If you had been accepted at Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford, Cambridge, Oxford and Cal- State Long Beach, which would you choose? The Beach, of course.

For Danny Duong of North Long Beach, the choice was easy. He had been invited to enroll at Cal State Long Beach as a President's Scholar.

The program, now in its eighth year, is making a difference to the university as well. At one time, it would not have been first choice from a selection like Duong's. To be sure, there were academic stars among its departments: engineering, art, music, education, the sciences, but the overall university laid claim to no great notoriety.

Even today, you don't often hear Harvard and The Beach mentioned in the same breath, but that is changing. The President's Scholars program, and people like Duong, are making a difference.

Duong comes from North Long Beach and graduated recently from Jordan High School, which ranks in the lowest 10 percent on the Academic Performance Index and behind most California schools in Stanford 9 scores on reading and language. But don't underestimate Jordan, either.

Jordan's Stylus, a journal of prose, poetry, art, photography and graphic design, regularly ranks among the very best of its kind throughout the country. In competition sponsored by the National Council of Teachers and scholastic associations, Stylus consistently wins top awards. If ethnic diversity is one of Jordan's academic challenges, it no doubt also contributes heart, soul and intellect to the successes of its literary journal.

Duong was editor of Stylus. He also served in Jordan's junior ROTC and earned a perfect 4.0 grade point average.

His choice of The Beach had to do with practicality as well as academic attractions. Instead of $40,000 a year in costs, he and 42 other freshman scholars will have no expenses. And in addition to staying in coastal Southern California, he will enjoy such bonuses as mentoring and other perquisites usually accorded to star athletes.

Now you see why Duong and others like him, valedictorians and Merit Scholars, are attracted to the campus, and how, incidentally, the campus benefits from their increasing presence. Besides, as Duong told reporter Ian Hanigan, he might go on to do graduate work at one of those celebrated academic institutions.

If he does, Duong could end up with a Harvard degree, as well as a first-rate undergraduate education at The Beach. The best of both worlds.