The Program of Advanced Standing

While speculations and schemes for curricular revolution are rising around the University, the Program of Advanced Standing is emerging from its experimental phase and is settling into a regular and respected role in the College's academic system.

The Advanced Standing Program is the faculty's approach of "progressive moderation" toward eliminating some of the disadvantages which a course system for 4,500 students can impose on the more qualified individual. From the Office of Advanced Standing upstairs in University Hall, director Harlan P. Hanson coordinates the four loosely connected plans which make up the program. Each of its facets, early admission, sophomore standing, advanced placement, and course reduction, is intended to contribute to a more challenging program for the student.

The Well-Prepared Freshman

Sophomore standing, early admission and advanced placement center around the better prepared freshmen. Because they have completed college-level courses in high school, some incoming students are able to enter the sophomore class, and a few qualified juniors have been able to skip their last year of high school. The early admission and sophomore standing programs eliminate from high school or college a year which the Office of Advanced Standing feels would be wasteful in educational value.

The advanced placement plan, which affects many more students, is not concerned with admission procedure. The program enables those freshmen with strong backgrounds in one or two fields to take upper level courses in these subjects. Besides enabling the freshman to enroll in more advanced courses, advanced placement carries the Office's vague encouragement to him to work for course reduction in his junior and senior years.

The course reduction program is the only part of the Advanced Standing system which is unique to the College's curriculum. While early admission and advanced placement criteria are determined in conjunction with the high schools or the College Entrance Examination Board, only juniors and seniors are eligible for course reduction.

The plan itself is Harvard's nebulous answer to the problem of independent study. With the approval of his department and the Advanced Standing Office, a student can obtain a reduction of up to two courses in his program in order to do independent research or take increased tutorial.

Projects Outside the Major Field

Supposedly, course reduction need not be used only to explore one's own field of concentration. A science major can request course reduction in order to do a special project in English which interests him. In these cases, however, while the student's own department may approve the course reduction, the department in which the student would like to do research is sometimes reluctant to grant approval to someone outside the field.

While there are only 20 students in the program this semester--the largest groups being in history and literature and social relations--when members of the class of '60 become juniors there will probably be a sizable increase. For the 130 freshmen who qualified for advanced placement this past year were notified by Hanson that they were "particularly eligible" to apply for course reduction if they became honors candidates.

Advanced placement in any field will carry equal weight when Hanson's office makes the final decision on a course reduction plan. Preliminary approval, however, must first be obtained from the head tutor in the department. While holding advanced placement gives one special consideration in the Office of Advanced Standing, is does not theoretically influence the decision of the department. Since Hanson's office is inclined to approve of course reduction programs anyway, the fact that one holds Advanced Placement is not crucially significant.

There is no formula for determining whether a student can qualify for course reduction in the various fields. The chief requisites are an outstanding departmental record, a favorable tutorial report and a desire to work in a field in which no formal courses are offered.

Sophomore standing will give the history department a "predisposition" toward granting advanced standing May says. The department will also look with special favor on advanced standing sophomores who plan to stretch their program out to four years. For those students presenting advanced placement credit in history the department would be "inclined" to regard course reduction plans favorably. Advanced Placement, however, according to May, will not give the student any measurable advantage over one whose work within the department has been of high quality.

Holding advanced placement will not influence the history and literature department in considering course reduction says Kenneth Lynn '45, head tutor. Only the student's college record and the proposed subject for research will be considered.

Differing Opinions on Purpose

The professors' ideas of the purpose of course reduction differ as much as their requirements for getting it. In no field need specific achievement be demonstrated afterward, and, as Hanson says, "the departments should be free to grant it whenever they feel working at a three-course rate would be more advantageous to the student than working under the normal load."

From Hanson's viewpoint the general purpose of the program at present is to encourage the departments to experiment in the hope they find a definite use for the system. The plan is left purposely undefined because the Committee on Advanced Standing is reluctant to establish the outer bounds of course reduction or in other ways limit the prerogatives of the department.

By its very name course reduction assumes somewhat of a negative aspect. It is the college's way of groping toward the hazy ideal of independent study. Its presence in the curriculum, however, might conceivably act as a crutch in defending the present general system against new curricular suggestions. If exceptions to the present rules can be made, it might be argued that maybe there is no need to reconsider the rules themselves. As it stands now, then, the Program of Advanced Standing is a necessary and valuable adjunct to the present course system, but it is no prelude to any basic changes in the curriculum.

Origins of Program

The rest of the advanced standing program did not originate here. In 1952-53 a group of educators led by the late Gordon K. Chalmers, president of Kenyon College, established the School and College Study of Admission with Advanced Standing--the SCSAAS--offering college-level courses in a group of experimental high schools. This "Kenyon Plan" was coordinated with a group of 12 small colleges which agreed to give advanced credit to successful participants in the program. The advanced courses began in the pilot group of high schools in the fall of '53 and the following spring Harvard inaugurated its program.

In March and May the faculty formulated its four-pronged plan that established the Committee of Advanced Standing and its program of early admission, sophomore standing, advanced placement, and course reduction. The written regulations have remained the same since then; however, in practice many of the original provisions have been modified.

Following the faculty decision "to admit students of superior achievement and maturity who have completed the eleventh grade of secondary school," five high school juniors enrolled in the fall of '55. According to Hanson there is nothing extraordinary about them and all are doing well with group III averages or better. Four eleventh graders were admitted this fall; and while this number may increase somewhat, the Committee feels it will be kept small both because of the small number of qualified high school juniors and a desire to preserve the traditionally large proportion of freshman who have completed twelfth grade.

Advanced, or sophomore standing provides the other alternative in cutting off a year from high school and college. Originally the Committee intended to admit qualified twelfth graders directly as sophomores. But because the quality of advanced work completed in high school could not be determined before admission time in May, practical considerations forced sophomore admission to give way to sophomore standing.

Since previous college-level work must be demonstrated on the Advanced Placement tests given by the College Entrance Examination Board in May or on the college's placement tests, sophomore standing can usually be determined only in the fall. Students who have studied abroad, however, and have obtained secondary education degrees have been admitted directly as sophomores. At present there are 13 advanced standing sophomores from American schools.

Sophomore Standing Benefits

In order to qualify for advanced standing a student must generally obtain advanced placement in three subjects. At present, besides being able to skip PT, the advanced standing sophomore is released from GenEd Ahf, need take only one lower level general education course, and can satisfy his degree requirements in three years.

Advanced standing sophomores begin tutorial and concentration after their first semester, and are ordinarily supposed to take their general examinations after their second year. These, however, can be postponed and the student can spread his program over four years, taking graduate courses in his last year.

While it was also originally intended that sophomore move right into a house, the 13 are living in the Yard this year, since they did not get their class status until after school began in September. While Hanson personally recommended moving into a house right away, F. Skiddy von Stade, dean of freshman, feels that living in the Yard for the first year has its advantages even for advanced standing sophomores, since it "takes the rough edges off" new students and acclimatizes them to the atmosphere of a large university.

Flexibility

The well prepared student has the option then of eliminating either the last year of high school or the first of college. As Hanson notes the former law of twelfth grade admission into the freshman year of college has outlived its sanctity, and the program to be followed depends "essentially on what seems most profitable to the students.

As for the students, most are generally content with the program. Some of those admitted from the eleventh grade comment that while it was an intellectual gain, the sudden transition from junior year to college created a difficult situation to adjust to in their social life. One of the original group of juniors comments that early admission gave him "pres-