Mark Rubin says he may have to watch his tongue when friends ask about his first encounter with the Ivy League. "I can't help exhibiting what I've learned and what I've been exposed to, but I really don't want to look down on people." To avoid an elitist reputation, he plans to "stay away from the image of being narrow-minded and better off than people at other schools."

Chua, like her roommate Susannah, will tell her parents that she loves Harvard, but will keep the details to herself. In fact, she realizes, "I'll have to censor everything, especially stuff about my working habits and my eating habits."

What doesn't Chua want her parents to know? That she fools around with her roommates until 3 a.m. and then sleeps from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m.

She sighs. "I'm going to tell my parents that it's a great school--but it's just like any other school."

The Harvard Experience

Even if freshmen arrive here determined to resist the lure of Harvard-think, they often find themselves giving in. Paul Manina "didn't go to all of that pep-rally stuff;" he's just not the type. But by the time the Yale game rolled around, "you feel some sort of weird school spirit whether you want to or not." With-Yalies around he "felt obligated to defend the school down the line, meaning every word of it."

Manina's friend, Franklin, "can get quite defensive" if he hears fair Harvard belittled. "After a few drinks, you can build up intense hatred, even," he adds.

For Jon Sapers, the Harvard Experience "is not necessarily a good thing." Sapers tried a semester at McGill University in Canada before arriving here, and he was surprised that "you definitely have to submerge something in yourself to get through at Harvard." Vowing to battle for his individuality, he nevertheless shakes his head about the "strange stigma" that comes with a Harvard diploma.

Jim Garfinkel feels a little jaded, but he talks about his Weltschmertz with a smile. "Nothing will ever surprise me now. Nothing could after this," he says. "I feel like I've seen every type of person you could possibly find, and half of the people here would be considered abnormal anywhere else. Here no one is abnormal. You really get a different view on things."

Less existentially burdened, another freshman asserts, "Every Harvard experience is different. But I think I'm having one."