<p>What percent of the Harvard students actually take advantage of Advanced Standing, and what kind of benefits are there? Would it help tremendously for having a major and a minor?</p>
<p>A large percentage of Harvard students are eligible for advanced standing, but a small percentage actually activate it.</p>
<p>People activate advanced standing for a variety of reasons: to graduate a semester/year early, to start or complete a Master's degree during the fourth year, to take a semester/year off (and still graduate with your class), to spend a semester abroad + not worry about credits transfering.</p>
<p>The idea of a "minor" (or secondary field) is a new one, so I'm not exactly sure how it will work. My guess is advanced standing will <em>not</em> help.</p>
<p>on a related note, how beneficial is it to do well on ap calc? (ie, how hard should i study for it)</p>
<p>An AP Calc 5 is almost certainly the most useful AP test, especially on BC. See the other AP thread for more info.</p>
<p>Depends on what you want to study. If you plan to be a Classics concentrator, you can probably let calculus slide. However, just<em>forget</em>me is right. Calculus is just so dang useful--for math, CS, physics, chem, engineering, economics, etc. You hit courses that require it at the very intro level of many of those fields. Even classes that claim not to require any calculus will often sneak some in, in the lectures if not on the tests.</p>
<p>Is it possible to activate advanced standing, but still graduate in four years with no semester breaks and without a master's degree? That would mean taking only three courses per semester, giving one considerable free time.</p>
<p>No. I wish!</p>
<p>dualityim: I have never thought of that! That's a pretty interesting idea, but nope, you cannot do that. You either graduate in 3 years or get a 4th year AM. That's all advanced standing is about.</p>
<p>Please keep in mind that many majors won't accept advanced standing (in terms of 4th year masters) such as English. In addition, for concentrations such as Biology, getting a 4th year AM was so hard that after the Class of 2009, they are not offering a 4th year AM program anymore in Biology.</p>
<p>The only advanced standing people I know is one in Biology (he's nuts, he took Math 21a, 21b, Life Sciences 1a, Life Sciences 1b, Biological Sciences 51, Chemistry 20 and a junior tutorial seminar in Biology) this year. That's basically what you need for advanced standing in Biology.</p>
<p>Whereas my friend who is electing advanced standing in Linguistics has a MUCH easier time. She can fulfill undergraduate linguistics requirements with her graduate school linguistics classes and write a senior-year thesis which can double-count as her master's thesis. Now that is a pretty good deal.</p>
<p>for those of you who took bc, did you repeat calc in college? im still hazy on some topics and doubt id get a 5 even with studying...</p>
<p>A number of my friends took BC, got fives, should have taken 21a, but took 1b instead, thinking it'd be an easier refresher. They all regretted not taking 21a. Apparently 1b is taught in a way very different from the AP, and they found it to be somewhat nitpicky and frustrating. So I guess my advice is to try to brush up on calc and do well on BC, if you're interested in taking math here.</p>
<p>just<em>forget</em>me is absolutely correct. People say that Math 1b is an absolute horror (unless you have Robin Gottlieb who teaches Math 1b int he Spring) just that they teach it in such a different way. </p>
<p>A viable alternative is Applied Math 21a/21b where I have heard it is much easier than Math 21a/21b and you still learn what you need to know to apply it to calculus-based Physics classes.</p>
<p>I can't say this from personal experience - I'm a math dummy and in Math Xa/Xb, which I love. :)</p>
<p>ah well, considering i just got completely rocked by the bc test, looks like ill be in dummy math next year as well :)</p>