HLS Student Chosen As Survivor Contestant

What does it take to be a Survivor?

A Harvard Law School student, Nick Brown, will have the chance to see whether cunning and intelligence are the most important skills.

Brown, 23, has been chosen as a contestant for the second installment of the wildly popular reality show on CBS.

Brown, a San Francisco native, was a member of ROTC and is currently an officer in the U.S. Army, a biographical sketch provided by CBS said.

He is a second-year law student member of the Black Law Students Association, according to the CBS biography.

CBS Publicist Michelle Hooper said contestants are forbidden from giving interviews before the show airs.

She declined comment on Brown or the selection process. But the Survivor application says that excellent physical and mental health are required; all 48 semi-finalists underwent psychological testing to ensure their mental fitness in addition to physical examinations.

The application asks questions from the expected to the more unusual, such as inquiries about body art or what topics of conversation are considered off-limits at the dinner table.

Since filming for the series is already complete, the ability to keep a secret for several months may have been a consideration as well.

The contestants range in age from 23-53, and their vocations are varied from farmer to footwear designer.

Some undergraduates said they weren't sure how a Harvard law student would fare in the contest.

"On the last Survivor series, Greg from Brown was immediately labeled 'the Ivy League student,'" said Tom P. O'Donnell '03.

Aurely Kivett-Ripmaster '03 said other contestants might stereotype Brown, as they did when a Harvard Law School student was on the television show "The Real World" in Hawaii.

"When the rest of the house found out that he was from Harvard, they all flipped. He was pigeonholed as a genius," she said.

"I definitely think that there's a stigma attached to being from Harvard Law. People will associate him with the corporate trainer [who won the last series] and see him as part of that professional culture," said Dennis J. Mak '03.

"I think he'll be viewed as an immediate threat. People will gang up on him, because they will be afraid he will win," said Marc A. Buan '03.

Survivor II was filmed near the Herbert River in northeastern Australia in the fall of 2000, but CBS will try to keep the results hushed until the final episode.

The first episode will air after the Super Bowl on Sunday, Jan. 28. The show will continue on Thursdays at 8 p.m. through April.