Academic honors didn't compare to spinning the wheel on "Wheel of Fortune" for Suzanne M. Besu '01, whose appearance on the show will air tonight on channel 7.

Besu said her mother, who was an audience member, "cried more than when I got into Harvard."

All contestants did well on the show, Besu said, but none was a match for Besu, who emerged victorious. She would not reveal the sum she amassed, and said "I'd rather have you be in suspense."

Besu, a Miami native and special concentrator in Health Policy, went to the "Wheel of Fortune" studios in Los Angeles on Nov. 2 for the taping of the show, which airs at 7 p.m.

The show recruited Besu after she and her sister tried out in a 'contestant search' in a Miami mall this summer.

The audition consisted of a mock Wheel of Fortune session, a written test and an interview. Besu learned that she would be featured in the show in July. (According to Besu, her sister was very upset not to have made it.)

Besu said the staff members who conducted the audition seemed impressed by her Harvard connection. Pat, the show's host, made use of her credentials in his introduction.

"He said, 'I hear it's a pretty good school,'" Besu said. "I felt like a dork, but I didn't want to say 'yes' and come off as a snob."