Brin immigrated to the United States from Russia at the age of six. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland, followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, studied mathematics and earned a double degree in computer science . After graduation, he moved to Stanford to pursue his Ph.D. The subject of his Ph.D. was computer science. There he met Larry Page and later became friends. He filled his room with inexpensive computers and implemented Brin's data mining system to build better search engines . This program became very popular at Stanford and he postponed his PhD and started Google in a rented garage.