Harvard. It's the name that makes people's ears perk up, the name that the university gift shop empties pockets with, the name that illuminates a resume.

Last spring, it was this prestigious name that popped out at me from a colorful catalogue on my desk. It was an application for the Harvard Summer School program. After completing the long list of requirements such as teacher recommendations, PSAT score, and survey questions, I sent in my application. About a month later, I received a letter of acceptance and was completely floored. Not only would I be liberated from my parents for eight weeks, I would be at Harvard University; where the likes on W.E.B. DuBois, John F. Kennedy, and Henry David Thoreau had once studied.

During summer, I was able to takes two courses: Writing and Literature and Building the Activist State: US Public Policy since 1960. Although I shared a dorm with other high school juniors, there were also sophomores and college students attending; including some Harvard undergraduates.

Seven weeks through this program, I had a sudden itch to discover what Harvard students were really like. Were they brilliant, yet condescending? Obese nerds? Did they hack into the FBI computer database for fun, or have races reading Dante's Inferno?

A computer lab seemed like the ideal place to fulfill my view of Harvard students as Steve Urkel clones. I trudged through the rain to the computer lab, and to my delight, found two students behind the Help Desk, diligently working behind their flat screen monitors. I asked them for their consent to and interview, and proceeded to question and photograph them like a crazed paparazzi.

The first student I interviewed was Geoff Harcourt, an upcoming senior born and raised in the suburbs of Boston. He started out as an economics major, but later switched when he realized that his true passion was history. His career goal is to work for the State Department as a county analyst. Harcourt's extracurricular activities include being president of his house (or dorm), which has its own student council, a user assistant at the Computer Help Desk, and a prefect for incoming freshman. Prefects play an important role on campus by showing freshmen the ropes of the university. I felt comfortable after conversing with him for a few minutes, and was fully entertained by the fact that for three years before Harvard he avidly pursued becoming a rock star as the lead singer and rhythm guitar player of his band.

The other student I interviewed, was Ed Rayner with straight, short blonde hair, was an upcoming graduate of the boarding school Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. Rayner related his take on the extent to which academics interfere with students' social lives. He said, "If you're the kind of person that's into studying all the time and getting straight A's, you're not going to have much of a social life. I personally like to be more laid-back. Go to classes, get out, get B's, but it's a choice you make."

What? A Harvard undergrad majoring in engineering doesn’t study all day and into the wee hours of the night? Instead, much of Rayner's schedule is devoted to amending fellow students' computer disasters at the help desk, or serving as a prefect for incoming freshman. He also oversees the Model Congress that takes place at Harvard every year in which high school students’ travel from schools all over the United States to discuss current political events and sharpen their negotiating and debating skills. Of the Model Congress he says, "I like it. It's kind of a power trip."

I was entertained by Ed Rayner’s quirks, the things mot of us could relate to like the thrill of watching pro-wrestling matches or hockey games. For all you wrestling aficionados, he recommends watching “old-school wrestling,” and his favorite wrestler is Triple H. Although his future plans are to establish his own Internet company in Silicon Valley, maybe some act of fate with make him the next world wrestling superstar.

More than relieved that my interviewees didn’t raise their eyebrows or roll their eyes in response to my cliché interview questions, I was thoroughly impressed by the variety of interests Harvard University students actively pursue. Instead of being bewildered by their complex vocabulary, I delighted with their warm personalities and thoughtful answers.

If only their acceptance rate was just a bit higher.