Andy W. Williams '97 applied to Harvard just about a year ago.

Now, in the spring of his first year, he's about to face another admissions procedure: Getting into his concentration, Social Studies.

"It's kind of nervewracking," he says. Social Studies is very important to him, and no other concentration at Harvard will fulfill his educational goals as well, he says.

In eight concentrations, undergraduates like Williams must survive this second admissions procedure to pursue their chosen academic interests.

Departments defend their selectivity in two ways: the rigor of the concentrations and the need to keep classes small.

They also point out that very few students are truly excluded by their application processes: most closed departments have a "second round" admissions procedure and admit well over half of the applicants.

But some undergraduates ask if a University dedicated to the free pursuit of knowledge should place such barriers in the way of its students. If someone wants to study Social Studies or History and Literature, why prejudge their qualifications?

"I think that anyone who's willing to do thework and thinks they can handle it should beallowed to give it a shot," says Daniel J. Goldey'96, a Social Studies concentrator.

Eight of the 41 concentrations--EnvironmentalScience and Public Policy, History and Literature,History and Science, Literature, Social Studies,the Comparative Study of Religion, Visual andEnvironmental Studies (VES) and Women'sStudies--have an admission procedure.

The application processes vary, but mostinclude an essay, interview and submission offirst-year grades. Departments judge enteringsophomores on academic standing during the firstyear, enthusiasm for the subject material and thedegree to which a student "matches" aconcentration.

But the procedures do not seem justified to astudent who saw him or herself as "matching" achosen field well and was denied the chance to tryit.

"I felt as qualified as a lot of the otherpeople who got in. I really didn't understand,"says one student who was rejected by Literature onhis first application. "I was really keen on doing[Literature]."

The departments' first justification for theirselective processes is the rigor and difficulty oftheir academic program.

Traditionally, honors or interdisciplinaryconcentrations require a personal, intensiveinstructional approach, department members say.All of the selective concentrations arehonors-only except for the new EnvironmentalStudies major.

"The relationship [between history and science]is not evident," says Peter Galison, professor ofthe history of science. "That integrative processis what is so difficult to do well. We're tryingto do something that's really fairly unusual--notto just have it become a major and minor."

Social Studies Director of Studies Judith E.Vichniac echoes Galison's concerns.