Before the admissions office went computerized a few years ago--now they are supposed to sit around and say to each other, "I've got a good boy here; he's sort of a 142"--they had a breakdown of all Harvard people into 13 types, designated by letters. There was W, for wheel, which meant an ambitious, driving type, and X, for cross-country, which meant a plodding but determined type, and so on. They were all Harvard men if they were admitted, you understand, but there were still slight variations.

15 Finley Two- and Six- Variety Theories

John H. Finley '25, a semi-retired professor of Greek, is a veteran theorizer. In one well-known version of his Harvard Worldview, there are arrows (ambitious, motivated types) and teacups (those out to find themselves). In another there were six types--activists, scholars, and so on.

16 Yale Three Variety Theory

The Insider's Guide to the Colleges, published by the editors of the Yale Daily News, says there are only three kinds of people at Harvard: wonks (who study a lot), jocks (who go out for sports and drink) and preppies (who join clubs). There are some hippies, the guide admits, but basically if you're not already one of the three classic types you'd best hang it up.

17 Hall Product Theory

Stephen S.J. Hall, vice president for administration, also takes a student-oriented view of the University. "I consider Harvard really one of the finest universities in the world as far as the product they turn out," Hall said last year, explaining why hecame here fromthe Sheraton Corporation. "Basically, that's what we're here for--to turn out a product."

18 Fisher Ten Thousand Factory Men of Harvard Theory

Francis D. Fisher '49, who directs the Harvard office that counsels students on careers, thinks so many people are going to college these days that pretty soon college graduates--even Harvard graduates--will be forced into blue-collar jobs. Fisher's office publishes a book called After Harvard What? that predicts "that new and tougher competition will exist from the brightest Ph.D. on down, that many, no matter how well-educated, will end up doing work of a somewhat different kind than the work which someone similarly educated would have undertaken even a few years ago."

19 Fitzgerald Indoors Theory

From F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise, this is future Princeton man Amory Blaine reflecting on where to go to college: "I want to go to Princeton. I don't know why, but I think of all Harvard men as sissies like I used to be, and all Yale men as wearing big blue sweaters and smoking pipes... I think of Princeton as being lazy and goodlooking and aristocratic, like a spring day. Harvard seems sort of indoors..."

20 You Can't Tell Him Much Theory

Harvard men, this theory says, are Harvard men because they're not--that is, the good thing about Harvard is that it doesn't turn out a pre-stamped, homogeneous product. William James said, "Our undisciplinables are our proudest product," and President Conant agreed: "Harvard was founded by dissenters. Before two generations had passed there was a general dissent from the first dissent. Heresy has long been in the air."

21 Stamped from the Mold Theory

On the other hand: there are those who think Harvard turns out people, or should turn out people, who are similar, upper middle class bureaucrats. The New American Movement, for instance, a local leftist group, published a pamphlet called Introducing Harvard a few years ago that said: "That is what Harvard trains you for: surviving and rising in the bureaucracy of your choice." Even President Pusey, in his Walter Mittys of the Left speech, saw his mission as bringing radical students into the fold, saying: "Bringing students of this persuasion back to reality presents a new kind of challenge to college education."