The sheer magnetism of Harvard's international reputation attracts students from around the world like no other university--any-where.

While more recent competitors in the United States, such as Stanford and Duke, gain credibility among American students, Harvard's reputation overseas remains preeminent and appears to be growing.

"The Harvard reputation increases as the square of the distance from Cambridge," says Provost Harvey V. Fineberg '67.

Within the United States and much of Canada, other colleges--propelled by their increasing wealth and the press's microscopic examination of every aspect of university life--offer Harvard meaningful competition. They may encroach more on Harvard's once unchallenged reputation than on the yield from admissions, but Harvard certainly faces constant comparisons with its competitors.

Internationally, however, Harvard's position overshadows other American universities and even the local universities, many of which venerate traditions centuries older than Harvard's.

While the reasons behind the international attraction to the University are nebulous, at best, administrators and academics around the world say they include the comparatively flexible undergraduate curriculum, the number of world leaders who spent time at Harvard, the University's generous financial aid policies, the renowned Harvard professional and graduate schools and, perhaps most importantly, the Harvard mystique.

Drawn by these and other factors, more and more international students are applying to the juggernaut across the ocean.

UNSOLVED MYSTERIES

Many American universities, like Harvard, are enjoying a surge in popularity overseas, says William R. Fitzsimmons '67, dean of admissions and financial aid.

The liberal arts education these schools offer is becoming increasingly more attractive to foreign students as they realize the benefits of studying a variety of subjects.

In most other countries, college students must specialize from the outset in their chosen career field, such as medicine, law or business. Indeed, in many European nations, students arrive at college after relentlessly pursuing the subjects most germane to their career through their high school years, to the exclusion of other subjects.

While at college, students "read" in only oneor two academic disciplines.

Many countries are now encouraging their topstudents to attend college in the United States,hoping they will return to play a leadership rolein their mother country.

It is Harvard's financial aid policy, however,that puts the school in a class of its own,according to Fitzsimmons. It is one of the fewAmerican universities to offer need-blindadmissions for international students, as it doesfor Americans.

"That message has been very powerful,"Fitzsimmons says. "The Faculty has felt stronglythat it wanted to offer financial aid to foreignstudents."

And, even its competitors realize, Harvard alsooffers international students a world-classeducation.