3 - Cornell

Summary

Weinberg takes the standard first-year courses for physics students, studying mechanics, heat, light, and electromagnetism. While these are not the fancy modern topics, they are the essential foundations for everything else he would learn in physics. He joins Telluride House, a fraternity. In his sophomore year, he lets his studies slide (except for physics and math). He pulls out of this slump with the determination not to waste any more time and forms the habit of being a compulsive worker. He lands a summer job at Bell Telephone Laboratories. In his senior year, he learns quantum mechanics. He decides to apply to graduate school to study for a PhD in physics, and to marry Louise Goldwasser.