"It could play a small part in helping Harvard maintain its number-one selectivity ranking," said Robert J. Morse, director of research for the magazine's "America's Best Colleges" feature.

However, Morse said the impact will be minor at best. Yield comprise 10 percent of the magazine's selectivity ranking, which in turn makes up 15 percent of the larger ranking--or 1.5 percent overall.

Lewis said she attributes the improved yield to a number of factors, notably more personal contact between admissions officers and prefrosh and increased accessibility.

For the first time, all admitted students received personal letters of congratulations from admissions officers.

"People loved it," she said. "I think it was the human contact."

Lewis also cited more intangible factors, like the popularity of the Academy Award-winning film "Good Will Hunting," set in part at Harvard.

"I made a remark that "Good Will Hunting" was the first phase of our recruitment for next year," she said, "Physically, this place sparkled."

"Exposure's never bad," McGrath-Lewis added."Name recognition of any kind helps you."

The overall number of first-years in the classof 2002 will not be affected by the improvement inyield.

"We expect precisely the same number ofstudents in the first-year dorms that we have hadthis year," said Dean of First-Years ElizabethStudley Nathans in an e-mail message. "[Theincrease] does not mean an increase in the size ofthe Class, or any changes in housing, or inAnnenberg."

Lewis said the yield will generate the correctnumber of students