Last year, when pollsters and pundits were scrambling frantically to predict the next President of the United States, Larry L. Shea says he already knew the answer.

Shea, a Cambridge astrologer, had long before prepared an astrological chart for the United States. He based the chart on the positions of the stars on July 4, 1776, which he says indicated the nation was due for a dramatic change this year.

As soon as independent candidate H. Ross Perot with-drew from the race in July, Shea says, the outcome was perfectly clear.

Similarly, Shea says the outcome of the abortive 1991 coup attempt in the Soviet Union was a foregone conclusion--because the star chart of the Communist regime showed hardliners were not destined to return.

Skeptics say such conclusions are hocus-pocus, claiming and that it's easy to boast predictive success after the fact. But Shea and others stand behind such astrological predictions and say the stars' arrangement during a person's birth has a lifelong impact on the person.

Dean of the College Archie C. Epps III, a Taurus, is aware of his sign and says some of its characteristics, perhaps coincidentally, are true of him.

"[Tauruses are] known to be generals, leading large masses of people, and stubborn and persistent," Epps says, although he declined to specify which Taurean traits apply to him.

Many Harvard professors say the practice has no scientific basis, and is little but superstition, but some Harvard students sheepishly confess they often take a peek at their horoscopes, and even occasionally find truth there.

"Yes, I do [read horoscopes]. Sometimes the monthly thing is really right. It's scary," says Y. Judy Shen '96.

"I love them," says Lisan L. Goines '95, a Libra, although she doesn't believe in the predictions because they always forecast "good stuff."

But Goines says that inadequacy doesn't stop her from using them for certain social purposes. "I do research on the guys that I stalk."

Other students, who share Goines' disbelief, still read the predictions for fun.

"I think they sound specific, but they're vaguely-enough worded so any person reading it can apply it to him-or herself," says Noel C. Allen '95.

But other students refuse to read the predictions and say they are little more than a waste of time.

"I don't look at them at all," says William W. Minton '95.