However, although these prep schools continue to send a much higher number of students to Harvard than the average public school, their influence is declining in the face of a growing call for racial and ethnic diversity, equality of opportunity and political correctness.

Professor of Sociology Aage B. Sorensen said "all of this has gotten to be much less important because Harvard has gotten very concerned about being equal-opportunity."

"At least in the past couple of years there has been a big movement away from taking students from the traditional feeder schools," said Rebecca L. Garrison '99, who attended Phillips Exeter Academy. "It's a good thing because it's probably giving students from public schools more opportunity, but it's also probably denying quality kids from prep schools just because they're from prep schools."

"[T]he days when preps could automatically expect to go to an Ivy League or other highly selective college are over," write Cookson and Persell. "They have to earn their way--or at least part of their way."

There are several non-boarding schools that also have considerable numbers of students admitted to Harvard each year. These include Roxbury Latin, a small all-male private school in West Roxbury, Stuyvesant, a public magnet school in New York City and the Boston Latin School, a public magnet school in Boston.

Although these schools do not have the same resources as elite private boarding schools, they are hardly bereft. Stuyvesant is generously funded by New York in hopes of cultivating the city's best and brightest, while Boston Latin draws funds from a large alumni base.

These schools also have a history. Boston Latin was founded in 1635, the year before the inception of Harvard; local lore has it that Harvard was founded so that graduates of Boston Latin would have somewhere to go. Roxbury Latin was founded only ten years later, in 1645.

Jeffrey S. Gleason '99, who graduated from Roxbury Latin, said Harvard is a potent presence there. Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 is a Roxbury Latin alumni as are other Harvard faculty and administrators.

"There's definitely been a connection, and it's consistent year in and year out," says Gleason. "There are a lot of good schools that Roxbury Latin kids aren't going to in as many numbers."

These schools are also magnet schools which draw their areas' best students, creating what Fitzsimmons calls a "self-fulfilling prophecy."

"Good students tend to cluster, not at random, as it were, at secondary schools across the country," Fitzsimmons says. "When a school gets a reputation for having a lot of students accepted to Harvard, the top students will want to go to that school. More graduates will get in, attracting better students."

Although connections between feeder schools and Harvard are very strong, students and Harvard College administrators say that if students from these schools get an extra glance when they apply, it's only because admissions officers know these are schools that prepare their students well.

"We admit candidates and not schools," says Fitzsimmons. "The point is to get all the students, whether they're the first [from their school] to apply to Harvard or the 95th this year, who are legitimate applicants."

Julia A. Brookins '98, who graduated from Boston Latin School, says she feels his school provided him with no unfair advantage in admissions.

"I don't think that anyone who isn't qualified to gets in because of the relationship between the two schools," she explains.