At the end of a year spent at Harvard on an EU Fulbright scholarship, I was hovering near the stand for the Central Intelligence Agency at the university's recruitment fair. Curious, I had been flicking through glossy brochures designed to lure would-be spies and "operatives" into this semi-secretive organisation. Apparently the agency's drive to recruit ethnic minorities doesn't include the Irish.
The CIA is just one of the government bodies which comes to Harvard to harvest each year's crop of post-graduate students. This fast-track between America's oldest institution of higher learning and the seat of power in Washington has helped maintain the university's unique place in US society. Harvard has become synonymous with the nation, its goals and standards. Each helps to set the agenda of the other.
Founded in 1636, Harvard began life as a provincial academy in a Boston backwater. Today it claims six American presidents, over 30 Nobel laureates, two dozen Pulitizer Prize winners and numerous Supreme Court justices, congressmen, governors and ambassadors.
Under President Kennedy, the university sometimes imagined itself to be a fourth branch of government. (JFK mused about one day taking up a professor's chair at his old alma mater.) This training camp for America's elite has helped produce generations of political leaders capable of pursuing a common agenda.
The university has also become a prime target for those who believe ivory towers have no place in an egalitarian society.
Harvard is imbued with the perfume of privilege. Every day I walked through the manicured lawns of the campus, past the awe-inspiring bulk of the Widener Library and the graceful spire of the Memorial church, I was struck by the university's riches.
My previous experience of studying in Belfast and Dublin did not quite prepare me for the incredible resources of Harvard. Over 90 libraries are easily accessed through a sophisticated computer system. The university also has several art museums for the purpose of displaying the numerous artworks bequeathed by wealthy patrons.
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard where I spent last year studying international relations, attracts a dizzy round of visits of world leaders. Former President Gerald Ford spent last term as a visiting fellow at the Kennedy School.
Over the months, I found myself making excruciating choices between visiting lectures by the likes of George Soros or Noam Chomsky. At cocktail parties, it was not unusual to run into a national icon like economist John Kenneth Galbraith, militant legal professor Alan Dershowitz or "academostars" like Skip Gates, an expert on the African-American studies who has become a phenomenon in the US.
Of course, the glorious range of courses and extra-curricular activities comes with a heavy price tag. Undergraduates who manage to get through Harvard's tough entrance requirements can expect to pay around £20,000 a year on tuition fees alone. Others will go to great lengths to buy into Harvard's brain cartel.
One infertile couple advertised at Harvard and other Ivy League colleges last year offering over £30,000 for a female egg donor with high academic scores.
The atmosphere in Harvard's classrooms is fiercely competitive. A recent survey by the Harvard Crimson, a student newspaper, found that 64 per cent of students stayed in their rooms at least every other weekend to do homework.
Almost half questioned said they had two hours of free time a day, or less.
The stress can be overwhelming for some. One unusually gifted student committed suicide last year by drinking cyanide procured from the chemistry lab where he was doing doctoral research. High achievers can be devastated if they receive anything less than a B+ in their essay papers. Harvard deans are beginning to wonder if they have a responsibility to encourage students to close the books and - gasp - go out and have fun.
An aura of caution surrounds life at the Kennedy School. Graduate students, many of whom intend to run for public office in future, are aware that things politicians do in their college years may come back to haunt them. Parties where drugs may be passed around are avoided at all costs.
Would-be politicians are careful about who they are seen with, who they date and what charities they do voluntary work for. Some admit to being wary of expressing opinions in classes videotaped for academic purposes. Others avoid summer jobs in industrial groups, in case it compromises them in future.
Everyone I met at Harvard seemed to be giving me that hard sell. Within minutes of being introduced to someone I would be told of their role in the Clinton election campaign, life-saving work in African famine regions, and outline for a second book. Anyone who engages in the Irish style of self-deprecation is likely to be dismissed immediately.
Harvard is not the United States. But my time there gave me an incredible insight into the people who will be running the Free World in the next few decades.
The ex-White House staff working at the Kennedy School specialise in bringing students "into the room" when government decisions are made. Then we were encouraged to come up with creative solutions, in Harvard jargon "to think out of the box".
Now, if only I could work out how to get into the room and out of the box at the same time.