<p>Just as a warning, the Academic Guide says "If a student fails an Advanced Standing Exam, he or she may not retake the exam, but may register for the same subject in any subsequent term." So if you don't have all the credits necessary for sophomore standing, you can definitely take more ASEs during IAP, but you can't re-take exams you failed.</p>
<p>bsax, people generally take sophomore standing to either graduate in under four years, declare a major and get an advisor earlier, or circumvent the freshman credit limit (first-year students with sophomore standing have no credit limit second semester). One disadvantage of doing it is that people with sophomore standing are graded on the standard scale second term, not A/B/C/no record -- if you take sophomore standing and fail a class, it will go on your record.</p>
<p>About 10% of the class of 2007 accepted sophomore standing; I can't find numbers for 2008 or 2009.</p>
<p>And again, remember that you can't <em>request</em> sophomore standing: if your record shows you are qualified to be <em>offered</em> it, you will get an email at the end of first semester offering you the choice.</p>
<p>Sort of like being informed that you've been named some form of AP Scholar. If it pertains, they'll contact you.</p>
<p>Do you know how many people are offered it but turn it down? It seems to me like more than 10% of the class should be eligible to be offered it. </p>
<p>I'd also like to complain that the official description is pretty ambigious. (How many units is 25% of the undergrad curriculum, and does AP humanities credit count toward that? Must you take all the 6 science GIRs first term or just four? It doesn't specifiy. Sigh.)</p>
<p>You (as a student, not a parent like me :) ) might want to contact the Academic Resource Center and politely ask them if they could explain this better, and/or provide some statistics on the offer/accept ratio and raw numbers. I don't think it's meant to be a secret, and if the descriptions aren't clear it's worth letting them know they could make it more clear. (I just know what I learned from watching my son's experience last year, but he had finished his GIR core after first semester so I don't know how one calculates "majority" since his were done altogether).</p>
<p>If someone does follow up on this, post here to clarify for everyone, maybe?</p>
<p>The Tech story from which I got the ~10% number suggested that about 20% of the students in the class were offered sophomore standing. Again, though, that's for the class of 2007, so who knows what the numbers are now.</p>
<p>I'll call tomorrow and post the answers here unless someone else jumps in before then.</p>
<p>I was offered sophomore standing and turned it down. I didn't know what wanted to major in, didn't want to graduate a year early, and didn't have any particular desire to exceed the credit limit - what good would it have done me?</p>
<p>Since I'm sure someone will ask - sophomore standing does not allow you to live in an FSILG second term.</p>
<p>And yes, AP general elective credits count toward being offered sophomore standing.</p>
<p>Well, I called and the response I got was pretty much that the requirements are vague intentionally because it's not something you can really (or should) set out specifically trying to get.</p>
<p>thanks for calling! yea it doesn't seem like a too bad idea, depending how things go first semester. =P</p>
<p>I just think it's irritating for them to try to dissuade people from trying for it by withholding the specifics of it. I would prefer to have them just tell us what you need to do to get it and then decide for ourselves that we don't qualify if that's the case. I don't really see the justification for withholding that information. At least I got to harrass the poor ARC guy that answered the phone. ;)</p>
<p>The ARC does not generally intend to be an enterprise which bows to student opinion, so it really doesn't surprise me that they hide the requirements "for your own good".</p>
<p>They do a lot of other stuff "for your own good" that a lot of people find infuriating, patronizing, and bad for overall student life.</p>
<p>Is it possible to graduate a semester early, but not a year?</p>
<p>Yes. Though unless you are under financial hardship I'm not sure why you'd want to.</p>