Harvard Students Accompany Recruiters to Boston Schools

The Undergraduate Admissions Council yesterday initiated a new program aimed at recruiting more Boston area applicants by including Harvard students in admissions staff visits to local schools.

The major goal of the council program is to "expand Harvard's applicant pool by revealing as many hidden pockets of qualified candidates as possible," David Harleston '80, president of the council, said yesterday.

Dwight D. Miller, senior admissions officer, said yesterday the program is designed to encourage prospective applicants to find out more about Harvard from current undergraduates.

Fifty students from all parts of the country have volunteered to accompany admissions officers when they visit schools.

Students will tell prospective applicants about their personal experiences at Harvard and field questions about college life in general, but let admissions officers answer those involving the actual admissions process, Miller said.

Sandy F. Smith, Jr. '80, the one student who accompanied Miller to Maitgnon High School in North Cambridge for the beginning of the program yesterday said prospective applicants would probably" have been more at ease if they had spoken only to the student recruiter, rather than to both students and admissions officials. Individual student recruiters decide the extent to which contact is made, Smith added.

A student recruiter may take an active interest in a candidate after the initial contact at the high school, advising him throughout the application process, "as long as the student recruiter uses common sense and acts in a realistic way," Miller said.

"Although we hope that individual contact will be made, that will be a by-product of the program, not necessarily a goal," Robert H. Yanker '80, head of the program, said yesterday.

"But, to a large extent it is through individual contact that Boston and Cambridge can be further explored as a resource for Harvard candidates. We want to destroy the myth of the Harvard student as a honed intellect who attended a New York private school so that students won't be afraid to apply," Harleston said.