Brown says 5,724 students came in last week, and predicts that numbers will keep rising through September.

“I only ever came here when the law school gym was closed,” says Tinika Brown, a student at the law school, “but I will come here now, even though the law school gym’s closer to where I live, and I like that there are so many ellipticals. I’m just worried about the crowds when all the undergrads have moved in.”

Besides the Hemenway Gym, often frequented by law students, and the Murr Center, which is near the football stadium, the MAC’s previously less than spectacular offerings also lost students to professional gyms, such as Boston Sports Clubs in Central Square ($77 a month + initiation fee) and the Wellbridge Center at the Charles Hotel ($112 a month + initiation fee).

Less than satisfied with school-provided facilities, Nicole C. Brown ’03 joined the Wellbridge Center, signing up a group of her close friends as well, and says she does not plan to return to the MAC.

“I’ll keep the membership this year,” she says, “because I have a relationship there now and my routine is set. I also like that it’s not a part of Harvard. Different kinds of people go there.”

But she says that she will at least take a look. “All my friends are telling me I have to see it,” she says.

The general student opinion has in fact been overwhelmingly positive.