Ivy for All

In her second year as Harvard's first female president, Drew Gilpin Faust, 61, has a piece of advice for graduating seniors who don't think they can afford the school: Apply.

Now that you're running the university, do you ever miss your own work as a historian? I finished a book I had worked on for more than a decade and sent it off to the publisher a week before I was asked to be president, so it was a wonderful stopping point.

When you were offered the position, how long did it take you to say yes? You mean when they sat me down and said, "We want you to be president of Harvard"?

Yeah. I said yes.

Immediately? Yes. If you're not going to say yes, you should really get out of it before they ask you.

When people look at Harvard -- and you know this happens -- a lot of them wonder: What problems do they have? Knowledge is changing. We find ourselves finding very different ways of doing science. We find ourselves in a global environment in how we undertake research, and we need to adapt to that in order to make sure we continue to advance knowledge. We also find ourselves reaching out much more broadly to a population of students that is much more economically diverse, much more internationally diverse, much more racially diverse than has been true of our education in the generations that have preceded us.

Are there any misconceptions about Harvard?

It relates back to what I said about access. We have to do a lot of convincing and spreading the word to make people understand that we are very open, that Harvard is a place that is welcoming to students of every variety and background.

So a poor kid who is very smart won't be rejected because he or she has no money. Exactly. We have to spread the word that you can afford Harvard.

Harvard has a lot of money, but it doesn't have an endless amount. Is it frustrating when people think the university should be an open coffer? I think you've seen that in the public discourse of the last year. High expectations are a good thing. They make people aspire. But we also have to recognize that our endowment funds cover an enormous number of different things, that Harvard is a very large place -- 11 schools, many museums, upwards of 75 libraries. Right now, I think we're going to have a different understanding of our endowment emerge. It's not going to be -- with the financial situation as it is -- a constant, uninterrupted expansion.

Your predecessor, Lawrence Summers, was very outspoken, which sometimes got him into trouble. You seem pretty reserved. Do you resist saying dramatic things or taking risky stands because of your position? Certainly, because I am the voice of this institution, and I need to understand that there are ramifications of everything I say.

Is there something about you that we don't know? I love mystery stories. Elizabeth George. There are a whole bunch of Scandinavian ones that I like.

Is there something you can't do that you used to be able to do before you became president? Yes. Tell people to be quiet in the movies.