Most Schools Hold Onto Early Admissions

A year after Harvard declared an end to its early admissions program, it seems that few institutions of higher learning are following suit.

Approximately 65 percent of the 322 institutions surveyed by Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions have early admissions programs, and 99.5 percent of these schools plan to keep their early programs for the foreseeable future, according to the survey released last month.

“We surveyed what is generally regarded as the top 300 schools,” said Brandon P. Jones ’00, the national director of SAT and ACT programs for Kaplan. He said that after several schools ended their early programs, “one of the things we anticipated could happen...was that a whole host of those schools could make the same decision.”

But this was not the case, according to the survey.

Dean of Admissions William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 said that this apparent lack of response from other institutions is neither surprising nor worrisome, as large policy changes by a few schools tend to take three to five years to yield changes across higher eduction—so other colleges may wait before considering changes to their early programs. Harvard, too, will be evaluating the results of the abolition of its early program over the next few years, he said.

“This is obviously very early in the game, and people have the tendency to hold onto things which are very familiar,” Fitzsimmons said. “Other institutions will evaluate what happens each year, and we’ll see down the road whether other institutions might choose [to change their policies].”

Harvard ended its early admission program on September 12, 2006. Princeton and the University of Virginia followed suit within the next few weeks. Yet the move was rejected by both Yale and Stanford, and was criticized in The New York Times by Stanford Provost John Etchemendy.

Fitzsimmons has repeatedly said that one of the major goals of the move is to attract students from lower income brackets, as early admissions programs tend to “advantage the advantaged” who have access to guidance that might motivate them to apply early to a school.

With the increased time available for recruiting high school students, the admissions office hopes to broaden the Harvard applicant pool by reaching out to schools in low-income areas, Fitzsimmons said.

Another goal of eliminating the early admissions programs is to push the application process later into the senior year and extend the high school experience, he said.

However, institutions must consider both what is in the public’s best interest and what is in the institution’s best interest when addressing the question of early admissions, Fitzsimmons said.

Fitzsimmons added that even if other schools have not followed suit quite yet, Harvard’s move has spurred a healthy public debate about the value of early action and how it affects secondary schools.

“It is a healthy thing for higher education to have a great diversity in terms of institutions and policies,” he said. “We hope we’re going to play a role in that healthy debate.”

—Staff writer Aditi Balakrishna can be reached at balakris@fas.harvard.edu.