Ellison says she hadn't thought that she could live away from home--she needs to have someone nearby 24 hours a day to monitor her respirator.

"Originally, I thought if I got the acceptance letter I'd just frame it," Ellison says. But when it arrived, excitement made Ellison unable to pass up the opportunity to attend Harvard.

"I couldn't believe it. I was absolutely on a high," she recalls. "That's when my parents decided to look into how to make this work."

"If I was going to go away, this was going to be the place," Ellison says, noting that she didn't apply to any other schools away from home.

When her family came to Boston in February to talk with Harvard officials and find out whether Ellison could logistically attend, the family was delighted to discover how accommodating the College is.

"I don't think another school could or would do whatever was necessary," Ellison says.

Though her New York school district had been concerned about having another person in every one of Ellison's classes, Harvard "was agreeable to having an adult around the whole time," she says.

Renovations to Ellison's dorm room had to be done. A new door linking hers with the hall bathroom was only one of the many changes.

The happy end result is that Ellison's best friend, who also happens to be her mother, shares a revamped Thayer 212 with her.

"We're pretty close, especially now when we're roommates also," Ellison says. "We read each other's thoughts.... It's a little scary sometimes."

"We don't have anyone else to share our personal feelings with."

In fact, Ellison says the hardest part of deciding to come to Cambridge was knowing she was splitting up her family. Her father, 20-year-old sister and 16-year-old brother are fending for themselves at home in New York.

"It's been difficult for my father to learn how to cook," Ellison observes.

The first-year says she is also sensitive to the fact that her mother is away from her husband and friends. Ellison says she has tried to fill that gap as much as she can.

"We're more on a similar level intellectually," Ellison says. "I knew that I would have to develop a role as more an adult than a child, and I think I've done that."