Fifteen hundred high school delegates to the Harvard Model United Nations, headquartered in Boston, came across the River yesterday to tour Harvard, visit classes, and take part in simulated U.N. activities.

"Things are running very smoothly," Vivian Cheng '77, Secretary-General of the model U.N., said yesterday, "and the delegates are having a good time."

"When you get maybe 100 high school students together with little supervision, all on the same floor of the hotel, and it's a weekend, you can expect 'illegal actions'," Pamela H. DeCarlo, a sophomore delegate from Annandale, Va., high school said yesterday.

DeCarlo said, however, that only "a small minority" smoked marijuana at delegate parties last night.

DeCarlo, who represents Romania at the conference, said the model U.N. "gives a feel for what the real thing is like."

Richard Lipkin, a sophomore at Columbia Preparatory School in New York City, represents Benin. Lipkin described Benin Thursday as "43,000 square miles of barren land."

"It's financial status equates with New York City's, and it pays its bills about as quickly," Lipkin said. "In their spare time, they like to have coups," he added.

Lipkin said he is "not particularly interested in politics," but came to the model U.N. to meet people.

"It could be worse--I could be at an orthodontists' convention," he said.

The Model U.N. is "a valuable experience--you get involved automatically," Anne M. Huschle of Garden City, N.Y., said yesterday.

Huschle, the representative for Kenya to the Human Rights Committee, said the committee passed resolutions condemning religious intolerance and inhuman punishment of Chilean political prisoners yesterday. Huschle said she thinks an upcoming resolution condemning apartheid will pass easily.

Enrique Hernandez '77, an assistant to the College admissions staff, said yesterday he conducted an informational meeting for approximately 60 delegates interested in attending Harvard. Hernandez said the delegates seemed unusually concerned with SATs, grade-point averages and financial aid.

"One kid said he'd heard that Harvard is an Eastern snob school and didn't admit people from California," he said. Hernandez lives in Los Angeles.

Alexander L. Aldrich '80 said yesterday he found the Union crowded with delegates at lunch yesterday. But Herbert Littlejohn, assistant manager of the dining hall, said the Union served no more than 150 extra meals yesterday. About 1500 people normally eat lunch at the Union, Littlejohn said.

The model U.N., sponsored annually by the Harvard International Relations Council, will continue through Sunday at the Sheraton-Boston Hotel