"She was a very quiet person, very academic,very concentrated in her work," said a student whowas Tadesse's lab partner in an introductorybiology course. "She was always with her nose inthe books, very conscientious."

Two of Tadesse's relatives, who live in thegreater Boston area, were on the scene after themurder-suicide on Sunday but refused to speak withreporters.

McMillin believes that stress and lack ofsupportive friends and family at Harvard may havecontributed to the tragedy.

"You have a cultural difference, as well as alevel of economy that's quite different:capitalist, democratic society versus a societyand a culture that's just come out of a horriblecivil war," she said. Many Ethiopian families weredisplaced in the civil strife that drove outdictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991.

Tadasse had not returned to Ethiopia since sheleft for college.

"I always advocate a well-roundededucation...networks of support of friends, secureplaces, vocations where you're accepted and feelsafe, and I'm not sure that was fulfilled,"McMillin said. "Maybe [there was] too muchacademics."

Roommates

Perhaps because of their quiet natures, Tadesseand Ho appeared to keep to themselves in DunsterHouse, joining few house activities and largelykeeping to themselves.

"I live across the hall, but I didn't see themthat much. We said hi a few times," said a juniorin the Dunster H-entryway who asked not to beidentified. She said the pair were very quiet andthat she had never heard Tadesse or Ho raise theirvoices.

"They were both very nice. They were bothpre-meds so they were mainly studying. Both workedin the library," said a close friend of bothwomen, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Theystudied all the time. I don't think they had muchspare time."

When they were not in the library, I got theimpression they were studying," said the friend,who estimated that the pair spent as much as 50hours a week each studying.

The friend estimated that on any given Fridaynight during the academic year, there was about an80 percent chance that either Ho or Tadesse couldbe found in the house library.

But even though they occasionally saw bothwomen, few Dunster residents knew of the tensionsthat reportedly existed between them.

Ho and Tadesse both "floated" into DunsterHouse and were assigned to room together sophomoreyear.

The two seemed to be compatible roommates,according to the student who lived in closecontact with Tadesse in the same first-yearentryway.