Founded by a group of Harvard and Brown graduates in 1989, the agency sprang from a six-company minority career fair which the Harvard Asian-American Association and minority Student Alliance organized at the Sheraton Commander Hotel in 1987.

Now, forums take place yearly in Boston, Chicago, New York City, San Francisco and Washington D.C., with the latter two cities added just this year.

The companies that participate are mostly finance and consulting firms, but other participants include advertising agencies, pharmaceutical companies and the U.S. Armed Forces. Each corporation pays a fee, which purchases a forum booth, a profile in Crimson and Brown's magazine and an interview schedule.

Before each forum, Crimson and Brown compiles a book containing the resumes of all pre-registered students. Many companies select their first-round interview candidates from this book, and these interviews take place before the regular recruiting process even begins.

Based on the premise that economic qualifications should not exclude anyone from the recruiting process, Crimson and Brown pays to transport all students who have been invited for an interview to their nearest forum. For instance, the agency busses students from Amherst, Dartmouth, Mount Holyoke and Williams to the Boston Forum.

Crimson and Brown even flies students to forums, particularly from the less well-served West Coast areas.

Boston remains the largest forum, with 63 companies in attendance this year. The agency also runs forums for minority and women MBAs.

This school year, 183 Harvard students pre-registered for the Boston Minority Career Forum, held on December 1, and many more actually attended. Based on the Crimson and Brown resume book, 84 Harvard students had interviews at the Forum.

Derek T. Ho '96 says students use the agency so frequently because it effectively lifts the burden of making initial contact with companies.

"Forums are one more chance for students to meet firms, get in front of them," Abegglen says.

The agency also works as an educator, she says, with forum workshops on skills such as resume-writing and "how to get your foot in the door."

The success rate of Crimson and Brown's students is impressive. Seventy percent of those who pre-registered in 1994 received at least one interview, according to Abegglen.

Likewise, First Chicago Bank's college relations coordinator Kathy A. Barr says she expects the hiring rate of students from minority forums to surpass that of regular recruiting students in the next few years. She says the Bank has only been using Crimson and Brown for two years, and the rate is currently more or less equal to the regular one.

Sean H. Cohan '96, who is black and worked at Prudential Insurance last summer, says he appreciates Crimson and Brown because it boosts a group of prospective employees historically excluded from the networking in which much of the majority population is involved.

Thomas F. Lin '94, director of undergraduate relations at Crimson and Brown, concurs, saying that in a field where much recruiting is by word of mouth, minorities often get lost in the regular channels.