151 Accept Advanced Standing; Half to Concentrate in Nat Sci

Over one-third of the eligible students have accepted advanced standing this year, roughly the same number as have chosen the program in each of the past few years, according to figures released by the Office of Advanced Standing yesterday.

About half of the 151 students selecting sophomore standing chose concentrations in the Natural Sciences, forty per cent in the Social Sciences, while the remaining students will study Humanities.

The male-female ratio of the advanced standing is lower than that in previous years, with women making up 27 per cent of the group.

Twenty-five per cent or less of the students who have opted for the program--which allows students to begin Harvard as sophomores and requires that they meet all non-honors requirements in three years--will actually earn a three-year degree, Mack I. Davis II, director of Advanced Standing, said yesterday.

Some who stay for a fourth year use it for "curriculum experimentation," dabbling in areas outside their concentration, while others "really work on a thesis," Davis said.

Anne R. Ungar '84, a Biochemistry. major, said the main attraction of the program is "flexibility in my fourth year." "I would be taking the same exact courses. I just get out of some Gen Ed and distribution requirements," Craig Werner '84, said.

Pressure

But for some students the program has created extra pressure. Nancy Su '84, an Economics major, said she felt she needed "to do a lot better than other people. I'm much more conscious of grades at this point than if I were just a freshman."

Incoming freshmen qualify for the program by earning a minimum score of three on three Advanced Placement tests.

Starting in 1982, freshmen will have to receive at least three scores of four to be eligible for the program. Davis, who advocated increasing the minimum to four fours, said that some students have placed themselves in "academic jeopardy" by opting for advanced standing. Had the new requirements been in effect this year, he added, one-third of the advanced standing students would be ineligible.

Davis stressed, however, that advanced standing students generally perform well academically. They make up "a disproportionate number of the students who earn Summas and Magnas," he said.