Local Teens Take College Classes

If you thought Harvard had enough over-achievers already, you thought wrong. Make way for the high schoolers.

Three students from the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CLRS) are enrolled in classes in the College’s physics and government departments this semester. They will receive both high school and college credit for their work.

Previously, high school students had only been eligible to take classes at the Extension School, for which did not get high school credit, according to Cambridge Public Schools Superintendent Thomas Fowler-Finn.

In order to enroll in College classes, students must submit a special application to Harvard; once accepted, they can take classes for free, he said.

According to Harvard’s Associate Director of Community Relations Mary Ann Jarvis, the opportunity has existed as an informal arrangement “for some time.”

“This has happened in the past with the recommendation of the high school and at the discretion of the faculty member teaching the course,” she wrote in an e-mail.

In an interview last night Director of Community Relations Mary H. Power said she had not been involved directly in the discussions with Foweler-Finn and could not confirm that the arrangement had been institutionalized.

Fowler-Finn said he did not know the details of the application and enrollment process or how many classes CRLS classes were available to the high schoolers.

“I said that we could try this out on a case by case basis for CR&L,” Dean of Harvard College Benedict H. Gross ’71 wrote in an e-mail, who described the fledgling program as “a good opportunity for [Harvard] to work together with [its] neighbors.”

In the past, Harvard has come under fire for not providing enough assistance to local public schools. School Committee member Alfred B. Fantini said the program was “good news both for Harvard and for our students.”

“Harvard is starting to play a very meaningful role in the lives of Cambridge students,” he said.

“I think it’s another big step in improving town-gown relations,” School Committee member Nancy Walser said, who wrote about the initiative on her blog.

Fowler-Finn first initiated discussions about the possibility of admitting CRLS students to the College when he assumed his position as superintendent in August 2003.

“What I was really looking for was an opportunity for students who had exhausted the course selections here at Rindge and Latin to take some courses at Harvard,” Fowler-Finn said.

Due to a change in the scheduling system, it is not uncommon for CRLS students to complete their requirements before their senior spring.

“I think it’s going to act as a real motivator for kids who are truly interested in pursuing certain subjects and have run out of courses to take at the high school,” Walser said.

CRLS Guidance Counselor Lynn Williams said that taking Harvard classes would give high-achieving students a taste of college life.

“Students are able to experience what a college-level course is like. I think it’s absolutely wonderful,” said Williams, who helped establish the program.

It is also hoped that the new opportunity will help combat ‘senior spring’ slacking.

“It gives a little extra impetus to students who for the most part completed their high school degree requirements halfway through their senior year,” Fowler-Finn said.

And CRLS students won’t be the only ones benefitting from the new opportunity.

“We have some really smart kids in Cambridge, and I’m sure they will be an asset in Harvard’s classes,” Walser said.

—Staff writer William M. Goldsmith can be reached at wgoldsm@fas.harvard.edu.