Some people will do anything to get into Harvard.

Steven R. Goodman, a Duke University sophomore, spent three hours in the Science Center lobby and various dining halls yesterday, collecting signatures to support his transfer application to Harvard.

"It's one of those ideas you think up at three in the morning," he said, as a passer-by added his name to the list. "I guess it is a little off the wall."

By the time he broke for dinner, the New York City resident had persuaded 185 undergraduates to sign his petition.

He said he planned to spend the rest of the evening and part of today seeking more signatures, aiming for a final goal of 500.

"I'm not going to sleep until I get a couple of hundred more," he said yesterday afternoon," adding. "It's tiring trying to get into Harvard in an unconventional way.

Declaration

Confronted with a statement that said. "We, the undersigned, hereby support Steven R. Goodman's application for transfer to the Harvard University Class of 1985," students reacted in a varity of ways.

One bystander shook his head, said "Surely you jest," and then signed the petition. Harold Kim '86, who also inscribed his name said, "Tell me if it works. Then I'll get my little sister to do it too."

"Two out of three people say 'Why the hell not,'" said Goodman.

Lola H. Minifie, a senior admissions officer for the College who handles transfer applications, said yesterday she had never heard of a student submitting a petition along with his Harvard application.

"There's always a first," she said. "It amuses me, but I don't think it will have an impact one way or another," she added.

Lobbyist

Goodman, who is taking the term off from Duke to work at a Washington lobbying office, said he wanted to come to Harvard because it has a better government department and a larger endowment than Duke. "I also think it's great that there are Harvard Clubs all over."

In a short statement he also plans to enclose with his application, Goodman explained "Harvard will be the catalyst needed to attain my political aspirations."

"Nothing is wrong with Duke," he added yesterday. "I can sing Dixie, and Duke has a beautiful campus."

Goodman, who was rejected from Harvard when he applied in high school, said he has also submitted a transfer application to Brown University and solicited signatures there as well. Students at Brown are "less re luctant, more open, and not as cynical" as Harvard undergraduates, Goodman said, adding that 500 people signed his petition at the Providence campus.

James H. Rogers, Brown's director of admissions, said yesterday that Goodman's application petition was the first he had heard of, and added. "It won't help him, but it won't hares him."