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-