After completing his undergraduate training at the University of Buffalo in three years, Peter started at Harvard Medical School in 1953, four and a half years after arriving in the United States through Ellis Island. For the first time, Peter was really on his own. As a first-year student Peter moved into Vanderbilt Hall, a dormitory for male Harvard medical students. In the 1950s, the Harvard medical class was largely composed of elite highly educated men, many of whom had attended Harvard College or other Ivy League institutions. By living in Vanderbilt, Peter became fully immersed in an entirely new culture of the American elite.