Profiles of Prospective Freshmen: Seeing Diversity in Early `Action'

Jason T. Winmill

In earlier days, Jason T. Winmill may have fit the conception of "the Harvard man." His Oxford shirt displays a school crest, his slacks are creased, his argyle-clad feet are shod in classic loafers.

For Winmill, raised in Wrentham, Mass. and schooled at Xaverian Brothers High School, Harvard means and has meant for some time number one, and the next logical step toward a medical career.

"Harvard has always been there, in the front of my mind," he says.

"I like the location--I mean, being on the East Coast and all--and the school is really strong academically. Boston is attractive, Harvard has a good track team and there's always the Harvard mystique."

And like most prefrosh, Winmill does not acknowledge a Harvard stereotype.

"There's no Harvard type," he says. But as he glances around pre-frosh party in a Yard dorm with a drink in his hand he says, "Actually, there aren't too many jocks in this group. The prefrosh seem to be a pretty academic-minded group."

Again he looks around. This time he turns and whispers, "These are the most anti-social people I have ever met."

Sage C. Stossel

"I'm a little intimidated," admits Sage C. Stossel. She adds with a shrug of her shoulders and a smile, "But, I guess I have no choice."

The sister of a Leverett House sophomore, Stossel might have known she would attend Harvard more than others. Growing up as a "local" in nearby Belmont, she attends a private girls' school and can easily recall visits to the Cambridge campus.

"Before I came to stay, I had a pretty good idea of what the place was like," says Stossel. "But now it's much more real. Visiting to see your brother and visiting for yourself are two different things."

Stossel, a young woman with straightforward dress and a girl-next-door air, sits upright and glances around the room with wide eyes. There is still much unexpected at the College.

"I feel like everyone at Harvard must be so great at something, and I just hope I can measure up," she says.

But, as she says, she will find out. She withdrew applications to other schools when she learned of her acceptance here.

Sandhya L. Subramanian

Sandhya L. Subramanian, when she thinks about it at all, is not flustered by the prospect of college. In jeans and a T-shirt, Subramanian seems to be a typical New York public high school student.

Ranking near the top of her 300-person class at Niskayuna High School, however, and coolly trying to decide between attending Harvard or Cornell University, Subramanian also represents the prize catch for top schools.

And when Subramanian offhandedly speaks of her Harvard acceptance as "a pleasant surprise," that's when admissions officers squirm and struggle. A daughter of Indian immigrants who was raised in Niskayuna, New York, (pop. about 5000), Subramanian is the big fish for whom the lure of recruitment programs like pre-frosh weekend are intended. And it is her attitude that captures a sentiment more common among pre-frosh in April than in February.

"Before, Harvard was impersonal, just a name," she says at the end of her pre-frosh stay. "Now it isn't. I guess the admissions people have succeeded in convincing me of this--if that's their goal."

Then she stands up and smiles at the prefrosh sitting next to her.

"But I'm not too worried."

Rachel A. Pollack

Prefrosh week was not Rachel A. Pollack's first stay at Harvard. Last fall, the Boca Raton, Fla.-native visited Cambridge as a recruit for the tennis team. The year before, the private school student attended summer school here.

Self-assured almost to the point of brashness, Pollack is something more--rare. Most of Harvard's student-athletes do not apply early.

"The early pool seems to be very academic," she says. "But they're not intimidating. Besides, there are more [of the class of 1993] to come--you know, jocks and stuff."

For Pollack, Harvard made its best effort to make her say yes--letters, phone calls, a tennis recruitment video tape (sold to her for $23), the recruitment trip and prefrosh week. But she still has not withdrawn an application to Princeton University, and she says the decision will be a tough one if she is admitted there.

"I probably wouldn't have been so ready to come if I hadn't gone to summer school here," Pollack says. "I mean, there are lots of prefrosh walking around here with no clue where they're going."

Jonathan D. F. Zinman

Jonathan D. F. Zinman grew up in a rural Michigan. The son of a professor in East Lansing, he learned to associate opportunity with the metropolis, with places like Boston.

However, despite his early acceptance to Harvard and applications at six other "selective" private colleges, Zinman says he expects to attend the public University of Michigan next fall.

"It's easy to go here if you're really rich because you can afford it, or if you're really poor because financial aid will meet your needs. But it's not easy if you're middle class," Zinman says.

"I applied here early because the program is non-binding," he continued. "Besides, these is some chance that I can get it together and come. I'm just being realistic."

"I always thought that when I got to Harvard there would be bells--I would know that this is where I belong," Zinman explains.

"During this prefrosh hosting, Harvard has done the best they could to sell themselves. It's not that Harvard's not for me, it's just that I didn't hear music."