Soph. Standing May Change

Harvard will require incoming students to take four advanced placement exams in order to qualify for sophomore standing, according to a set of policy changes approved yesterday by the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE).

Those revisions will go into effect starting with the Class of 1994, if approved by the Faculty Council, the executive steering committee of the faculty. In addition, the revised sophomore standing policy would allow students entering in September, 1989 to postpone decisions about advanced standing until their second semester.

The decision to increase the number of required advanced placement credits came as students and faculty members of the CUE agreed that current standards are "too easy" and "too accessible."

"Sophomore standing is not something we want to open up to the world of Harvard," said Assistant Dean of the College Georgene B. Herschbach. "Requiring four APs will lessen the range of accesibility while being completely in line with advanced standing policies at other colleges."

The CUE may establish an advanced standing sub-committee to handle individual cases that fall outside of the new guidelines.

"Before, our advanced standing program needed to be nourished by setting a lower standard even though three AP credits only equals threefourths of an academic year," said Herschbach.

Meanwhile, CUE members agreed that freshmen should be allowed more time to decide whether they want to take sophomore standing.

"I would prefer to require that advanced standing candidates post-pone their decision until they've completed a semester at Harvard so that they can make more of an informed decision," Herschbach said. "However, students who feel certain will continue to be allowed to decide immediately upon enrollment."

Acting upon a suggestion from Assistant Professor of Physics Timothy E. Chupp, the CUE decided to require sophomore standing candidates to have a minimum B- (Group III) average in their first semester coursework and, ideally, to have completed the language requirement by the beginning of their second semester.

"Group III is an accessible academic standard," said Herschbach. "At the end of the '87-'88 academic year, 88.5 percent of all first-year advanced standing students had averaged Group III or better."

The committee agreed that the delay would allow for better evaluation of the student's record, as well as providing a second chance for the University to decide if it should allow the student to take sophomore standing.

CUE member and North Yard Senior Advisor Ginger Mackay-Smith expressed concern that the foreign language clause would force candidates to enroll in an intense language course during their first semester.

To avoid that problem, the CUE decided to extend sophomore status to candidates who have "satisfactorily completed one semester and are enrolled in the second semester of a foreign language."