Doubt Raised on Clinton Acceptance

Contrary to a story in yesterday's Los Angeles Times, a close friend and classmate of Chelsea Clinton said she does not believe the President's daughter has been accepted to Harvard's class of 2001.

The student at the private Sidwell Friends School in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Clinton applied to Harvard under the regular admission program, not under early action, as the Los Angeles Times reported. The newspaper did not cite its source.

While Harvard notifies early applicants in mid-December, under normal circumstances students applying for regular admittance are not notified until April.

Although she refused to comment on the status of Clinton's application, Director of Admissions Marlyn McGrath-Lewis '70 said that occasionally regular applicants are informed earlier than usual.

Lewis said occasionally the admissions office will notify an exceptional student, especially one who demonstrates "extraordinary talent."

"When we are certain that we are going to admit someone at the early time we will occasionally send a 'likely letter' [to the applicant]," she said.

At the White House, the President refused to confirm or deny the Los Angeles Times' report. But he did say that his daughter does not know yet where she will be attending school.

"She has literally made no decision," Clinton told reporters.

If Clinton is admitted, and accepts Harvard's offer, she would not be the first child of a sitting American president to study at the College, according to Hollis M. Lilly, a staff assistant in the Office of the Registrar.

Lilly, a self-described "trivia enthusiast," said Robert Todd Lincoln, the son of the 16th president, graduated from Harvard in 1864, during the fourth year of his father's term.

According to assistants in the Alumni Records Office, both former presidents Theodore Roosevelt, class of 1880, and Franklin D. Roosevelt '04 had sons who studied at Harvard while their fathers were in the oval office.

Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Harvard along with several other Ivy league schools in August.

Besides Harvard, Clinton visited Amherst, Brown, Yale, Princeton and Wellesley during the summer with her mother.

--Material from the Associated Press was used in compiling this article.