"It's got to be full time. This is not a summer camp," says Pihl. "There are absolutely the same standards [for students in the secondary program and undergraduates]. No distinction is made. No distinction has to be made."

Both high school and undergraduate students receive more support from their proctors than Harvard undergraduates do during the rest of the year, Pihl says. With about 20 students per secondary school proctor and 25 per upperclass proctor, the student advisors are able to help their charges deal with "a pace of life that can be overwhelming," he explains.

All students can choose from among 250 courses, ranging from "Econmetric Modeling and Business Forecasting" to "The Evolution of Modern jazz Through Jazz Rock and Fusion." In addition, the Summer School offers a special six-week dance program, an eight-week Ukranian culture institute and the Health Professions Program, a program for minority and disadvantaged students.

"The purpose of the Summer School is to meet the needs of outside students by drawing on the resources of the University," says Pihl, the School's director since 1981. "We are not dictating a combination of courses that result in a degree. Rather, our curriculum reflects our aggregate needs."

The Summer School curriculum places more emphasis on "the more practical, applied and worthy" in the summer than during the regular school year, explains Pihl. Economics, for example, is much more quantitative in the summer.

Quality Control

Pihl says the quality of courses offered at the Summer School, which cost $685 per credit, is comparable to those during the rest of the year. Summer School officials must clear each course offering with the appropriate department chairmen.

"If they [the chairmen] think what they are teaching is the kind of course that belongs at Harvard, they give their approval," he says. "They wouldn't let us teach something below their standards."

Most of the Summer School's professors are affiliated with Harvard. Sixty percent of the faculty are Harvard professors and half of the remaining visiting professors have received their degrees from the University.

"Basically, it's a Harvard education," says Pihl.

But Harvard's Summer School is run independently from the rest of the college, and unlike other university summer sessions, is not a third term. "Summertime is when Harvard goes to the mountains," Pihl says. "We are the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for 56 days."

Many secondary students have traditionally been attracted to Harvard's Summer School believing that a good performance would translate into admittance to the College. Despite the fact that 330 of Harvard's current 6000 undergraduates did attend the Summer School. Pihl downplays the connection. "We tell them it is not a back road way," says Pihl, adding, though, that "it doesn't hurt" if you perform well.