Quincy House: 1. Convenient location, hideous architecture.

QRR: The Quantitative Reasoning Requirement, which tests your ability to memorize statistical formulas that you will never need to use again.

Radcliffe: An administrative fundraising body named after a former women's college in Cambridge.

Randomization: 1. The lottery process that assigns you to a house where you will find lots of "diverse" people who share nothing in common. 2. A Harvard event that has ruined many a first-year's spring break (see Blocking).

Reading Period: 1. Two weeks to read a semester's worth of text and write three 30-page papers. 2. When the rest of campus goes skiing.

Salient: Conservative biweekly staffed by a hearty clique of right-wingers who attack Gallileo, gays and, if you're lucky, you.

Sections: 1. Weekly meeting with graduate students of varying teaching abilities and intelligence (see TF). 2. Meant to complement courses taught by big-name professors too busy to teach the important details that will appear on the final.

Seneca: 1. A final club. 2. No, wait, not a final club. 3. Feminism in those trendy black plants.

Shuttle: How to get to the Quad--if for some reason you want to get there.

Shopping Period: 1. The first week of the semester. 2. The only time all semester you'll be excited about your courses.

Sick-Out: What to do when you are totally unprepared for an exam.

Softball: Traditional spring diversion of Harvard student groups. The Crimson dominated on the diamond last spring, and is riding a 113-year winning streak over the Lampoon.

Student Center: What they have at other colleges. Don't get your hopes up.

Tommy's Famous New York Pizza: Home of the sesame seed crust, your greasy late-night standby now that the Tasty is gone.

T.F.: 1. Teaching Fellow. 2. Person in control of your academic fate.