Page worked for a few years in the technology industry before deciding, at the age of 24, to pursue a Ph.D. in computer science at Stanford University. It was there, as a prospective student, that he met Sergey Brin, who was assigned to show him around the campus. Brin, originally from Moscow, moved to the U.S. with his family when he was 6 years old. He received his bachelor's degree in mathematics and computer science, with honors, from the University of Maryland, where his father taught mathematics. At Stanford, he was studying ways to extract patterns and relationships from large amounts of data.
Google's own website implies that the two disagreed "about most everything" during this first meeting.