WHILE success can take on any number of definitions, many Harvard seniors are reluctant to define their own version. They act as if they've been saddled with an obligation to succeed on the terms tacitly agreed upon with their acceptance of admission to the college.

There's nothing particularly wrong with aspirations for great wealth or spectacular achievement (in fact, you're all invited for a ride on my yacht someday, right after my Nobel prize party), but what I do resent is the obligation that's implied by a Harvard degree. It's as if the rules in the student handbook read, "no boistorous games in the Yard, no hanging posters with nails, and no post-graduate incomes below $25,000 the first year unless attending law or med school."

Photographers, painters, carpenters, librarians, policemen, firemen--suddenly all these occupations are ruled out. Does a Harvard degree open only certain doors for employment while simultaneously shutting just as many?

"Nobody's stopping them, nimrod. Is this over yet?"

Almost. Look, if it's true that no one's stopping them then why are there so few Harvard graduates in these postions? Do only people who have no other options become policemen, or do many choose the profession for other reasons? Do Harvard seniors really feel "above" such work? Or are they merely afraid of losing the success status that they've enjoyed for four years?

"Are these rhetorical questions? I have a headache."

Take an asprin, you made it this far. I don't presume the answer is anything like snobbery. Yet there are thousands of rewarding opportunities that Harvard students are conditioned to not even consider.

"So what are you doing next year that's so revolutionary among the Harvard alumni ranks? What's your bold new path that you've decided on independently of what society thinks about Harvard?"

Well, hmmm...I don't really know--my parents haven't made up their mind yet.