SOPHOMORE STANDING

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I am disappointed that in the CRIMSON'S recent series of articles and editorials on Sophomore Standing, no attempt has been made to present the case in favor of the program, the reasons which caused 80% of the students questioned to favor the plan.

The student who has mastered twelve full courses in college, in addition to three courses before Harvard, essentially has reached the same level of academic achievement as the normal senior. The A.P. student has the same distribution and concentration requirements as everyone else. He can be given the right to graduate if he wishes without reducing the academic value of the Harvard degree. We must give the Advanced Placement senior the same credit for good judgment and capability in planning his future education as we give the normal senior, who has the right to decide whether he will continue his education in professional or graduate school or cease with his A.B.

If there is a valid argument against Sophomore Standing then, it must lie in the realm of the intangible benefits of the Harvard program: "the Freshman Year" and "the House System." The purposes of the Freshman Year are to give students proper introduction to intellectual achievement, and to enable them to pick their fields of concentration. The A.P. student, obviously, has already been introduced to intellectual achievement, either through training at a top preparatory school, or through diligent self instruction. Many of these students have decided on a major field. Those undecided between two closely related fields may enroll in one and switch later without great loss. Those who are completely undecided have the option to refuse Sophomore Standing; many have done so. Even if a student enrolls in the wrong major, he may begin his sophomore year over again at the end of one year and will have lost nothing. A student who lives in the Yard first year, as most new sophomores do, has all the social benefits of the Freshman Year. The loss incurred by not living in the House where he is getting tutorial, first year, is not too great, especially since many tutors do not live in the Houses anyway. By the time he graduates, of course, the A.P. senior has had three years of tutorial, like the normal student. His sole loss, then, as compared with the normal senior, is the social opportunity and intellectual climate of a third year in the House. I do not wish to deny the value of these intangibles. For these benefits, many students decide to remain a fourth year, a choice which gives them the additional opportunity to study four courses untrammeled by academic requirements. However, there are students who do not wish to spend the year's time and $3000 necessary for these benefits. A.P. students are not the only ones who may choose to sacrifice the benefits of a fourth year; any student may graduate early by going to summer school and taking extra courses. After two years in a House the student is in a fine position to make this decision Some factors which might influence the student are: financial problems, marriage, the prospect of a long graduate or professional training, plans to spend a year abroad, and a myriad of personal reasons.

We must, of course, be sure that the effect on the rest of the College, caused by the early graduation of a certain percentage of the class, is not bad. We have seen that academic standards are still maintained. Furthermore, in view of the overcrowding of the Harvard Houses, any vacancy is an asset to the rest of the College. We should recognize, also, the value of the Sophomore Standing program to the American secondary school system. The program provides incentive for the better schools to develop advanced courses. Where courses cannot be instituted, it provides incentive for the gifted student to study independently and rise above the much-decried mediocrity. Finally, it may provide a means for some talented but poor students to reduce the staggering cost of college education by diligence in high school.

There may well be room for improvement in the Sophomore Standing program, perhaps through changes in the requirements for admission, or modification of the exemptions given to new sophomores. But because the program provides definite benefits to many, because those students for whom one or more aspects of Sophomore Standing are disadvantageous may withdraw from the program at any time, because Sophomore Standing does no harm and even some good to the rest of the student body, because it plays an important role in the educational structure of the nation, the Sophomore Standing program must not be abandoned. Bertrand I. Halperin '81.