"If you are a sighted person, Harvard is at the top of the list of biology graduate programs, with 12 to 13 major lab buildings and great resources particularly for molecular biology research. That is why I came here," Weed says.

"However, the technology that I require to pursue my work is just not here. The little subset of resources that I need is not supported by this program, and thus the program, however great, does not work well for my particular needs," he says.

In the Medical Area alone, too many dangerous streets impair his traveling, he says.

"Finding people to help me travel from place to place is hard. Since Harvard is not too good about finding me guides, I spend several hours a week recruiting friends--a process that significantly cuts into my academic and social time," Weed says. "I never had any such complaints at Yale and Princeton, school that found guides for me."

The Future

"Without a foundation, you cannot do anything," Weed says.

With his foundation having been laid at the Big Three, Weed says he will go to another graduate school or work at NIH.

"I may go to work at NIH for a year and use their resources so that when I go back to doctoral work, I am prepared and in as good a position as possible. In reality, NIH with its staff of 18,000, of which 4,000 are Ph.D.s outstrips Harvard, by far, with its several hundred Ph.D.s in the sciences," he says. "NIH has $1.3 or $1.4 billion available for research, much more than Harvard."

However, NIH does not give degrees or offer long-term teaching classes, such as in emacs-LISP, Weed says. Thus, he will still return to graduate school, even if he decides to work at NIH first.

"I am considering Duke University's School of the Environment," he says. "They offer a Ph.D. in Environmental Management, as well as other life sciences programs within which I can run wild and adopt the programs to my goals."