Alien guests in a strange house: Chicano students at Harvard College

Since there is a dearth of available information about Chicanos in higher education, the primary goal for this study has not been to pretest any hypothesis, but rather to begin to build a body of knowledge about Chicanos at Harvard.;The data revealed that the majority were lower and middle class students from small towns and suburbs of the Southwest with average family incomes of ;Most (70 percent) of the sudents attended public high schools and came with high GPAs (;Even though most of the students had a strong sense of ethnic identity and generally were supportive of Chicano issues, they successfully adapted to the Harvard environment. Most did not consider themselves alienated and experienced a mixed bag of feelings along a normal curve similar to any population.;This was a descriptive design study which used a closed questionnaire as the main survey instrument. It was mailed to the entire population of Chicano students at Harvard in the 1978-79 academic year. Seventy-one students, 41 males and 30 females, responded and they became the main subjects of the study. The collected data were analyzed through the Minitab computing system to address three primary research questions: (1) What were the demographic, socioeconomic and educational characteristics of Chicano student at Harvard-Radcliffe? (2) What was the psychosocial adaptation of these students to the Harvard-Radcliffe learning environment? (3) How did the Chicanos compare with the general Harvard-Radcliffe population and other minority groups, particularly the Puerto Ricans?;It is hoped that this research will generate understanding and an appreciation of diverse student populations and enhance the commitment of Harvard-Radcliffe to the continued admission and support of "alien guests" within our midst.