Outside of their standard requirements, ROTC cadets can choose whether to participate in optional activities, according to Commander John B. Watkins, Executive Officer of Navy ROTC at MIT.

"You can put into it as much as you want," Watkins says.

Submarines and Fighter Planes

ROTC cadets say one of the best parts of their training is the experience they get in activities such as rapelling and climbing and the exposure to submarines and fighter planes.

The highlight for Sean M. Doherty '90, a midshipman first class in Navy-ROTC, has been his experience on an attack sub in San Diego.

And Coleman says that the completion of Army Airborne Training at Ft. Benning, Ga. constituted an important part of his ROTC training.

"I was so proud of myself, because it was my first real military training...the first stepping stone," Coleman says.

Many cadets say ROTC has helped them by offering increased management and leadership experience.

Doherty praises ROTC for giving him his "first real management position," while Katherine A. Fehskens '91 adds that the program's leadership training has even "improved [her] bearing in class."

ROTC Stereotypes

But while the ROTC students extoll the virtues of the program, many still express concern over their treatment at Harvard. Stereotypes still plague their full acceptance into the Harvard community, cadets and midshipmen say.

Mancuso said he is particularly offended by the assumption that ROTC students are "anti-intellectual" or "anti-gay."

"I wish the members of the community would be more sensitive to ROTC cadets and particularly not make shallow generalizations and categorize ROTC cadets as anti-intellectual, anti-gay or reactionary," Mancuso says.

Hornstein also singled out the perception of ROTC students as ultra-conservative as particularly misleading.

"We are not a bunch of neo-Nazis acting out pre-pubescent fantasies," Hornstein says, decrying what he says is one of the worst misconceptions of ROTC students.