"We had to arrange our courses around being able to do that, but that worked out pretty well," she says.

In the end, she equaled her grades at Smith and was eligible for Phi Beta Kappa.

But her path was not without its bumps. One faculty member who taught child psychology "seemed to think either I was obnoxious or I knew too much about it from direct experience."

"I received the lowest grade that I received in anything," she says. "Comments on papers gave me the clue that the independence of my thinking was not accepted."

Radcliffe women were plagued with the same old stereotypes, according to one 1950 Harvard graduate.

"The Radcliffe women had a reputation for being homely and not washing their hair and for taking notes to excess and doing better than a lot of the Harvard chaps on the exams," says Alex Hoagland '50, a Crimson editor, who adds that he knew many attractive 'Cliffies.

They were perceived as academically 'threatening,'" he remembers.

"One also had a serious respect for the Radcliffe contingent," he says.

Let's Get Together

While memories of distant classes may have faded, the strange social intersections between Harvard Yard and Radcliffe Yard created a indelible mark on the classes' collective memory.

One is the first-year dance, something virtually every 1950 graduate remembers. Radcliffe mixers, called "Jolly-Ups," drew Harvard first-years down Garden Street to meet their feminine counterparts.

"The dances were an absolute disaster," Davies says. "Like any get-acquainted dance, everyone was slightly ashamed to be there. They were very...white bread, soft drinks and lousy cookies. No upperclassman would ever be seen at a Jolly-Up."

Opel remembers the "canned music."

"It was awkward at the very beginning until someone broke the ice and asked someone to dance," she says.

Socializing was not easy for the women at Radcliffe. They had to sign in and out of the dorms. The men had no such restrictions.

"We didn't really think much about [signing in]," Davies says.