Harvard apparently will not be receiving a major grant for computer science from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

While it has not been officially announced, Harvard computer scientists said recently that their proposal for one of the 55 million NSF grants has not been accepted.

"Our attempt there was quite successful in that we were a runner-up," said McKay Professor Thomas E. Chentham Jr., pointing out that this was Harvard's first attempt for the award that he said is rarely won on the first try.

Brown, Yale, and Cornell have been previous recipients of the grant.

However, one of the officials involved with the grants process yesterday suggested that the NSF had some reservations about Harvard's computer science programs.

"From a computer science point of view, Harvard had one of the average cases for receiving such a large grant." Michael Stonebreaker, a professor of Electrical Engineering at University of California and one of the "on-site" inspectors for NSF, said yesterday.

Stonebreaker praised Harvard for its "good" graduate students and added that as its computer science program was in an embryonic stage. "An influx of money could do a great deal of good."

But, he commented. "On the minus side. Harvard has been inflexible toward retaining computer science faculty."

Last week it was disclosed that Harvard had denied tenure to Associate professor of Computer Science Philip A. Bernstein. sparking charges by some observers that Harvard was not serious about computer science.

Bernstein's departure means. Harvard computer science officials confirmed, the lows of several hundred thousand dollars of computer hardware and support staff for research from both public and private sources. However, the officials said, research monies are often earmarked to a particular professor and such losses are commonplace when they leave.

Bernstein's departure--coupled with the departure of his research partner. Assistant Professor of Computer Science Nathan Goodman, and Assistant Professor of Computer Science Annie W. Shum--will leave Harvard with only one junior faculty member in the experimental side of the field.