COLLEGE AND MEDICAL SCHOOL

My Father's House - The Michigan Years: When Ben Carson told his Yale classmates "my Father owns" the University of Michigan School of Medicine, he was referring to God. But his well-heeled contemporaries, accustomed to high-achieving relatives, needed no further explanation, and Carson never gave it.

It was while operating a crane in a steel company, the summer before entering Michigan medical school, that Carson became convinced of his keen sense of hand and eye coordination. This, and the ability to understand physical relationships and to think in three dimensions, would ultimately lead to his decision to become a surgeon, a specialist who must be able to foresee the consequences of each stroke of his hand.

During his clinical year at Michigan medical school, traditionally the third year of four, he drew upon these abilities to solve three dimensional problems, and to develop a new technique enabling neurosurgeons to pinpoint the hole in the base of the skull. This technique saved precious time in conducting surgery on the brain.

As surprised as his professors and fellow students by his ability in the neurosurgery arena, Carson decided that he had at last found the niche in which he could excel. After graduation from Michigan in 1977, he remained at the school for his residency training in neurosurgery. A change in leadership there in 1980 prompted his decision to apply to another medical institution to continue his neurosurgery training: Johns Hopkins. Again, he faced an obstacle. Johns Hopkins accepted only two students a year for neurosurgery residency, and more than 125 individuals had applied.