"Computer scientists today are very, very choosy, and computer scientists are not impressed by Harvard's name like physicists," says one Ivy League professor who insists on anonymity.

Harvard "doesn't rank anywhere nearly as high as it ought to," says another, Yale computer scientist Alan J. Perlis. Harvard has "fumbled around" in the field for 20 years, Perils says, adding. "They do use out good people, but that's largely a consequence of the rest of the place."

But Perlis, like other scholars inside and outside the University, does add that Harvard has improved considerably in the last several years.

He specifically refers to a recent batch of widely heralded tenure appointments tat has given Harvard for the first time an important "Critical Mass" of theorists in the field. These theorists include professors of Computer Science Michael A. Rabin, Leslie G. Valiant, and Lewis.

Harvard computer scientists say the University also hopes to attract in the next several years a number of specialists in the non-theoretical side of the field-system, or programming.

But specialists say this task might prove trickier than building up a group of theorists because of the small size of Harvard's computer science faculty, which numbers four at the tenured level.

By comparison, institutions such as MIT or the University of California at Berkeley have 50 to 100 computer specialists on their faculties.

Since programming specialists often work together on broad "synthesis" projects, they may be discouraged from joining a group as small as Harvard's.

"It is possible to have a first-rate small theory group, but it is harder to develop a first rate small systems group," says Peter Elias, associate department head for computer science in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Harvard officials, however, stress that departments here are traditionally on the small side. Dean of the Faculty Henry Rosovsky for example, points to other disciplines such as physics, where Harvard's of specialists is comparatively small but very highly regarded