Understanding Advanced Standing

Government concentrator Nick Buford '97-'96 has already planned out his entire life.

After he graduates, he expects to go to law school, practice corporate law, work in the Office of the White House Counsel and, eventually, with "the blessing of the administration" return to his home state of California and run for Congress.

Because he had decided on his future even before he entered Harvard, Buford says he decided to take advantage of Harvard's advanced standing program to graduate in three years instead of four. Before he graduates, Buford says he will even have time to write a thesis on the realignment of American political parties.

"You probably get the impression that you miss a year's worth of opportunities [by graduating early], but I think that I've gone through Harvard in a manner where I'm very pleased with the social life I've had here," Buford says. "If I hadn't entered Harvard knowing that my only career goal was to get into politics in some way, shape or form, advanced standing is probably something I would have hesitated about [accepting]."

Each year, 500 to 550 first-years like Buford have the opportunity to graduate from the College within three years, according to Deborah Foster, director of the advanced standing program. To be eligible for the program, students must have completed college-level course work in high school and earned satisfactory marks on Advanced Placement or international examinations.

But only 250 to 300 students in any given class choose to accept advanced standing, and only 30 to 35 of those individuals graduate in three years, Foster says. Proponents and critics of the program differ over the reasons for these low numbers.

"Ultimately, there's a great advantage to being an undergraduate for four years," Foster says. "There's so much here. Your life is so long, and your college education is short."

Others say few graduate in three years because graduate programs discourage a shortened college career, and some argue more broadly that three years is not long enough to fulfill concentration requirements.

Why Advanced Standing?

Perhaps the most compelling reason for students to accept Advanced Standing is that by graduating early, they save nearly $30,000.

"Accepting advanced standing saved me a big pile of money," says E. Michelle Drake '97-'96, a government concentrator. "If you can save thirty grand, it's a large amount of money for anyone."

But saving money is not the only reason students choose to accept advanced standing status.

Because an advanced standing student must complete only six semesters at Harvard, entering the program enables an individual to travel abroad for a semester or a year and still graduate on time, says Janice Thaddeus, director of studies for the History and Literature concentration.

"It's especially valuable of students want to take a year abroad or a year away or a term away someplace," Thaddeus says. "The have more flexibility if they do it under the advanced standing program."

And Sanjay Shetty '96-'95 says he accepted advanced standing in order to earn a master's degree in biology in his fourth year.

"People tend to be older and older who are applying to medical school," Shetty says. "It's an advantage to be as mature as you can."

While a master's degree is important, Shetty says his advanced standing status has also helped him succeed in Core lotteries.

Unlike Shetty, economics concentrator Billy Chen '98-'97 says he accepted advanced standing not for any tangible benefit but simply for a "sense of achievement."

Why Not?

By electing to accept advanced standing, however, students also face numerous potential disadvantages.

"What I tell people is the main advantage of advanced standing is getting out in three years and the main disadvantages is getting out in three years," says James E. Davis, head tutor of the Chemistry department.

Because they are required to take one Core course during each term as an undergraduate and meet all concentration requirements, advanced standing students have less room for electives than their friends.

"You really don't have the time to explore and do all the things you ought to be doing during your college time and just have time not to burn out," says Professor of Biology William M. Gelbart '67, one of the department's head tutors.

Those advanced standing students who want to take extra electives typically face a heavier course load, he adds. Advanced standing students are also at a disadvantage when they apply for fellowships, Buford says.

"You're at a comparative disadvantage in competing for fellowships because the University requires you to complete your applications one year earlier," he says.

Deciding to Do It

Students who are eligible for advanced standing must decide whether to accept it by the second semester of their first year, Foster says.

To help individual students to make that decision, Foster encourages students to speak with both departmental advisers and peer counselors, upper class advanced standing students.

"We want to make sure that students understand that when they do rescind it, they can't reclaim it," she says.

Should students decide later in their career that they do not want to graduate in three years, Foster says the procedure is simple, students fill out a form and accept two additional cores.

First-years deciding whether or not to accept the advanced status, generally turn to their fellow students who are serving as advanced standing counselors.

Shetty, a counselor, says he is available primarily to answer general questions about the program but can often answer department-specific questions as well.

"Because the largest departments all have representatives in the advanced standing counselors group, they all have people they can ask," he says. "But that still leaves a lot of concentrations unrepresented."

Shetty says counselors refer students to departmental offices when they are unable to answer questions specific to their fields of study.

"A big part of what we do is telling people what other people are available," he says.

Gelbart, the biology head tutor, says he encourages students considering advanced standing not to rush graduation.

"The three-year option ends up short-changing people if they're not careful," Gelbart says. "It limits them because you have to make compromises to get done."

But Gelbart says he has no problems with students "who want to do advanced standing and spend the fourth year to get a joint AB/AM degree."

Senior Lecturer on Physics Margaret E. Law, the Physics Department's Head Tutor, on the other hand, encourages students to take advantage of the advanced standing program because "for physics people, it makes a lot of sense just to take it."

"The only difference it makes is in their fourth year," she says. "They have a lot more options."

Despite the resources available to advise students thinking about early graduation, Foster says many students formulate their plans of study on their own and do not seek out advice. Consequently, she says she does not know most advanced standing students personally.

"It's not a real strong connection that they need to maintain," she says. "We're available if they want to maintain it."

The Work-load

In many fields, students who accept advanced standing are placed in sophomore tutorials in either their first or second semesters at Harvard.

Sanjeev K. Swami '98 was eligible for advanced standing but chose not to accept a because he felt he might not be ready for the chemistry department's tutorial.

"It would have been a little odd because the tutorial for chemistry is an introduction to research," Swami says. "I didn't want to get into a lab this academic year."

The Social Studies department, in fact, discourages potential concentrators from accepting Advanced Standing because of the difficulty of the material in the sophomore tutorial, Foster says.

"They feel it is much better for a student to have had a certain amount of college course work under their belt," Foster says.

In the biological sciences, accepting advanced standing forces students to conduct laboratory research during their second year at Harvard, sometimes before they have taken all of the appropriate courses, Gelbart says.

"A lot of our best students conduct research for three years," Gelbert says. "Advanced standing puts so many constraints on the [undergraduate] program that some of the things that are the most fulfilling aspects, at best, they would really have to rush through."

For a similar reason, Chen says he is considering dropping advanced standing because he fears he may not be able to take enough courses to prepare him to write a thesis in economics.

"I've been given one year to take all the classes I need to write a thesis and to take the LSAT," he says. "That's impossible."

But Markham Professor of Government H. Douglas Price, who is advising Buford's thesis on American political parties, says advanced standing juniors are frequently as capable as seniors of writing a stellar thesis.

"Those people who are getting there after two years have exceptional ability and exceptional grades," Price says. "But being around Harvard having six semesters gives you some average over four."

But Price says the quality and motivation of an individual student, not necessarily the amount of time this student has spent in colleges, will determine the quality of a student's thesis.

"If they're of exceptional caliber to begin with, I think they're going to do as well after four semesters as after six," he says. "A bright person is going to figure out where a library is."