Early Action Unbound

Last Wednesday, both Yale and Stanford independently announced that starting next fall, each would replace its binding Early Decision application program with a non-binding Early Action program. Their decisions give high school students an additional, beneficial degree of choice and flexibility in the college application process.

Over the last few years, college applicants have increasingly considered early programs an attractive application method; early notification of admittance can settle a student’s worries about acceptance and eliminate the burden of additional applications. Yet not all early programs are created equal. Binding Early Decision programs limit student choice and instead favor colleges by allowing them to choose with certainly a subsection of applicants who will be required to enroll. In contrast, Early Action programs are non-binding; they thus provide flexibility, allowing students to apply to other colleges without the added pressure of a matriculation obligation.

Presidents of both Yale and Stanford emphasized student flexibility as a motivating factor behind their institutions’ policy changes. Their decisions demonstrate a thoughtful commitment to applicants, especially considering that the new policy may, in the short-term, hurt Yale and Stanford by causing them to lose students whom they accepted early, either to Harvard or other colleges which offer better financial aid packages. As an indirect result, ending Early Decision could lower both colleges’ rankings in comparisons that use yield—the percentage of accepted students who actually matriculate—as a criterion.

Early Action also works to the advantage of applicants who cannot afford to commit to a college without first evaluating the financial aid package. Early Decision, on the other hand, gives affluent students a distinct advantage in admissions; they get to indicate the depth of their commitment to one institution, apply without worrying about the cost and receive a decision early. But now, thankfully, Early Action applicants can receive an early decision and wait to evaluate the financial aid offer before committing to enroll.

Despite these welcome changes, implementation of Early Action by Yale and Stanford is not perfect. Both universities have indicated that they will restrict their Early Action applicants from applying early to other institutions. Such a requirement still forces applicants to pick one school to which they want to apply early, keeping the heat on high school seniors to make such an important decision at an unnecessarily early stage.