A survey to be published by Black Enterprise magazine in January may bolster Kane's assertion. Harvard placed 28th in the magazine's listing of colleges where African Americans are likely to succeed, a list dominated by many historically black colleges. Only one other Ivy League school--Columbia--ranked higher than Harvard.

Chang says recruiters hope to spread the word that Harvard is a good place for minorities.

"Rather than a senior admmissions officer, who might be more imposing, [prospective students] can ask us the more nitty gritty," she says.

Fellow coordinator Casey J. Noel '01 echoes Chang's sentiments.

Noel always tries to tell his prospective students that "Harvard is really good school for anyone, regardless of race."

The Competition

As competition for talented minority applicants gets steeper among the nation's top universities, other schools are taking their message to the road as well.

According to Robert P. Jackson, director of minority recruitment and associate director of admissions at Yale, the Elis are committed to attracting minorities to New Haven.

"Certainly the minority recruitment is a large part of the success we've had in attracting students of color to Yale," Jackson says.

But Yale recruitment efforts emphasize office-based work like phone calls and mailings. Jackson says that while Yale student recruiters hit the major cities in the Northeast year-round, the admissions office only sponsors two or three of the Harvard-style longer recruiting trips.

Instead, Yale relies on its student recruiters and a series of assistant deans of Yale College, who are assigned to different cultural groups on campus.

"The deans are a tremendous help," says Jackson. "Having a dean who is in charge of a cultural center, they are basically a faculty member that [prospective minorities] can relate to."

While Harvard has no such dean positions, Banks says personal visitations make a good impression on prospective students.

"I think people appreciate the fact that we're trying to extend ourselves and that our students are trying to put a human face on [a school] that can be a daunting place," he says.