<p>"Fellow students call him "the Harvard man!"</p>
<p>"...He's the first RRHS graduate to trudge the hallowed, ivy-covered halls of the 370-year-old institution of higher learning.</p>
<p>Learning Free had been accepted - granted almost a full ride, sans the $2,000 his parents will need to come up with next year - at Harvard (as well as Princeton, Duke and the University of Chicago) didn't surprise Free's Humanities Academy counselor, Rhoda Bubar.</p>
<p>She knew Free was a different kind of student the first time she met him, back in August of 2002, when he was among the first batch of students enrolled at Rio Rancho Mid-High.</p>
<p>"We made a connection. He's just delightful," she said.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.observer-online.com/articles/2006/05/22/news/story2.txt%5B/url%5D">http://www.observer-online.com/articles/2006/05/22/news/story2.txt</a></p>
<p>"Wrapping up his three years at RRHS with a No. 14 ranking in his class of 718 students...."</p>
<p>must have had some hook, in addition to hailing from new mexico.</p>
<p>Whatever he's got, Princeton, Duke and the University of Chicago apparently wanted it too. </p>
<p>The school seems have designated him as one of several students to personally meet the President of the United States, George W. Bush.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rrps.net/rrhs/Academies%20of%20study/ENGINEERING&DESIGN/2005/pauls%20page.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.rrps.net/rrhs/Academies%20of%20study/ENGINEERING&DESIGN/2005/pauls%20page.htm</a></p>
<p>He passed those other schools up in favor of Harvard.</p>
<p>no doubt. i suspect princeton was the second campus on his "four-day, two-campus tour," and in the end his second choice.</p>
<p>The campus visit usually clinches it for Harvard. </p>
<p>The Cambridge setting is, I am convinced, key to the overwhelming historical preference of common admits for Harvard over Princeton. Under the circumstances, of course, there is no shame to being the second choice.</p>