Yale decides to retain Early Action policy

Yale has opted to stick with its Early Action admission policy despite recent decisions by rivals Princeton and Harvard to discontinue their own early admission programs, the school announced last week.

The announcement comes as a blow to the college's fellow members of the Big Three, both of which had hoped that their decisions to scrap their versions of the controversial program last fall would open the door to widespread abolishment of early admission.

But in defending its move, Yale rejected the argument put forth by the presidents of Harvard and Princeton that early admission "advantages the advantaged," boosting the prospects of applicants from more privileged backgrounds who don't have to weigh financial aid packages in their decisions.

"We don't believe that eliminating early admissions would change the socioeconomic diversity of the class," Yale president Richard Levin said in an interview with Yale Alumni Magazine. He added that abolishing early admissions at elite colleges would actually have a detrimental affect on high school seniors.

"If none of the top schools had an early admissions program, the very best students would likely apply to three or four of the top schools each," he said. "They would tend to collect multiple offers, causing students who ranked slightly lower to be placed on waiting lists or rejected."

Yale is one of several universities — including Stanford and, until recently, Harvard — to maintain a program of single-choice Early Action, which lets students apply to one college early but does not require them to attend if accepted. Under Early Decision, which was employed at Princeton for the last time this year, accepted students are contractually bound to attend.

Yale Dean of Admissions Jeff Brenzel said that the freedom of Early Action works to the advantage of both students and the university.

"Our consistent view has been that the non-binding, single choice Early Action program we adopted in 2004 both retains the valuable option for all applicants to signal their preference for a particular school early, while leaving them free to apply to any school in the regular process," Brenzel said in an e-mail to members of the school's Alumni Schools Committee, a copy of which was obtained by The Daily Princetonian.

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The move raises new questions about the dynamics of the admission process and the competition among the Big Three for top students. "Yale will certainly have a big spike in early applications, as well as Georgetown, University of Chicago, Stanford and anywhere else with non-binding programs," said Jeff Durso-Finley, director of college counseling at the nearby Lawrenceville School.

"Top students usually go down the list of the top schools and apply to them," said Michael Falcone, a college admissions counselor at Ronald McNair Academic High School in Jersey City. "If one has Early Action and the others don't, they'd be more likely to go with [the former]. Even if one got into Yale Early Action, they'd probably still apply to a few others regular decision. But I think it gives Yale an advantage."

Durso-Finley said it is unlikely that many other schools will follow Harvard's and Princeton's lead. "Schools with more volatile matriculation patterns like Dartmouth and Brown can't take the risk by giving up Early Decision," he said, noting that Harvard's and Princeton's moves will lead to "more common admits and an enormous increase in waitlists." Without having at least some of their incoming class committed, such schools might have difficulty finding the right number of students to offer admission.

Penn, for example, has already announced that it plans to retain its Early Decision program.

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Observers of elite college admissions have also wondered whether these changes in admission policy will alter the controversial, though highly influential, U.S. News and World Report college rankings.

But according to Bob Morse, the magazine's director of data research, the effect will be negligible. "The acceptance rate is the only thing that's going to change, I'm assuming," he said. "The acceptance rate is only 1.5 percent of the rankings, and there may be a 2 percent change or so in that. It's not likely this will make a big difference in the ranking."

Debate surrounding early admission has spiked in recent years, with college presidents, high school advisers, academics and journalists entering the fray. Early decision programs have been criticized for disadvantaging low-income students, who are unable to determine whether their financial aid package is better than what they might receive from other schools.

Both Early Decision and Early Action are also criticized by some for increasing the stress of the senior year of high school, forcing both students and colleges to commit too early and unfairly benefiting affluent applicants who have the resources to visit colleges before the early application deadline.

"We have been concerned about the senior year in high school and the way early admission can create a frenetic pace in some schools," Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye said after Princeton's decision to end the program. "We also have been concerned that Early Decision has been unreachable for many students from disadvantaged backgrounds and that it has caused other students to make premature decisions about their college choice."

Durso-Finley, the high school counselor, said affluent students enjoy advantages in the application process but added that colleges are capable of taking these into account. "Many of our students have the luxury of having the chance to visit schools," he said. "Kids in the upper class have that advantage, but you could say the same thing about SAT prep and extracurricular opportunities."

"Admissions offices can control for socioeconomic factors, though," he added.

On the other hand, early admission defenders point out that the program allows students to demonstrate a preference for a particular college. If students get into their top choice, it also lets them avoid the hectic regular application process and save money on application fees.

"I think Early Action obviously opens up the pool a lot more, because you're not bound by it," said Barbara Silverman, a guidance counselor at Princeton High School. "You're not just stuck with applying to one school. This opens up the playing field for the kids."