Alone in Annenberg? First Years, Take Heart

At Saturday's computer fair in the Science Center, Christina M. Shuman '03 seemed in her element. Instead of wandering around with a lost look in her eyes, as many first-years were, Shuman was chatting and laughing with groups of friends.

It's not hard to spot the first-year students, like Shuman, who already seem to be "connected": they're off to meet up with friends outside of their entryway and they're seen walking around en masse. Annenberg? Not a problem--they already have seats reserved for them with their high school buddies.

But worried first-years can take heart. Though the networks seem impenetrable and intimidating, that's not always the case. Often, people who know each other only cursorily will clump together during the first few weeks, seeming like longtime buddies.

But upperclass students who have survived Freshman Week say the friendships made then don't always last. It's more important to meet new people, and to be open when others meet you. Self-help talk? Maybe, but it works.

Hey, You Did CTY, Right?

Allen S. Ho '00 was one of the many fledgling Harvard students who knew no one his first few days. "It was kind of lonely, but that was only for like, two seconds," he says.

One thing that helped Ho was his realization that though other first-years seemed well-connected, those connections didn't always translate to deep friendships.

The connections can come from any number of experiences: Students name boarding schools, debate competitions, athletic meets and scholarship awards ceremonies as hot spots for meeting prospective Harvard students during high school.

Which leaves first-years with many people they can wave to in the Yard, but not necessarily people they would call close friends.

"I feel like I have many acquaintances," not close friends at Harvard, Shuman said.

The same is true for Victor Huang '03 who knows students from his high school and from a summer program at Johns Hopkins University, but says, "I still feel kind of lost."

Moreover, those chatting groups of friends aren't always the close-knit bunch they seem.

Kristin N. Williams '00 met many of the people she spent those first days with doing fall cleanup for dorm crew.

"We all got really tight, and we went around during freshman week. The appearance was that we had a clique," Williams said.

Because he was from a town near Cambridge, Alex S. Leary '01 knew several students before moving into the dorms. But he contends that it didn't make much of a difference.

Even if some students have met before, he says, the truth is that "no one really knows anybody here."

"If you have the right attitude, it doesn't matter," he says. "Half the reason I got to know other groups is that I left my door open."

Waiting It Out

Other upperclass students agree that meeting people is easy enough, and networks can form quickly, even without the high school connections.

"I didn't know anybody. Not a single person," says Paul A. Stekala '02. "But it's inevitable that you become friends with a bunch of people. Especially if you play sports or join some clubs--those are instant friends."

Keith R. Anderson, a proctor in Pennypacker Hall, said he doesn't see that students have many problems meeting people.

"I get the sense that everybody is pretty open. I don't find it too cliquish, really," Anderson says. "One student said that the level of tolerance and respect and interest that students expressed was kind of mutual."

And even first-years who are starting their fourth day at Harvard have found the same.

"I don't feel like I know too many people, but it hasn't been too hard if you just go up and introduce yourself," said Dan J. Weinstein '03. "Everyone wants to get to know other people."

Jenny Allard, a Matthews Hall proctor, said first-years often worry about not knowing anyone.

"Sometimes I hear comments from the students and they say it seems like everybody knows somebody here and I don't know anybody," Allard says. "I hear comments the first couple of days, but then they go away."

When it comes to meeting the friends you'll be close to, "different people take different amounts of time," says Aaron R. Parsons '02. Though he didn't know many first-years at the start of last year, he concludes, "It didn't make that much difference in the long run."