Ernie Cohen '64 in His Own Words, 2014

Published in the July 2014 issue of Black Alumni/ae of MIT (BAMIT) newsletter in honor of Ernest Cohen ’64, who celebrated his 50th MIT reunion and received his Red Jacket that year.

Ernie Cohen on going to MIT

I wanted to be an Electrical Engineer and was tracking to MIT early. I was my high school valedictorian. When I took the PSAT's and then later the SAT's, I did very well. 

I arrived at MIT in September 1960. At the time, there were 3 Blacks in my class, and only 12 Blacks in MIT’s undergraduate school of about 3600 students. I studied in the stacks at Hayden library, which were as quiet as a tomb. This helped me get on Dean’s list by end of second term. Though my very first computer course in the fall of 1960 was a disaster, I learned more than I realized.