"They" don't do anything for you here, says Edward Combs. They don't tell you where to find the washing machines that work, or how to track down your history professor. And no one "shows you how to make friends." But at least in Pennypacker, where Combs hangs his hat, "you can really feel like you're part of a community if you try. Making friends really hasn't been that hard."

Canaday C-entry eats together, stringing together one in-joke after another. They talk about putting the doorknob through the wall, and they joke about their janitor. No one complains about "isolation" or unfriendly neighbors. "I expected people to be a lot colder. Everyone, especially the people in my entry, is very nice," one freshman says.

"It's really neat how Harvard is diverse," a roommate agrees.

"Like the guy downstairs goes out with Brooke Shields and lives on Park Avenue, but he's just like you." And that settles it.

The Boss

"Dean Moses really is so sweet. I expected him to be a cold administrator but he's not at all," one Thayer resident gushes.

Taking Care of Business

Freshmen realize there is a big discrepancy between what you have to do to get A's and what you don't have to do to get B's. This is the only truly disconcerting part of the year.

"I'm working my butt off," the Scholar-athlete admits. But he's not complaining. Nor is Gardiner, who says she thought classes would be "more inspiring." As Rachel Berkovits points out, there is an advantage to doing a little work and still getting decent grades. "It's fun. I'm getting away with doing a lot less work than in high school."

While Scovell says that "the classes should be better," his entry cohorts say they are happy that people are not "nerdy."

Ho, who has already set his heart on the Biochem department, agrees, stating simply that he is surprised he "did not find nearly as much competitiveness" as he thought he would.

Berkovits says, however, that going to college is like being at school all the time, something that increases the pressure. "But I'm not studying," Forman counters. "I'm just doing all the work."

Censorship

Most freshmen tell their parents everything. Mike Potter has been in close touch with headquarters, calling Las Vegas often enough to let them in on the minor frustrations of the year. "I can be frank with them," he says. "Generally I like it a lot."

Marcy Singer is wondering how to structure all the information she wants to tell her parents. "They'll be pretty interested in classes," she says, adding that she can't let them know about what goes on day to day. Not because she's afraid to, but rather because "it's too much--too confusing to explain."