APPLYING to college is a difficult process no matter what. Some students, however, apply once and get it over with by Christmas. Early decision makes sense if you know what you want early on.
Most people, though, aren't in that group. Yet increasing competition for certain colleges is pushing more students to apply early. Early decision is a viable option, but schools using it need to ensure that the process does not penalize regular decision applicants.
Although early decision has become more popular in recent years, the process itself is not new. The University has had an early decision process since the 1950s, according to Dean of Admissions John Blackburn. In early decision, a student can apply for only one school during the fall of senior year - usually around Nov. 1 - and know the results by Christmas. The catch is that the student agrees to attend if admitted.
Early decision has important benefits for some students. Tom Thomas, Director of college counseling at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, says that for students who have researched and know what school they want to attend, early decision "simplifies the process." For them, senior year is much more relaxed, which he cites as a major reason students want to apply early.
At the same time, Thomas sees many students feeling pressure to apply early because they feel it will greatly help their chances. Thomas says that while this isn't true for all students, it's true that many schools give some preference to early decision students. One Harvard University study of 14 selective colleges showed that students applying early received an edge equal to increasing their SAT score by 100 points ("New Attacks on Early Decision," The Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 11), a strong incentive for students who see themselves as close but not a sure bet.
Yale's president, Richard Levin, argued last month that early decision benefits schools more than students ("Yale Proposes that Elite Colleges Abandon Early-Decision Admissions," The New York Times, Dec. 13, 2001) and needs to go. In his view, early decision was supposed to simplify life for some students, but at a cost of rushing some. Levin, however, wanted all the Ivy League schools to act together to eliminate the early decision option.
Many critics of early decision have commented on the fact that the U.S. News and World Report rankings, which are read by many prospective applicants, take the percentage of accepted students that enroll into account. Early decision students are a 100 percent yield, thus benefiting the school.
In a recent interview with Dean of Admissions John Blackburn, Blackburn argued that early decision generally has been good for both this school and the students it accepts, but there are some problems. Like Thomas, he believes the process is helpful for well-prepared students, but the group is also a much more homogeneous one.
Of the 2,413 early decision applicants to U.Va. in 2000, only 83 were black and 69 Hispanic. Less than 20 prospective students requested financial aid, compared with 35 percent of regular applicants. Some applicants, in need of financial aid, perceive that early decision forecloses the opportunity to shop around.
Blackburn disagrees with that perception, noting that the University has a policy of meeting need in either stage. He admits, however, that most people with significant need will stay out of early decision to preserve flexibility.
Blackburn says that the 30 percent of accepted students drawn from early admission last year is about as high as he wants to go, and he would like to make it a matter of policy. Setting a limit makes a lot of sense, particularly since the process allows students to be deferred. A limited number of early acceptances would allow universities to avoid filling nearly half the class before Christmas, which happens at a large number of selective schools. Last year, the University's acceptance rate for early applicants was 41 percent, only slightly higher than the 37 percent overall. At Yale, by contrast, 37 percent of early applicants get in, but only 16 percent of regular applicants are accepted. Such a wide discrepancy can't help but pressure students into applying early.
One way to avoid penalizing the rankings of schools who keep these numbers steady is for U.S. News and others to keep early applicants out of the percent of accepted students enrolled, thus stopping the influence that early decision has on a school's ratings.
In addition to keeping a cap on the number of early applicants accepted, schools need to think about what type of students they're accepting. Many critics of early decision point out that if schools fill a certain type of slot from the early pool, such as geographic diversity slots or athletes, they can penalize students who fit in these slots but apply later on. Thus the University needs to keep its eye not just on how many early decision applicants it admits, but also what types of students it admits early.
Early decision has important uses for both the University and prospective students, but it must be used carefully. The University wants people who apply out of a sincere desire to attend, not out of fear.
(Elizabeth Managan's column appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at emanagan@cavalierdaily.com.)
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