COLLEGE AND MEDICAL SCHOOL

At Yale, 1970s.

The Road to Discovery - The Yale Years: Throughout his childhood, Ben Carson's mother would tell him that God would help him if he helped himself by giving his best. Carson earned high marks in high school, and entered Yale in 1969 on an academic scholarship. At Yale, Carson found he was no longer at the top in his class; in fact, he soon found himself floundering in an Ivy League institution that required strong study skills and good oral comprehension in a lecture setting. Used to delaying school work until the day before a test, without learning subjects in depth, Carson found himself unable to keep pace with his classmates and work load, which required more than sporadic bursts of attention to master.

As he tells the story, he was cramming late one night for the next day's chemistry exam. His future at Yale would be determined by the outcome. He needed a high score to remain at the Ivy League university. Exhausted and overwhelmed, he asked God for help. Soon thereafter, he closed the text book, in despair of ever becoming a doctor. That night, Carson dreamed the he was in an auditorium. A professor was working out chemistry problems on the chalk board. Carson woke up and worked on solving those problems. When he opened his chemistry exam booklet that morning, he felt a "chill" in the lecture hall, he would write later. The exam problems were identical to those in his dream. He knew the answers. He passed chemistry and subsequently remained at Yale.

Ben Carson with mother Sonja (left) and future wife Candy at Yale graduation, 1973.

In thanking God, he vowed to do what ever it took to enable him to succeed and create his childhood dream of becoming a doctor. In his first autobiographical book Gifted Hands, Dr. Carson chronicles the self reflection, acquired learning skills, and study strategies that enabled him to turn his academic performance around. He tells of meeting and falling in love with his future wife Candy Rustin, a talented musician pursuing a triple major at Yale.

He was graduated from Yale with a degree in psychology in 1973. That Fall, Candy began her junior year at Yale, and Carson began his first year of medical school at the university he told his Yale classmates, "my Father owns."