"News of the climate on this campus is nosecret," she says. "That, I'm sure, is adeterrent."

And mending the campus climate will be evenharder with fewer Black students. "It's a viciouscycle," Bragg says.

Kiernan B. Morrow was one of 78 Blacks whoturned down Harvard this year. She says she choseDuke because it offered more financial aid andrecruited her more aggressively than Harvard did.

"It was like [Harvard wasn't] making aneffort," says Morrow, who lives in Georgia. "Italmost seemed like they believed they didn't haveto make the effort because of their academicreputation."

Duke flew her into Durham, North Carolina tovisit the campus and "made a huge effort" toconvince her to enroll, including a freebasketball game. Morrow currently attends Duke ona full scholarship, which includes a specialsummer program at Oxford University.

Although the Harvard admissions office doesn'tfly minority students to campus on recruitmenttrips, Athletes are occasionally brought to theCollege.

Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R.Fitzsimmons '67 vigorously defends Harvard'sminority recruitment efforts, pointing to anational outreach program and the help of localalumni.

Fitzsimmons says most of the Black students whorejected Harvard this year cited financial aid asthe primary reason.

It's not that these students turn down Harvardbecause they can't afford it. Other schools simplyoffer more money than they need, Harvard officialssay.

Among students from low-income families forexample, Harvard's financial aid packages aregenerally competitive with those of other schools.

The admissions office surveyed 63 of the 78Black students who rejected Harvard to find outwhere they enrolled and why.

The office found the students choosing a widevariety of schools over Harvard, from the IvyLeague to public universities to historicallyBlack colleges.

Almost half of the students said they picked aschool that offered at least $10,000 more infinancial aid than Harvard did, according toEvans.

And Fitzsimmons says the difference infinancial aid isn't because colleges have beenforced to stop comparing financial informationabout students.

The biggest differences are between ivy schoolsand newly resurgent schools like Washington, Dukeand the University of Virginia.