"I actually came to Harvard planning to do math or science of some sort," says Orin E. Johnson '96.

He later switched to music and then to Folk and Myth because it allowed him tofocus on enthnomusicology.

Clare A. Sammells '95 says she came to Folk andMyth after deciding she "didn't want to studyrocks for the rest of her life" in Geology becauseshe "found people more interesting."

Kaplan also came to Harvard thinking she wasgoing to concentrate in something else.

"Freshman year I will certainly admit to havinggone through the essential 'come to Harvardthinking you know what you are doing and find outthat you are sadly mistaken," she says. Kaplan hadbeen planning to major in science, but changed hermind when she found the Physics department"unfriendly."

But, like Millman, Folk and Myth's "tiny andwonderful" classes drew her in, she says. Unlikein Harvard's larger departments, she can get afaculty recommendation whenever she wants, Kaplansays.

And despite the fun-sounding course topics like"Withcraft" and "Witches, Werewolves and OuijaBoards," concentrators say Folk and Myth is nohaven for guts.

This is no "slough-your-way-through Harvard"concentration, Johnson says.

Sammells says that often 60 people will show upfor a Folk and Myth class during shopping periodbecause they are drawn by the name.

"Then they see the 30-page paper and theyleave," she says.

Folk and Myth majors do concede, however, thatcourses with topics slightly more off-beat thanchemistry or calculus can be less dry than thetraditional class work.

Millman wanted to do something that he "knewwould be fun," he says.

Interdisciplinary

Another major attraction for Folk and Mythconcentrators is the concentration's extremelyinter disciplinary course list.

Eleni N. Gage '96, chose Folk and Myth overEnglish or the Romance Languages because of theflexibility it offered her.

She is enhancing her study of Greek Folkloreand Mythology with the study of Spanish and Frenchliterature, which also count for concentrationcredit.