Those close to her say Gardiner never does anything without such planning.

"Avery is very directed," Turner says. "She is very goal-oriented, and she's very methodical."

Gardiner's mom, Anne, says Avery got up every morning at 4:30--a very cold hour in Maine--to deliver papers.

"I knew then that she was a determined young person," Anne says.

Gardiner is even driven on vacation. The summer after their first year at the College, Gardiner and her former roommate Carrie S. Gunther '97-'96 (who is now at Cornell Medical School) spent nine days in Paris.

"We saw such a huge amount," Gunther says. "The two of us were up at like 8 every morning and we were just going until night. We wanted to see everything we could conceivably see in Paris and the vicinity in 10 days or under.

"I liked traveling with her because she didn't want to sit around," Gunther continues. "She wanted to see everything."

Gardiner's younger sister Kate, a student at Colby College, says she hoped that when Avery came home from college she would relax.

"But she comes home and stays in her Harvard world," Kate says. "She still stays on top of everything. At Christmas she's always studying for [her exams] whereas I would be procrastinating."

Gardiner does enjoy relaxing outside in the wilderness, going canoeing and camping with her boyfriend Anestis and her family, which also includes older brother Marsh and little sister Elizabeth.

Anestis says Gardiner, a tall, slim blonde whose usual attire is dark, tailored slacks and a blazer, is happy to put on jeans or shorts and hang out outside.

"She's comfortable paddling along for a long time," he says. "She's more relaxed."

Gardiner says growing up in Maine made for an "outdoorsy" childhood. The family owns two canoes.

"The best part of living next to the capitol was [that] when they plowed the parking lot they put all the snow down into our yard," she says. "So we had the best backyard for sledding."

Gardiner also eats a lot of Tabasco Sauce. Through her mother, whose maiden name is McIlhenny, Gardiner is a direct descendant of the inventor of the spicy pepper condiment. The family still makes the sauce on Avery Island, Louisiana, after which Gardiner was named.