Over 20 Harvard freshmen learned yesterday that they will be living at Radcliffe next year-even though they had indicated that they preferred staying at Harvard.

They had committed themselves unknowingly by their answers to the House preference questionnaire distributed to the freshman class last month.

That questionnaire asked freshmen to rate co-residential Harvard living, non-co-residential Harvard living, and Radcliffe living on a preference scale from one to three, and the nine Harvard Houses plus Radcliffe from one to ten.

Surprise

All freshmen who rated Radcliffe first, or second after co-residential Harvard, on the first question, and among the top three on the second, will go to the 'Cliffe.

"We assumed that these people were more interested in co-residential living than in their specific House assignment." Lawrence F. Stevens, research assistant in the Office of Tests, said yesterday.

Fewer than 30 freshmen made Radcliffe their first choice on the questionnaire; another 13 decided later to move to the Quad. The remainder of the 64 Harvard freshmen who will live at Radcliffe next year preferred a Harvard House to the 'Cliffe.

The 61 freshman Cliffies moving to Harvard next year will live only in Dunster and Lowell Houses.