Advanced Placement Program Nears Maturity

Still regarded by some as an unqualified genius and despised by others as a hopeless misfit, the Advanced Placement Sophomore is at least no longer the side-show freak he was in 1955. That fall the first two incoming students were admitted to Sophomore Standing. The 55 A.P. Sophomores this year occupy a definite, if not always uncomplicated, position in the academic picture, and they usually find out soon enough that they are no longer extraordinary.

This is not to say that their feat is any the less imposing; now, as in 1955, Advanced Placement Sophomores must hace satisfactory completed at least three college-level courses during their senior year in secondary school. Usually, passing performances on the College Board Advanced Placement Examinations, given in 11 fields, will ensure accreditation. In four areas--Chemistry, Physics, French, and Spanish--either an honors grade or a further examination tendered by the College is needed for Advanced Placement.

15 Fields Possible

The College also gives its own tests in Music, Russian, Greek, and Far Eastern history, making a total of 15 fields in which acceleration is possible. Of course, many Freshmen pass examinations and enter advanced courses in only one or two subjects; 211 men began college this year with one or two credits already earned. Only 87 A.P. candidates, less than 25 per cent of the total, failed to receive credit in at least one area.

One of the most striking aspects of the Advanced Placement program is its rapid rate of growth.

Since 1954, when 81 high school seniors took 130 of the old School and College Study Examinations and no one received Sophomore Standing, the number of A.P. candidates has quadrupled and the total of exams presented has increased six-fold. According to director Edward T. Wilcox, the program is still growing, and "no ceiling is in sight."

Reluctance to "Push"

The 55 new Sophomores come from only ten private and ten public schools. This is a surprisingly small number of institutions, in view of the 115 secondary schools resented by A. P. applicants. Too many schools, Wilcox explains, fail to realize that a capable senior can handle three college-level courses. Some limit their seniors to one or two such classes, eliminates any possibility of Sophomore Standing. In addition, many high school teachers think advanced courses are merely intensive duplication of the usual fare, rather than presentations of new material. Wilcox expects the present reluctance to "push" promising students to disappear as the advantages of acceleration become widely known.

Wilcox's largest concern about the A. P. program has been that students might take advanced classes in high school, reject Advanced Placement, and then settle for grinding out A's in college courses they had in effect already taken. Of course, men with full Sophomore Standing can not do this: their promotion is contingent upon credits received for their advanced work in high school. A student with A.P. in one or two courses, however, is under no compulsion to avoid repetition. So far, though, virtually no one has used his accelerated training for mere grade advantage: this academic honesty is essential to the program's continued success.

Three 'Cliffies Advance

At Radcliffe, one might also say that the number of A.P. Sophomores is increasing, since three girls managed to accumulate the necessary three credits for the first time this year, and were admitted to the 'Cliffe as Sophomores. One reason why only three have taken the proffered advancement seems to be lack of publicity, although this defect is rapidly being remedied. More-over, educators are not always in a hurry to expedite young ladies' schooling. The headmistress of a Midwestern girls' school says, "Girls are not going into careers right after college, the way boys are. I don't see any reason for shortening a girl's education."

With a program so new, complications are prevalent and unavoidable. There is at this time no rapport between the College Board's concept of an advanced education in Romance Languages and the University's. Even in composition, seemingly an area definite enough to admit of clear-cut levels of attainment, the CEEB and Harvard are miles apart. This fall, students who had passed, even with honors, the composition (or "Language") portions of College Board Advanced Placement Tests in Romance Languages had absolutely no assurance of eventual Advanced Placement.

In the Literature department, the casuality rate was at least as high. This May there will be a new attempt by the CEEB to produce adequate tests in the Romance Languages. Whether the College Board will ever succeed in establishing mutual standards among high schools, colleges, and its tests remains to be seen.

Green Slip Trouble

The relation between Advanced Placement credits and requirements for concentration and degrees is still hazy; probably it is most muddled in the English Department. A new Sophomore with A.P. in, say, mathematics, American History, and English Literature would have been presented at registration with a green slip which said, "You can not take the following courses for credit: Math 1; Chemistry 1 or 2; one course in English."

Seemingly, this statement means that the unlucky green slip holder can not take a course for credit in English, no matter how hard he tries. Of course, this is not so, since the cryptic inscription really designates an "unassigned" credit in English. But for the English concentrator the problem has only begun. Technically, he holds a credit for Freshman English, which, of course, does not exist at the University. For this reason, English Department officials generally have expressed some reluctance to accept this "unassigned" credit for use toward a B.A. in English, especially where Honors work is involved.

Represents Upheaval

Of course, reluctance of this sort is understandable. It represents quite an upheaval, no doubt, to require acceptance of a credit for a not too sharply defined course given in high school. Other Departments besides English have similar qualms. Yet, unless the Departments give full credence to A.P. credits, the value of the program can never be fully realized.

Probably the biggest academic hitch in the Advanced Placement plan is the A.P. Sophomore's forced choice of major. With the speeded-up Honors program and its sophomore essays, junior generals, and the like, it is becoming increasingly obvious that the selection of a field of concentration must be made at the beginning of Sophomore year, if at all possible. A choice delayed to the middle of Sophomore year is risky but conceivable. As far as Honors goes, no choice made any later is likely to yield a successful Honors candidate.

A student who can amass enough learning to get Advanced Placement in three courses is often one with widespread interests. Not all A. P. students get advancement in Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics; some get it in Mathematics, American History, and French. Thus, a boy with enough interest in widely separated areas to take stiff, advanced classes in all of them must almost immediately make up his mind to forsake two of them. One of the greatest benefits of Freshman year is that it can give an opportunity to consider the problem of devoting one's self to a single area.

Some Should Reject

There is as yet no answer to this problem. The choice of field must be made, and it must be made with all possible speed. Wilcox himself admits that perhaps the only solution for students who can not decide on a major is to reject Sophomore Standing and think it over for a year.

The social problem is at best only a potential menace to the institution of Sophomore Standing. Associations and friendships at Harvard are not determined by class standings and the new Sophomore is free to live either in an upperclass House or in the Yard. Of the 55 A.P. students with this choice, only nine took the option of living in a House.

At least two causes for the large percentage of Yard-dwellers seem obvious. First there is the familiar chant, "Everybody lives in the Yard." Incoming Sophomores, especially those with Harvard fathers, often feel that the Yard is a part of College life not to be missed. Furthermore, the new Sophomore likes to seek friends at his own age level; in the Yard he is equal to all in years while being superior to most in scholastic attainment. In its circular, the A.P. Department proposes a compromise plan: let the new Sophomore live in the Yard for a term, and then let him move to a House. This rarely happens, however; only 12 sophomores of the 45 remaining in the Yard even contemplated such a transfer, according to a poll taken at the middle of the Fall Term.

Extracurricular Disadvantage

A major disadvantage of Sophomore Standing is that it hinders advancement in activities. Even if the A.P. Sophomore plunges right into his chosen extracurricular endeavor, he has only two years to work toward elective or appointive office.

The problem of extracurricular activities is easily met by what Wilcox calls "the most beneficial and least known provision of the program." The A.P. Sophomore is free to delay his degree a year and spend two terms as an undergraduate taking a number of courses in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

This freedom has opened up the possibility of an M.A. in the fourth year. The GSAS, however, not wanting admission to the Grad School and an early M.A. to become ipso facto prerogatives of students with Sophomore Standing, has imposed restrictions. A student remaining in the College for an extra year must apply for M.A. candidacy on the same basis as a normal applicant. If accepted, he can then, upon completion of the required courses, receive both his B.A. and his M.A. at the end of his fourth year. Wilcox calls this "the hottest thing in the A.P. program."

"Anything Reasonable"

The early M.A. is just an example of the many opportunities for advancement and special training that are opened each year to deserving students by the Program of Advanced Standing. Under Wilcox, a tireless innovator, the number of possibilities is sure to grow and multiply. As he told this fall's meeting of new Sophomores, "You are the program. We will try to help you do anything that seems reasonable and fair."