1990 may seem like a long time away.

But for three days earlier this week, that year--or rather the graduating class of that year--was Byerly Hall's number one priority, as about 330 high school seniors accepted under the Early Action Program were wined and dined by the Admissions Office.

Considering the college's new drinking policy and the culinary experience of the Freshman Union, however, it may be more accurate to say the prospective freshmen have had their fill of nonalcoholic cider and salad bars.

From a skating party in Bright Hockey Center to a private concert by five a capella singing groups in Dunster House, the Admissions Office every winter does its best to give incoming students their first "real" taste of life in the Ivy League.

The purpose of rolling out the red carpet, says admissions officer Carol M. Jackson, is not just to let some bright high school seniors have a good time. "The focus of the program is not to pressure the students, but to let them make a more informed choice of college, We want people to understand what Harvard is."

The program has gained in popularity in this, its fourth year. While less than 50 percent of those offered early admission last year came to Cambridge, the great majority of the 556 already accepted attended this year's event because of the well-established reputation of the program, and the word-of-mouth publicity from students who have attended in previous years, says Jackson.

The combination of fewer prospectives and a more concentrated program make the Early Action program superior to the Regular Action visiting days in April, the admissions officer says.

Myth vs. Reality

Most of the pre-freshmen, coming from all parts of the country, visit Cambridge to compare what they think the school will be like with what it actually is. Some high school students had only seen Harvard through glossy pamphlets or textbook descriptions.

David R. Priest, one of the two people from Minnesota to get an early offer of admission, would be the first person in his family to go east for college. "I'd never been to the East before. I had no prior exposure to Harvard except the alumni interview and the brochures," the 17-year old from Minneapolis says.

Priest gave another reason for attending the event. "I love being with people I don't know. We all have no connections to each other except that we were all accepted early."

Daphne A. Norton, 18, a Massachusetts resident who is a senior at Stoughton High School, says she wishes that Harvard was farther away from home, while many of her counterparts from the West Coast wished it was closer. Most of the students agreed, though, that they would matriculate in September, and just wanted to get a better glimpse of the campus, and see what life was like at the Big H.

The amount of contact these pre-freshmen had with their probable college of choice also differed greatly from student to student. Norton says she first visited the campus at age 13 and "somehow knew this was where I was going to end up." She has continued to visit frequently.

Horia V. Mocanu, a senior at St. Edward's High in Cleveland, Ohio, says he had never traveled to Massachusetts before in his life, although he got an impression of Camp Harvard from reading books about it. "I used this program to see what's real. My expectations were high, but I have not been disappointed," says Mocanu, who was born in Romania.

Most expectations people had all seemed to be high, but they were not all well founded in fact, as a few pre-freshmen soon found out. "I got a bit of a culture shock when I found that some of the people in Canaday got drunk Sunday night. It never hit me that it would be an everyday occurrence," says Norton of her first experiences in a college dormitory.