Seniors Apply For Fellowships

With fellowship applications due at the end of this week, Harvard's advising system is kicking into full-gear to help seniors meet the deadlines.

"This is the worst part of the year," said Lisa M. Muto '79, director of fellowships at the Office of Career Services (OCS). "With the Rhodes and Marshall due Thursday, it is a heavy period."

Last year, more than 230 Harvard seniors applied for the Rhodes, Marshall and Fulbright scholarships. But Muto said she is wary of predicting the quantity or quality of this fall's pool.

Harvard students have traditionally done very well in fellowship competition. Last year, seniors won five of the 32 Rhodes scholarships awarded nationwide and three of the 30 national Marshall grants.

Martha P. Leap, director of OCS, said she thinks that the College's powerful advising system is central to Harvard's graduates'high success rate.

"I think the most impressive thing is that we have fellowship advisors in each of the 13 houses literally available to the students right at the dinner table," Leape said. "I don't know of any other school which offers that kind of support."

New Delivery System Will Stay

Despite some student complaints, house superintendents say the University's new policy for first-week pack-age distribution has reduced hassles at individual houses.

For the first week of this semester; all packages were delivered to the Winthrop House Junior Common Room or to Currier House. Some students complained that the Winthrop JCR was not always open during the posted 10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekday hours.

Kirkland House Superintendent Kevin B. Higgins said the change was motivated by space problems in some of the houses.

"In past years, nobody had any room, there was no control, packages piled up and then were reported missing, and the superintendent couldn't operate correctly," Higgins said. "This year, we went through about 3200 packages in a one-week period."

Higgins said he did not know whether the superintendents would decide to maintain the centralized system for package delivery.

"I think the new system was more efficient, and I think it can work, It just needs fine-tuning," Higgins said. "If we do it next year, I would look for a few different people to help with it and even more storage space."

Leverett House Superintendent Paul W. Nugent said, "I think it's terrific. The only problem is that students never pick up their packages in time."