Preserving Access in Changing Times

Along-standing principle at the College has been to make competition for admission accessible to the most talented and promising individuals from the broadest range of backgrounds and geographic areas. Our policies of need-blind admissions and need-based financial aid may be our most direct and powerful tools to ensure access. We have also re-designed our application procedures for that same purpose. Our use of the Common Application simplifies the process of application both for candidates and for the guidance counselors and teachers who write on their behalf. Similarly, our outreach and recruitment activities, including our policy of offering alumni/ae interviews to students in their local areas, are intended to provide thoughtful and helpful information to prospective candidates considering myriad college opportunities.

Our non-binding Early Action Program, which has been in place for many years, is likewise designed to help us meet prospective students' various needs flexibly. The program allows students to consider carefully the full range of their admission and financial aid choices with the benefit of the perspective attained during the senior year, a valuable period of personal and academic growth. Indeed, our admission letter urges students to consider deferring their enrollment for a year to gain additional perspective before entering the College. Our experience has persuaded us that it is better not to rush ahead in choosing or entering college.

Why have any "early" program at all? There has been a dramatic increase in demand for early programs by many of the nation's and the world's best students. This demand has been in evidence since Harvard's Early Action Program began in the 1970s and has accelerated over the past decade. More top students are ready to apply to college earlier, having developed their academic and extracurricular talents more intensively than students of previous generations. While there are some students who profit from a more leisurely pace and begin to realize their potential only during the college years or well beyond, the average student applying to Harvard and Radcliffe today is more advanced academically and extracurricularly and may be better prepared for the complexities of college life than his or her predecessors were.

Today's students are also more knowledgeable about the college admissions process. The explosion of information about colleges through the media of videos, guidebooks, the internet and college recruitment materials, fueled by increasing interest on the part of the news media, has made students, their families and their counselors better informed than ever before. Without an "early" program, Harvard and Radcliffe would lose by default many of the best students to other institutions that are able to capitalize on the national demand for early programs.

Why not use the binding "early decision" program used by most colleges that requires admitted students to attend? Harvard has always resisted such programs on the principle that students should have as much time as possible to weigh their college admissions and financial aid decisions. We believe that Harvard's 97 percent graduation rate, the highest in the country, is due in part to the Early Action Program's flexibility. Those admitted through the Early Action Program can apply elsewhere, and take most of their senior year to determine if Harvard and Radcliffe are the right match for them before replying to us by the national reply date of May 1.

We are strongly committed to equal access for financial aid applicants under Early Action. Under our Early Action Program, admitted financial aid applicants can apply to regular action programs elsewhere and have the benefit of comparing our financial aid package with those of other institutions. In fact, many high school counselors urge students who will need financial aid not to apply to binding early decision programs which limit them necessarily to a single financial aid offer.

While it is true that our yield (the percentage of those choosing to matriculate) on Early Action candidates is lower than the essentially 100 percent yields guaranteed for binding early decision programs, it is more important for us to be confident that students we admit early are making better informed decisions about their college choice and financial aid options. Obtaining higher yields may have been part of the motivation for colleges that adopted binding early decision programs, but our yield of approximately 90 percent for Early Action students seems a scant difference given the gains students receive in return.

Why have so many students been applying to Harvard's Early Action Program lately? The numbers of students applying under Early Action increased fairly steadily during the 1980s and 1990s, reaching 2,990 in 1994. In that year, Yale and Princeton Universities switched from early action to bind early decision programs, and Stanford University, which had never offered an early program of any sort, adopting binding early decision as well. During the 1995 and 1996 admissions cycles, about 3,900 students chose our non-binding Early Action Program, and we experienced a slight increase to 4,200 this year. The number of applicants admitted early grew from 725 four years ago, for the Class of 1998, to 1,048 for the Class of 2002.

Many Early Action matriculants assert that it was the flexibility of the early program that led them to apply to Harvard rather than to a binding early decision program. Once admitted, they explored the opportunities at the College with much greater attention than they would have otherwise, and became increasingly committed to attending.

Students admitted early here (and presumably at other institutions as well) also appreciate the chance to overcome the normal anxieties of the college admissions process by securing an early admission. Learning for its own sake without worrying as much about grades, delving into extracurricular activities (including new ones) with even greater enthusiasm, the chance to explore possible careers, and other interests all seem enhanced once students are beyond the college admissions pressure. Applicants admitted early almost always continue to work hard and successfully (with no more than the normal small number of year-end declines) and often note that they arrive at Harvard more refreshed and motivated than would otherwise have been the case.

Why are so many and such a high proportion (25 percent) of Early Action candidates admitted? As we say clearly in our admissions literature, it is not because we have policy of lowered admissions standards for Early Action candidates. Early Action candidates present, on average, considerably stronger admissions credentials than regular action candidates. They are admitted because the Admissions Committee, with many years of collective experience to draw upon, is convinced that each is 100 percent certain to be admitted when compared to the full slate of candidates who will be considered in the spring. Yearly variations in the rigor of the admissions competition here are relatively small and the Committee will defer a candidate if there is any doubt. Further, evidence of the high standard set for early admission is the fact that a considerable number of candidates deferred in Early Action are admitted in the spring. Last year, 222 Early Action defers were admitted to the Class of 2001.

Does taking more students in Early Action lead to a less diverse class? No. Recent Classes have demonstrated more rather than less socia-economic diversity, with 46-48 percent of the first-year class on scholarship, the highest percentages in the history of the College. Students have come from an ever broader array of geographic areas in the U.S. and internationally, and ethnic diversity has also remained at high levels. At the same time, "early" programs of every sort (especially binding early decision programs) have traditionally attracted fewer minority students and fewer financial aid applicants. Many less affluent schools do not have adequate counseling facilities to help students prepare to meet "early" deadlines. Harvard and other colleges are fully aware of this fact and will not foreclose the opportunity to admit outstanding students simply because they do not have the chance to apply early.

The timetable on which students apply to Harvard has been changing over the past two decades and especially over the last four years. In effect, we have been admitting the same number of students but on a slightly different schedule. Our Early Action Program, with its flexible design and its appeal to all students (including those applying for financial aid) has continued to serve us well. More fundamentally, there has been steady increase in the numbers of the quality of applicants, and each entering class challenges the previous ones for preeminence. The Admissions Office, over 6,000 alumni and alumnae volunteers and our undergraduate student recruiters have worked exceeding hard, using recruitment efforts that were unimagined a quarter century ago. The use of direct mail, cooperative travel with other colleges, and vastly expanded spring travel to communicate with the many juniors who are near the final stages of choosing a college (not beginning the process as with previous generations) are now a necessary part of a responsive and vital admissions outreach program. It is unlikely there will soon be another large jump in Early Action applications similar to the one stimulated, ironically, by some of our major competitors four years ago. During the past three years, the numbers of applicants and admitted students under our Early Action Program have remained relatively stable. At the same time, we will remain alert to any new trends that may emerge, and we will continue to retain the flexibility to recruit out-standing students whenever they wish to apply.

William R. Fitzsimmons '67 is the Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid. Marlyn McGrath Lewis '70 is the Director of Admissions. James S. Miller is the Director of Financial Aid