在此同时，杰里在学业上的表现依然优异，在医学院预医科一年级时，保持着近乎完美平均3.8的成绩。但是，当他迷上打篮球与长曲棍球后，成绩稍稍下滑。欧柏林大学毕业后，杰里没有申请到任何一所医学院，于是决定到纽约和本住在一起。1973年5月，他来到了纽约。

为了维生，杰里在实验室里当技术员，本则开出租车赚钱。本在此时想出了一种有趣的营养学理论，他尝试只吃法国面包和奶油，其他什么也不吃。本常烤焦面包，但还是开心地啃着焦黑的法国面包，这暗示本对口味实在没什么概念，这个缺点后来有点妨碍到冰淇淋事业的发展。

1974年过到一半的时候，本厌倦了纽约市，于是在纽约州巴拉道斯市的海兰社区学校里，找到一份教手工艺的工作。在此期间，杰里则遇见了未来的夫人伊莉莎白．史卡莉，并且搬到北卡罗莱纳州的教堂山与她在一起。伊莉莎白赚钱养家，杰里则花了9个月的时间每天都在卡罗莱纳大学校园里游荡，最后终于找到了另一个实验室技术员的工作。1977年初，伊莉莎白暂时拋弃了杰里。于是杰里决定接受本的邀请，和本一起创业。他把家当款一款，开车北去和本会合。

Jerry, meanwhile, continued to excel academically, and maintained a near-perfect 3.8 grade-point average at university in his first year as a pre-med student. His grades did, however, slip a little the longer he stayed at university, as he became involved in basketball and lacrosse. When Jerry was unable to get accepted into any medical school after graduating from Oberlin College, he decided to go stay with Ben in New York, and arrived there in May 1973.

To pay the bills, Jerry got a job as a lab technician while Ben drove a cab. Ben also developed an interesting theory on nutrition at about this time, and he tried to live on a diet of nothing but French bread and butter. Quite often, he would burn the bread while toasting it, and then happily eat charred French bread. It was a hint that Ben really had no sense of taste or smell whatsoever—which would later turn out to be a bit of a handicap in an ice cream business.

By mid-1974, Ben tired of New York and was successful in getting a job teaching crafts at Highland Community’s school in Paradox, New York. Jerry, meanwhile, had met his future wife, Elizabeth Skarie, and had moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to stay with her. While she worked and paid the bills, Jerry spent nine months hanging around the campus of the University of North Carolina until he got another job as a lab technician. When he was temporarily ditched by Elizabeth in early 1977, he decided to take up Ben’s invitation to go into business with him and he loaded all his possessions into his car and drove north to catch up with Ben.