Things were not so academic for Ian J. Hardington '86 and Shannon B. McNulty '86. They met through a mutual friend. "I remember I turned up at his room for a drink, and she was there," says Hardington, who proposed to his future wife last week. "We all went out for drinks. [That was the beginning], although I had my eye on her for a while.

Cupid's Arrows Fly

Of course, extracurriculars have been known to play a Cupid's role too. "The first time I met her [Belliveau] face to face was in suite P-22 of Lowell House in January '84," says McLean.

"We were having a committee meeting for the Ride-for-Life; we were splitting up the different states [to plan where we were going to stay that summer]," says the Winthrop resident. "The other two guys were ignoring me...and she was the only one who would talk to me."

It was almost the opposite for Cruz and Rivera. After their first meeting at PBH, Cruz almost never saw Rivera again. Cruz recalls, "She was a freshman, and I was a sophomore recruiting for a PBH tutoring program called Keylatch. I put out a sign-up sheet, and she and her friends signed up. But after the meeting she crossed her name off."

"[We really needed tutors], so I called them up. She [Rivera] became a tutor."

According to Cruz, the pair became boyfriend and girlfriend within six months. And ironically enough, Rivera became president of the Harvard social service agency just last month.

The Right Stuff

Of course, getting engaged is not the sort of thing that the typical Harvard student does once a month. Or once a year. Or at all. But for these few, both the time and the person were right.

"John has all the qualities I want in a husband," says Rafinski. "[Getting engages as undergraduates] seems strange to a lot of people, but we know we want to share everything."

More people express surprise rather than outright disapproval over his engagement, according to McLean. "It's mostly that other people's plans are so different. They want to take a few years...[to do their own thing].

People do not advise engaged couples to "date others," but they don't comprehend the commitment involved, according to Hardington, McNulty's fiance. "It's just so far from what they want. They want to go travel, to see the world. They want to go to grad school, to law school. They're not prepared to organize their life around someone else yet. We're doing something that 90 percent of the population does at some time. We're just doing it a little earlier."

According to McNulty, Hardington and she did not see any reason to wait. "We were going toward that direction anyway...we felt it was right for us. So many people are surprised. It's more fun than anything," the Kirkland resident says.

Firm Commitment

"It would be very artificial to wait, to not make the commitment firm," says Kimberly M. Sanchez '86-'87, fiancee of Eric E. Thompson '87. "School is a logistical part of life. There's more to life than being a student.