Sometimes thin envelopes do bring good news.

Twenty-four juniors received a one page letter on Monday inviting them to join the prestigious Harvard chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, a national academic honor society. Only 24 out of the entire class of about 1,600 are selected in the first round.

"I was really excited when I found out," said Dena J. Springer '99. "There are so many really bright students here. I'm not sure what the criteria was, but I'm thrilled."

Harvard's Phi Beta Kappa chapter sends letters to students who make the grade cutoff, encouraging them to apply. To apply, students must submit recommendations from two faculty members for review, and they are notified of the committee's decision about a month later.

"I'm very glad to have been elected," said C. Thomas Brown '99. His mother was Phi Beta Kappa, he explained, and "I knew it existed and wanted to be elected."

"I'm especially surprised to win it on the first round, it's a big deal to happen as a junior," Brown said.

Phi Beta Kappa elects students in three different rounds.

Forty-eight more will be selected in the fall of senior year, with the final, largest round of elections taking place in a spring senior induction.

The total number of inductees from each class year cannot exceed 10 percent of the graduating class, as dictated by the national organization's rules.

Members pay a small initiation fee, get a keypin as a symbol of their membership and also have the opportunity to attend functions sponsored by Phi Beta Kappa.

Winners did express a little concern about how fellow students would take the news. "People at Harvard don't talk about grades," saidSpringer, who is a Crimson editor. "It's a littlescary to have this suddenly broadcasted toeveryone. I'm worried that people are going tolabel me by this."

Other winners sought to put the award in alarger perspective.

"It's not like it's going to change my life,"Kathryn J. Ruddy '99 pointed out. "It's a greathonor, and it's really nice, but the mostsignificant things are things you create andaccomplish with others."

Winners include Brown, Halbert M. Jones, NavinNarayan, Eric M. Nelson and Benajamin H. Wilkinsonof Adams House; Jenny S. Lin and Paul D. Todghamof Cabot House; Olivia S. Choe, J. Taylor Perronand Ruddy of Currier House; Samit Dasgupta ofDunster House; John V. Allanbrook, Springer andDeborah C. Yeh of Eliot House; Hanna R. Shell ofLeverett House; Elizabeth W. Dunn, Eric J. Feiginand Rebecca C. Weiss of Lowell House; Daniel J.Benjamin, Andrew C. Eggers and Chelsea H. Foxwellof Mather House; Grace M. Lee of PforzheimerHouse; Dunja Popovic of Quincy House; and LawrenceA. Cooper of Winthrop House