Last night, while helping interview Harvard applicants, I met a wonderful and very underprivileged kid. I asked him why he was applying to Harvard and he said that his mom cleaned houses for a Harvard grad when he was young and the grad convinced him he too could attend the school one day. But he said what really made the difference was the regular emails and support he got from Harvard encouraging him to apply. I felt very proud that Harvard was seeking out kids like this young guy and pushing him to go for it. That’s a special school that really does go above and beyond.

Many of you got calls from the Cambridge phonathon last night—please make your gift by clicking on “Participate in our class gift” on the right!

Have strong opinions about why you give to Harvard? (Or haven’t …yet). Check out this survey from FAS Dean Mike Smith: http://surveys.yourinsights.net/prp9091/start.php?PID=HCLD-0000921499 Jessica Vascellaro Wall Street Journal 201 California Street, Suite 1100 San Francisco, CA 94111 (415) 765-6154 (work) (347) 754-1037 (cell) www.twitter.com/jvascellaro

we did it! made it to 10% this week. looking forward to doubling that number soon. :)

can we get the next .75% today and tomorrow?  that would be awesome.

can we do 10% by the end of the week?  Currier is dominating with 16.9% — can Currier get to 20% ?— all questions to which we will have answers soon enough…

at the start of december, we stand at 8.81% and 141 gifts, we are leading 2004 (which at this point had 116 gifts and 7.30% of the class) — but we can do better.

right now at a flat run we are scheduled to come in at 26.2% participation across the class — which is a definite improvement from recent years, but one might argue still a weak showing vs. the 70+% that princeton does. —

so, if you haven’t yet - help put the class in striking distance by Jan 1 at http://bit.ly/H2005

the house standings you ask?

1.  Currier is killing it with 15.7%

2.  Kirkland is second at 13.7%

3.  Eliot is third with 10.8%

bringing up the rear:

12th.  Winthrop at 5.5%

11th.  Leverett with 6.1%

10th. Pfoho with 6.2%

hope to see a ton of people this weekend out for harvard/yale — while we are trashing yale on the football field, (and perhaps ourselves outside the stadium) — why not make it a hat-trick and trash the tigers at their own game? — we are at 8.16% — care to up it http://bit.ly/H2005

Currier and Kirkland are in the lead by house participation in the 2005 gift! — help your house now by participating in our reunion gift at http://bit.ly/harvard2005

— we are on track to hit 29% right now, but we can do much better…

hope to see you all at the game — sam