But the survey indicates that changes in student life--particulary randomization and renovations--have impacted students more than any social issues.

Many seniors say they are upset that they were not more of a part of renovations of the Yard dormitories.

And although present seniors had four years of a remodeled Science Center Green-house, nothing can curb seniors' almost unanimous distress that a renovated Memorial Hall and Loker Commons opened so late.

But the Class of '96 was blessed in other ways. In 1992 and again this year, this year's seniors witnessed Harvard defeat the Elis in the all-important Harvard-Yale football game.

Justin E. Franz '96 recalls this year's victory and the crowd's storming the field as his most memorable experience at Harvard.

The triumph and joy on the football field come in somber contrast to the defeat within the dorms. The murder-suicide in Dunster House just over a year ago left not only Harvard but also the nation shocked and bewildered by the unexpected deaths of promising students.

A less tragic but equally disillusioning event was the arrest of two Currier House seniors for the possession and sale of drugs.

Even though, as Lisa Muggridge '96 points out, "Anyone who thinks [drug use] doesn't exist is blind," the bust served to seal the class's "infamous" reputation.

Although the Class of 1996 was so frequently a part of the headlines, seniors say their experience at Harvard has been shaped by their interactions with their roommates and classmates, their personal activities and goals.

The members of the Class of 1996, like their predecessors, will miss their friends. They will miss the bustling Square. They will miss the intellectually conducive atmosphere. And they will miss not having to worry about the "real world," not having to prepare their own meals and not holding "real" jobs.

Likewise, they already have one foot out the door, poised to abandon the temperamental New England weather, overcrowded Core courses, the occasional typically Harvardian ego and the stress of work in general.

But still, even while resembling every other class that has passed through Harvard, according to one senior, the Class of 1996 "defies description."