was away from home for an extended period of time. I was homesick for about two days, made up my mind and didn't bother going home until Columbus Day weekend. My parents were convinced I'd come running home the first weekend. It wouldn't be the first time I surprised anyone.
Let me interject this: All during my life, people at looked at me and totally underestimated me. While I've vowed not to do the same, it makes you wonder why people, with so much evidence to the contrary, would STILL totally rely on first impressions to make a judgment. Later on I was to encounter an RA (resident assistant) who would consider me an absolute moron, and virtually went into shock to find out that not only did I have a higher QPA than him, but also be in the same honor societies as him!
The less I say of my Freshman roommates, the better. David Langmaid would get me into trouble for allowing him to cheat off me during the Fortran Programming Final Exam. I later found out that the hoops that the professor made me jump through to get a grade subsequently, were entirely AGAINST university policy and if I had gone to the department head, I would not have had to retake that final. In fact, this scumbag instructor tried his best to force me to retake the course. Since I had only a year to make up the exam. After that I'd have to retake the whole course. At the last possible moment, when it was take the exam or retake the course, he changed the Final Exam room, told only his students and did not post the change. Luckily I was quicker than he thought. He did, however, take the liberty of grading my exam down to a B, despite nothing wrong on the paper!
Fortran Programming also got me in trouble with the professor running the computer center. Remember, this was the '70's, we punched cards and submitted them to the computer room and, if lucky, got our printouts back in about 1/2 hour. I was really hooked on programming and soon racked up immense amounts of computer time and output lines. The professor said that I HAD to be neglecting my other studies. That's when I showed him my 1st quarter QPA of 3.5.
That freshman year I experienced a lot that I really shouldn't have.
This was my first year in the University Apts. Northeastern has a huge student body, the problem is that most of it is commuting. The only force students to spend their first year in the freshman dormitories, then after that, you're pretty much on your own. I didn't make any good contacts in my freshman year, so I applied for the University Apts, which was pretty much like the dorm. Frat House you say? You gotta be kidding! Back then frat boys were uniformly...uh....limited. The most you would hear from a frat boy was about the 'beer blast' they had last night and how Betty Lou barfed all over herself, but he screwed her anyways. No, not that I'm better than them or even jealous, it's just that you have to do something different sometime. I mean other than drinking beer.
Anyways, Sophomore year was my low point. I would have my lowest QPA (3.0) and worst social situation. For the latter, in the University Apartments I would be placed in a room with 3 seniors one of whom was one of those with a near-perfect QPA but who was, in reality, merely a sanctimonious ass. Luckily I was only with these guys for one quarter (they graduated). I had very little in common with these guys.
With the co-op plan, the college time extended out to 5 years for a BS degree. So the extra year was ordained as the middle year and called appropriately the 'Middler Year'. This particular year was probably my worst, I had the lowest grades (still over 3.0, though). The first quarter I roomed with 3 seniors. Talk about having nothing in common.
I find it interesting how as I have a harder time remembering what happened in the later years of college than the earlier. The reason is probably that so many things were happening at the same time.
Junior year was the time that I met (or got closer to) the people who I'd deal with most often. In these last two years, I acquired 3 friends and one infatuation. The infatuation was with a girl by the name of Nancy Ludwig a CJ (Criminal Justice major) who I met in her freshman year. (Follow the link to find the page where I apologize to her!)
The three friends are: Dennis Lefkowitz, John Posey and Hamid Motarjemi. About a year ago I tried contacting all four, figuring we either were still friends or at least in a forgiving mood. I only got a response from Dennis and John and only Dennis is till corresponding. It's amazing how scared people get when you say 'Born-again Christian'.
I met Dennis when we were assigned the same 'apartment' in the University complex on St. Stephens St. There was a third roommate, Mark Baron, who moved out shortly afterwards. When I finally post up all the stuff that Dennis and I pulled, you'll know why. The only things I remember about Mark are the fact that he had a cordless shaver (there were no outlets in the bathroom) and his hair was always perfect.
Now the day I moved in, no one else had arrived yet, but Dennis had been living in the room for a while. So to prevent unauthorized use of the phone, he stuck one of those cylindrical locks in dial (yeah, dial phones back then!). Now I was raised in the ghettos of New Haven. A lock like that is nothing. I proceeded to pick the lock to call my girlfriend (Marie Simi, who I may not write anything about....;-). It would have all gone fine except that I accidentally lost the lock before I could put it back on. Despite this, Dennis and I became friends! Here's the only picture I have of Dennis because he won't send me anything else:
As you can see, this is the same terribly reproduced picture that they try to add to a college yearbook and hope people will recognize themselves. Interesting to note that although I graduated an EE and got a Masters in EE, Dennis went on to the 'glorious' University of Southern Illinois to get his Ph.d. in Psychology. He lasted long enough to get his Masters, then quit and headed to his ancestral University, Cumberland School of Law to get a J.D. (Juris Doctorate) and is now a lawyer.
You can see John Posey on the Pictures of Me! page as he was my roommate when I graduated. Dennis had finished his requirements a quarter early and decided to stay home and not attend graduation. Otherwise, it would have been Dennis and myself (Hey Dennis!---phhht!).
The last member of the trio was Hamid Motarjemi. Hamid was originally from Iran, a refugee from the Shah of Iran's reign, long before trashing Iran became popular. He started the company call Logical Devices Inc out of Ft. Lauderdale, FL. where he went by the name of H. David Motarjemi. The only person by that name I could find is somewhere in Nevada and he didn't answer my postcard. Here's a picture of Hamid from the yearbook:
I always wondered why Hamid didn't have all kinds of girls hanging all over him....;-)
Note that the yearbook calls him a Civil engineer when he graduated as an EE. Way to go Northeastern!
Hamid arrived late for graduation, not even getting his robe on, wearing cutoffs and a tee shirt.
The Resident Assistants of our particular section of the St. Stephens St. University Apartments were Jerry and Kathy Dudding. Senior Year, as if to persecute the pair, the random draw of the cards but both Dennis and I in the same room right above them.