Eighteen hundred high school students from 120 schools across the country will spend the day at Harvard today as pasrt of the 30th annual Harvard Model United Nations Conference.

Except for today's outing to Harvard, the conference will be held at the Marriot Copley Place hotel in Boston.

Sponsored by Harvard's International Relations Council, the conference aims to teach students how to reconcile different opinions, said Jonathan M. Levine '86 of Leverett House, the conference's secretary general. Levine also said the conference tries to teach students not only how countries react but also how to apply this knowledge to their own lives.

After yesterday's opening ceremonies, students were looking forward to spending today at Harvard, where they will visit classes and attend committee sessions in nineteen different locations.

Reasons for attending the conference ranged from the serious to the sentimental.

Todd P. Polkes, a junior from Plainview High School in Plainview, New York, said he wanted to attend the conference "to learn how to debate."

"I love Harvard," said Shari Leigh Gordon, who spent last summer at Harvard's Summer School. Gordon is attending her first Harvard Model U.N.

While students are busy at Harvard today, faculty advisors have an agenda all their own. Scheduled activities include an afternoon lecture by Stephan M. Haggard, associate professor of Government, and a night workshop on the philosophy and preparation of the Model U.N. Conference.

Levine said 101 Harvard students are staffing the conference, serving as directors, moderators, assistant directors and secretaries.

Model U.N. conferences are sponsored by several schools around the country, including Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Georgetown University.