My father said that he wanted to be a physicist, to which the official said, “Well then, you must go to MIT, in Boston. My son is there, and it’s the best school in the country.” My father had never heard of MIT but did know about Harvard, which was his preferred choice. And he would have gone there except that—according to him—the admissions director said his test scores were so high that Harvard would let him in even though they’d “reached their quota of Jews.” My father nodded, walked out, and enrolled at MIT.
