Emily E. Wilcox ’03 and Jared M. Greene ’03 can’t decide when their relationship began.

They met in person at the beginning of this year when they lived on adjacent floors in Leverett House, but Wilcox says she felt a flicker of recognition when Greene told her his name.

“I remembered him from e-group,” she says, “And I was definitely attracted to him [back then].”

Back in their prefrosh days, Wilcox and Greene both joined an e-mail list to keep in touch with future classmates over the summer.

Wilcox says she remembers Greene’s postings—sexy and philosophical. Greene insists she’s confusing him with someone else.

“We are definitely not an e-group couple,” he says.

Such couples, however, do exist.

Back in December 1998, when the first members of the Class of 2003 were receiving news of their early admission, Adam M. Grant ’03 and Scott A. Golder ’03 found each other by doing a search for “Harvard 2003” in America Online profiles.

After making contact, they started an e-mail list with their future classmates, and began sharing questions, ideas and anxieties about their upcoming first year at Harvard.

The list of names grew as future classmates found each other over AOL Instant Messenger and the Internet.

During prefrosh weekend, more people joined the list.

“By the time we came to school in September,” Golder says, “we had about 200 members, or about one eighth of the class.”

The e-group created a memorable—if limited—social bond between members of the Class of 2003.

“We all came here with about 30 friends,” Grant says, “and about 30 people who hated us.”

In their online discussions, e-group members tackled sensitive topics like race and religion.