Though their performances on Achievement tests scores are hard to compare because Harris and Stonecypher took tests in different subjects, the gap in their SAT scores was about 100 points, according to both Harris and Leonard J. Nelson, a classmate and friend of Harris and Stonecypher.

The average SAT score for Black students in the Class of 1995 at Harvard was 1290, while the average white student earned a 1400, according to a confidential report compiled by the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, a group of 32 private colleges and universities.

Stonecypher and his parents refused to comment on their case or on whether they filed complaints with the Department of Education against colleges other than Harvard. Yale's Acting Director of Admissions Harry M. Levit refused to comment. Officials at Dartmouth and Stanford did not return phone calls.

"Mark was more studious, but Eugenia was more well-rounded," says Nelson. "I spoke to Mark a week ago...He said he was surprised that a lot of people at Vanderbilt were in his situa- tion--they all had good grades but didn't getinto Ivy League schools."

Nelson says that Harris was not even interestedin applying to any Ivy League institutions untilhe "talked her into it."

Qualified

According to Vaughn and Tricia Guy, the head ofthe English department at John Carroll High, bothHarris and Stonecypher were strong students whowere qualified for admission to Harvard.

"They are two entirely different kids," saysGuy, who taught both students in AdvancedPlacement English last year. "Stoney," asStonecypher was called by classmates, was an"introvert" while Harris was regarded by herclassmates as a "class leader," Guy says.

Vaughn says both students received "veryfavorable" write-ups from their interviewers. "We[the schools committee] though both would makegood Harvard students," says Vaughn, adding that"it is very rare that we have a stronglyunfavorable reaction" to a candidate.

Vaughn says there are "not many Blackapplicants" from Alabama and estimates about 10percent of interviewees each year are Black. Thereare efforts by visiting undergraduates andadmissions officers to recruit the few Blackstudents in the area, but that minority status hasno bearing on a candidate's evaluation, Vaughnsays.

Changing Vision

Such evaluations, the student's background, andpersonal qualities all contribute to whetheradmissions officials decide one student and notanother will fit their vision of a Harvard class.

But this vision has changed dramatically atHarvard in the last 30 years from a predominantlywhite, male Northeastern student body to anethnically and nationally diverse one. And theStonecypher complaint may be the first flashpointin the ongoing story of Harvard's admission'scampaign to keep its reputation as one of the mostdiverse campuses in the country