The values and tastes acquired as a result of class background also serve to deter students of different class backgrounds from socializing together.

Lauralee Summer '98 says she never watched plays or movies growing up, and still doesn't in college.

"I don't really enjoy sitting and watching a play, because I just never did it," she says. "That was never part of my culture and I don't think I could fit in with people who regularly do."

Summer grew up with a single mother who lived on Aid to Families With Dependent Children, the federal welfare program, and was homeless while in the fourth and eighth grades.

"I remember hearing about the U.C. earlier this year, when they were planning [last fall's Gala Ball]. There was a suggestion that they offer financial aid, rather than asking, 'Well, wait. Why would these people want to go to a formal anyway?' It's sort of alienating," says Matthew M. Davis '97, a student on full financial aid who grew up a small rural and industrial town in Michigan.

When students from different backgrounds do spend time together socially, students say there is often an underlying, unspoken tension.

A simple affair like dinner with friends can become complicated if one person wants to look at different menus before entering a restaurant. Conversation about past experiences can become suited for fear of excluding or embarrassing a member of group.

To Davis, class tension "comes up mostly in terms of comfort with being in the position of consumer. I'll go into a store with a friend, and [they will] just have a sense that they know how to work the system better. They'll know to ask questions about the product."

Travel and vacation plans, a routine topic of conversation at Harvard come March and May, also underscore class differences.

"When people talk about summer plans, travel seems to be one of the biggest things," says Davis, who jokes that he is "never going to qualify" for frequent-flyer miles.

"If the way people relate is talking about travels, I wouldn't be able to bring anything to that conversation because I didn't go anywhere," says Bloodworth.

Rey F. Ramos '98 worked 40 hours during his weeklong spring break. During vacations, "I just work, never go home," he says.

Birds of a Feather

Perhaps because of the fact that social activities are generally dictated by class, or perhaps because of the tensions and anxieties surrounding interaction between members of different class backgrounds, students seem to retreat to those of their own socioeconomic background to find friends and roommates.

"It might just be that you look for friends that you have things in common with. Class might be one of those things," said Funke I. Sangodoeyi '97. "I don't think it would be a conscious thing. If you meet somebody you can talk to them about your family and if your family backgrounds are similar you have something to talk about."