First-year medical student Marisa B. Brett says she thinks a female majority is a valuable symbol.

"It shows how for Harvard has come," Brett says. "Maybe this will help to raise women's health issues something not addressed in mainstream medicine."

Trickle Down?

Both students and professors hope the growing diversity in the dorms will eventually translate into more diverse teaching and research staffs.

"We hope this will trickle down over time into the faculty since the faculty doesn't have these statistics yet," Hundert says.

Still, women may have a long way to go at a school that, half a century ago, first introduced female students as a "ten-year experiment." Dr. Judith K. Gwathmey, associate professor of cellular and molecular physiology, says one of her male colleagues jokingly responded to the statistics by asking. "What is Harvard coming to?"

And while female representation on the faculty will not near the student numbers for some time, Gwathmey hope for the future.

"By having more women obtaining admission, there are more women up for senior faculty positions," she says. "If we can encourage some of the female medical students to take faculty positions, then we can impact the poor number of women in the higher faculty ranks.