The admissions office pays for plane tickets, as well as lunch and gas money for its student recruiters. Since recruiters are frequently sent back to their home areas, they are required to find their own housing and transportation.

And recruiting costs student volunteers precious time away from campus. Coordinators sacrifice a week of school to their admissions travels.

"They work a real schedule--three high schools a day for five days, and at least three middle schools in addition," Banks says. "It's not an uncomplicated matter. It's not just punching a ticket and getting on a plane."

According to Chang, who hopped on a plane last month to recruit in the San Francisco Bay area, the schedule can be exhausting.

Chang followed a strictly regimented itinerary that she drew up with help from the admissions office. Over her five days, Chang visited 20 schools, spending an average of an hour to an hour and a half at each one.

"The average number of schools is 15, so I kind of overdid it. It turned out to be painful," Chang says. "My day was spent going to between three and five schools. It would typically start as early as 7:30 [a.m.] and go to 3 or 4 [p.m.]"

At school after school, Chang met and chatted with students. While her visits were geared to minority students--she sent out special invitations to minorities in the area before leaving campus--Chang's information sessions were open to all who were interested.

"The main emphasis was to draw in minorities. After that it was just to educate them about Harvard," Chang says.

A Place for All

Coordinators say they hear the same assumptions about Harvard again and again on their travels--stereotypes which convince them that they perform a necessary function.

"Part of the reason that we go on the trips is to dispel myths that people have about Harvard--that it's a place where rich white kids go," Chang says.

Coordinator Joan M. Kane '00, who travels yearly to a Native American tribal conference in her home state of Alaska, says she hears the same concerns.

"For a lot of minority students, they don't consider Harvard either for financial reasons or because they think Harvard is all white," she says.

Kane says she emphasizes Harvard's need-blind admissions process to prospective students, as well as her own experiences as a minority on campus.

"Harvard is one of the most minority-friendly campuses in the U.S.," Kane claims.