<p>My D is considering Advanced Standing BA/MA, it's very complicated. She is a freshman, took I think 11 AP exams with 9 5's.</p>
<p>Not all concentrations allow it, it effects the courses you need to take for core credit (I think some of the AP's used for advanced standing may preclude taking lower level courses for credit), scheduling the required grad courses is particularly tough with the demands of her athletic team commitments, and her experience is that Harvard is pretty tough without accelerating things along. </p>
<p>Seems to me she will probably not go that direction.</p>
<p>^ economics concentration with AM in stats might be absolutely perfect for my D who will be a freshman this fall. She loves how stats applies to just about everything. </p>
<p>Should incoming Freshman interetested in doing this be already trying to work out their schedule or is that done in the fall when they arrive?</p>
<p>Piccolo, her concentration is undecided, some combination of linguistics, psychology, biology and physics under the umbrella of "mind, brain, behavior."</p>
<p>Incoming freshman need to be flexible, just from talking to D's roommates and teammates, many expectations of what the first year (and Harvard in general) would be like are way, way off, lot's of new decisions, new directions, often totally unexpected.</p>
<p>An incoming freshman with capability for advanced standing (sufficient AP credit or whatever) is apparently not rare at Harvard, yet few go that route. </p>
<p>The high school superstar is often just average, takes some getting used to.</p>
<p>Yeah I'm familiar with that situation...I signed up for about 8 clubs at the activity fair. I doubt I'll be doing any more than 1 of them (the "other" CC didn't have a booth, and it's the one club I plan to spend the most time on).</p>
<p>
[quote]
^ economics concentration with AM in stats might be absolutely perfect for my D who will be a freshman this fall. She loves how stats applies to just about everything.</p>
<p>Should incoming Freshman interetested in doing this be already trying to work out their schedule or is that done in the fall when they arrive?
[/quote]
It used to be pretty straightforward for econ concentrators to get the stats A.M., but things changed this year. The stats dept took the position that the vast majority of people interested in econ + statistics should just get a secondary field in stat. As a result, maybe 1-2 people were accepted out of a pool of at least 10 (and a very qualified pool!). Just something to keep in mind.</p>
<p>As for when planning needs to start - I think it'd be useful for your you + your D (if she's very interested in the A.B./A.M. idea) to sketch through a potential four years at Harvard doing the A.B./A.M. track and a potential four years not doing it. When I did something like this, I realized that I much preferred the flexibility of the second route... but if the classes she'd be taking doing the A.B./A.M. seem like ones she'd take anyway, maybe it's worth pursuing further.</p>
<p>The flexibility of the non-AB/AM track is probably the better route. Don't know why I'm obsessing on this. The next stage in parental college anxiety? Anyway, doesn't H offer the "shopping" approach in the fall so that students can get a taste of various classes?</p>
<p>Yes, students have a "shopping" period when they can try out courses during the beginning of each semester. My D has found it very helpful. </p>
<p>At some point during the summer before freshman year, my D did try to get a sense of what some possible schedules might be, but it wasn't necessary to do that. She was just really excited about college and had some time on her hands during the three weeks between when all of her h.s. friends went to school and when she started. There are some schedule unknowns at that point, such as which semester a freshman will take Expos, and whether or not she'll get into a freshman seminar.</p>