Several Advanced Students Decline Sophomore Status

For the first time in the history of the Advanced Standing program, there is a strong chance that several students eligible for Sophomore Standing will not accept it, according to Edward T. Wilcox, Director of Advanced Standing.

Wilcox said that these reversions to freshman status "might be the thing that can save the program" from one of its greatest difficulties: uncritical acceptance by students who regard admission into sophomore status as an "intellectual merit badge."

"All many students want," Wilcox explained, "is to be known as an advanced standing sophomore." He claimed that the five or ten students who have expressed intention of refusing to become sophomores represent one of the greatest advances in undergraduate attitude toward the program since it was started in 1954.

Despite the anticipated refusals, however, the Sophomore Standing program does not show any signs of slowing down; tentative reports suggest that the number of students in the program will increase more than in any previous year.

Problem Remains Unchanged

Despite the possibility that some students will not take the sophomore status option, however, there seems to be no change in the problem making their decision so important to the program: many of the students who are offered sophomore status have no real idea of what field they intend to enter. These students find that being thrust into the second year of their college work forces them to decide without the usual opportunity to look around.

The effect has been that most students go into fields which they had studied before they arrived at Harvard, and areas like Social Relations, which are seldom treated in school, get very few of the new sophomores.

One result, Wilcox admitted, has been occasional half-joking complaints from Faculty members. But he is particularly concerned about the effect on students who come in without any real orientation and are immediately deprived of the opportunity to "find themselves" during the freshman year.

Wilcox pointed out that it was very interesting that the students who had expressed unwillingness to become sophomores did not all come from the leaders in Advanced Placement--Exeter and Andover.

The smaller schools were heavily represented. He suggested that these students were actually considering the implications of accepting the opportunities of Advanced Placement more carefully than those from the bigger schools.