Harris’ committee is charged with, among other things, examining the timing of concentration choice and study abroad opportunities.

Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government Stephen M. Walt, a member of the Working Group of Concentrations, alluded to the impending recommendation.

“Certainly the question of timing of concentration choice has been widely discussed, and I suspect is going to be part of the recommendations,” he says. “We’ve spent enough time on this issue that I’d be surprised if it doesn’t get mentioned.”

Kirby said last month that Harvard’s three-year-long concentrations are longer, and have substantially more requirements, than those at most of Harvard’s peer schools.

Most Ivy League schools ask students to declare their majors during sophomore year—and some, such as Cornell University, give students until the beginning of junior year.

“If you have to declare your concentration in the spring of your freshman year, you basically have one semester of unfettered choice and even that semester’s not entirely unfettered,” Kirby says. “[What] I hope will emerge...is a curriculum in which students can explore deeply not just one, but several areas, and change their minds about what they are interested in doing.”

But Harris and Walt say it is too early to tell precisely what the review will recommend, although it will suggest that students declare their concentrations some time during sophomore year.

The proposal is likely to spur contentious debate.

Walt describes a debate between faculty who prefer an early concentration decision to ensure adequate time for completing concentration requirements, and faculty who favor a later choice because they believe that, given additional time, students will make a better informed decision.

A later concentration choice will likely affect the number of courses a concentration can require, as well as the structure of departments’ tutorial programs.

Harris says he is strongly in favor of the proposed move in concentration choice timing.

“I think the benefits are substantial for those students who don’t come in with a clear sense of what it is they want to do,” he says. “There are departments here and areas of study students don’t know anything about, and it would be nice if they had an opportunity to sample some of it.”

According to Harris and Kirby, while departments with one-semester tutorial programs would likely be unaffected by the move—they can simply offer their tutorial in the spring semester of sophomore year—those with full-year tutorials will have to rethink the nature of their program.

Harris says such changes are probably not something the review will examine in great detail and that “each department is going to have to look at this on its own.”

Professors in the sciences tend to be more firmly against a move in concentration choice timing than their colleagues in the humanities because the sciences rely much more heavily on prerequisites.