After graduating from high school, he spent a year running certain parts 
of his parents' agricultural business and then attended Iowa State University 
of Science and Technology ("Science with Practice") in Ames. He enrolled as 
an agricultural engineering major and switched to physics
after his first quarter. While remaining a nominal physics major for the next 
three years, he took classes in whatever he wanted: information science, 
metallurgy, early music. He never earned a degree, not because of poor 
performance but because of the political climate; like many universities at the 
time, ISU insisted that its students study a broad range of subjects, including 
arts and humanities. Finkle-McGraw chose instead to read books, listen to 
music, and attend plays in his spare time.