Sandhya L. Subramanian

Sandhya L. Subramanian, when she thinks about it at all, is not flustered by the prospect of college. In jeans and a T-shirt, Subramanian seems to be a typical New York public high school student.

Ranking near the top of her 300-person class at Niskayuna High School, however, and coolly trying to decide between attending Harvard or Cornell University, Subramanian also represents the prize catch for top schools.

And when Subramanian offhandedly speaks of her Harvard acceptance as "a pleasant surprise," that's when admissions officers squirm and struggle. A daughter of Indian immigrants who was raised in Niskayuna, New York, (pop. about 5000), Subramanian is the big fish for whom the lure of recruitment programs like pre-frosh weekend are intended. And it is her attitude that captures a sentiment more common among pre-frosh in April than in February.

"Before, Harvard was impersonal, just a name," she says at the end of her pre-frosh stay. "Now it isn't. I guess the admissions people have succeeded in convincing me of this--if that's their goal."

Then she stands up and smiles at the prefrosh sitting next to her.

"But I'm not too worried."

Rachel A. Pollack

Prefrosh week was not Rachel A. Pollack's first stay at Harvard. Last fall, the Boca Raton, Fla.-native visited Cambridge as a recruit for the tennis team. The year before, the private school student attended summer school here.

Self-assured almost to the point of brashness, Pollack is something more--rare. Most of Harvard's student-athletes do not apply early.

"The early pool seems to be very academic," she says. "But they're not intimidating. Besides, there are more [of the class of 1993] to come--you know, jocks and stuff."

For Pollack, Harvard made its best effort to make her say yes--letters, phone calls, a tennis recruitment video tape (sold to her for $23), the recruitment trip and prefrosh week. But she still has not withdrawn an application to Princeton University, and she says the decision will be a tough one if she is admitted there.

"I probably wouldn't have been so ready to come if I hadn't gone to summer school here," Pollack says. "I mean, there are lots of prefrosh walking around here with no clue where they're going."

Jonathan D. F. Zinman

Jonathan D. F. Zinman grew up in a rural Michigan. The son of a professor in East Lansing, he learned to associate opportunity with the metropolis, with places like Boston.

However, despite his early acceptance to Harvard and applications at six other "selective" private colleges, Zinman says he expects to attend the public University of Michigan next fall.

"It's easy to go here if you're really rich because you can afford it, or if you're really poor because financial aid will meet your needs. But it's not easy if you're middle class," Zinman says.

"I applied here early because the program is non-binding," he continued. "Besides, these is some chance that I can get it together and come. I'm just being realistic."

"I always thought that when I got to Harvard there would be bells--I would know that this is where I belong," Zinman explains.

"During this prefrosh hosting, Harvard has done the best they could to sell themselves. It's not that Harvard's not for me, it's just that I didn't hear music."