Minutissima

Of the 4000 undergraduate men of Harvard, only thirty-five of them enjoy the advantages of the Advanced Placement program. That means only one out of every 125 Harvard students is able "to cover areas of his field not touched by formal courses and to delve deeper, by intensive reading, into his field than he might do in a normal program of study," as one of the fortunate few has put it. There may be things wrong with the Advanced Placement--Course Reduction program, but certainly its greatest defect now is just its smallness. Few administrators would say only one of every 125 students has the intellectual capacity and integrity to meet requirements for Advanced Placement, and there are Undoubtedly more than thirty-five students in the college who would like to pursue courses of independent, individualized study--who would like to "delve deeper".

Advanced placement and course reduction should not be reserved for geniuses who are held back by the course system or for budding scholars who have their life's work in medieval history already planned out; the program should be opened up to greater numbers of relatively undistinguished students who want to avail themselves of its benefits, especially in replacing courses with independent study in junior and senior years. Effectiveness of the program is directly related to the number of students participating.

The best thing that the Office of Advanced Standing can do right now for their Advanced Placement--Course Reduction program is to publicize it. The reason there are not many applications is that many qualified students are only vaguely aware of the existence of such an office and of so beneficial a program. Madison Avenue techniques aren't necessary, but an office so new and unprecedented should not rely on a paragraph or two in some University pamphlet to bring its services to the students' attention.

The other factor that has retarded this liberalization of undergraduate studies is the rather unamenable attitude of many of the departments themselves. Perhaps the departments are a little suspicious of something new, which may be understandable, or perhaps they feel they are being undercut by the partial avoidance of the course system, which is understandable, but still deplorable. Courses are not only organized into departments for the good of the students, but are created for that purpose, and when a plan is devised that will educate certain students, but are created for that purpose, and when a plan is devised that will educate certain students better, no inherent good in the course system remains for them. Obviously even a greatly expanded program of courseless study could not destroy the department's function; the advanced placement program should be looked on as a supplementary means of better suiting undergraduate study to the individual, not as a contending educational ideology. If Advanced Placement were expanded to effective proportions it could be one of the most fruitful curricular advancements in many years.