Ocon also turns to Cambridge-area organizations to make up the difference.

"Cambridge is a great place to be poor," Ocon says.

The local chapter of Women, Infants and Children (WIC) gives Ocon coupons that she can trade in at area grocery stores for bread, milk, cereal and cheese. And St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church charges Ocon $1 in return for a bag of groceries.

Still, Ocon's lifestyle has so many demands that she never hesitates to ask for any extra resources.

When Ocon needed a baby-sitter to take care of Bailey some weekend afternoons so that she can get some studying done, she advertised for one in the lobby of Peabody Terrace. Within weeks, Ocon found a family in her apartment complex who volunteered to care for Bailey Saturday afternoons, when Ocon needs the time to study or work on papers.

"I'm very vocal about being a single mom. I have no problem telling people that this is what I'm all about," Ocon says. "You have to get really thick-skinned. You have to ask for help. It's about my daughter's well-being. I'm getting to the point right now where I almost feel as if I'm talking about it too much."

But Ocon and her family are both quick to point out that balancing life as a mother and as a Harvard undergraduate is inherently difficult, no matter how much assistance Ocon receives from Harvard or elsewhere.

"Gina has pretty much no time to just do 'college kid' things like go out at night or even just hang out talking with friends," writes S. Sara Ocon, Ocon's younger sister, in an e-mail from Duke University, where she is a junior.

"She is financially burdened and can't afford to pay baby-sitters often. In fact, she doesn't even own a television," the younger Ocon writes. "It's very hard to do much more than study and raise Bailey because of both time and money constraints. However, I'm pretty sure she expected this."

Still, Ocon says that Harvard surpassed even the most optimistic of her expectations when the senior tutor of Eliot House, Margaret Bruzelius '74, and Marlyn McGrath Lewis '70, director of admissions, wrote declarations of support that were used during Ocon's custody battle with Maggiore. In May, Ocon won the right to bring Bailey to Massachusetts after a legal attempt by Maggiore to keep the pair in California.

"I always knew what I was doing was right, but I always felt like I was on the defensive--trying to prove to people that I really could handle Harvard and a child," Ocon says. "It was nice to get some support."

Payanzo says she is also satisfied with Harvard's support. Although Conrad T. Yazzie, her boyfriend and the father of her child, works full time and provides for most of the family's financial needs, Payanzo says Harvard has done its best to make sure she's not expected to pay more than she can.

"They've been really good in terms of finances," she says. "They were just so much more accommodating than I expected."

When Payanzo decided to move off- campus, she says she thought Harvard would not support her. But she says she was pleasantly surprised when her financial aid was adjusted to help her pay for her one-bedroom apartment on Irving Street, a monthly expense of $900.

And like Ocon, Payanzo says that Harvard has also been very generous when factoring into her aid package the cost of health insurance, which annually totals $1,500.