Word: probationer
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If an undergraduate receives one F or two Ds in any semester, he has an unsatisfactory record and his case is discussed at a meeting of the ad board. Roughly half of those students who receive unsatisfactory records are placed on probation for a semester. Students who fail two or...
Members of the ad board insist that academic probation is a mechanism designed to help the undergraduate adjust and organize his life at Harvard. It is not a punishment, they say. But it is hard to imagine a bureaucratic device that often prevents students from partaking in extracurriculars and that...
And sure enough, at Harvard, probation is what they give you before they ask you to withdraw. Further, it is difficult for any student--especially a freshman--to look upon a board of stodgy administrators who experience Harvard behind formica desks as paternal, caring figures.
The result is that many students do not have an outlet for their talents, and further, those who have found an outlet have often found it in an extracurricular activity. But if a student fails a course and is placed on probation, he can be barred from that activity for...
This seems like a fair enough deal--and it compels one to ask whether probation is necessary at all.