Inside Early Admissions

January 2007 Special Advertising Section

Although the general application deadlines for Caltech and MIT are in January, Breck senior Matt Weiss devoted his late-October weekends to tweaking his essays, making sure no information was missing, and poring over application specifics. Overachiever with exquisite planning skills? Not quite—Weiss was racing to meet an early admissions deadline, hoping to get a decision on acceptance before regular applicants even sent in their materials.

 “I figured that I’d like to find out about my two top schools as soon as possible and not have to worry about it,” he says, adding that if neither accept him, he’ll spend his holiday break working on seven more applications. “Basically, I wanted to give myself the best chance I could to get into a school I really like.”

Early admission programs, a standard component of many colleges and universities, have been in the spotlight ever since Harvard decided to drop its program, declaring that moving toward general admissions makes the process more balanced.

Interim Harvard President Derek Bok noted in an interview with the Harvard Gazette that the college admissions process has become “too pressured, too complex, and too vulnerable to public cynicism.” He added that in doing away with early admission, the university hoped to improve the process to make it simple and fair.

Although Minnesota colleges are not really embroiled in the early admissions debate happening primarily inside the Ivy League, some have taken a closer look at their own programs in the last few years, and for the most part, have found their early admission policies to be working quite well, thank you.

“Early admission programs are about enrollment management, and every school is in a different situation when it comes to that,” says Frank Sachs, director of college counseling at The Blake School, and former president of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. “Discussions about privilege aside, if early admissions programs are in an institution’s best interest, they’ll keep them.”

Admissions 101
Although the phrase “early admissions” gets bandied about when the Harvard pronouncement is mentioned, there are really two distinct types of early admission programs.

Early Decision is a binding commitment for the applicant. If a student chooses to submit an application through Early Decision, he or she essentially promises to attend that school if admitted. This is an admission strategy usually favored by students who have a strong desire to attend one specific school and don’t mind doing the application work early. They are also willing to make an early commitment to their chosen school in order to gain an edge over other applicants. The hope is that the school will reward early interest by viewing the applicants as strong candidates.

For example, St. Olaf College, which offers Early Decision and Early Action programs, feels a commitment from a student so early in the admissions cycle is an opportunity on both sides. The college gets an applicant who has made it clear that St. Olaf is where he or she wants to be, and the student has a chance to finish the college search relatively early in his or her senior year.

Early Action, on the other hand, allows students to apply before other candidates, but doesn’t require a commitment if they’re accepted. Although this is the type of program that Harvard dropped, some believe that Early Action programs don’t favor the privileged, as some in the college community have posited, but merely reward the prepared.

Since Early Action doesn’t require a binding contract, many students use it to get some of their applications out of the way, and to prepare themselves for the next slew of standard applications to be submitted early in the second semester of senior year.

Both types of early admissions programs have their benefits and challenges. Early Decision is ideal for those who have their hearts set on one particular college, but if a student isn’t fully invested in going to the chosen school, the weight of the binding commitment can be too much.

“It is a commitment that must be valued by both parties, the college and the student,” says Michael Kyle, vice president and dean of enrollment at St. Olaf. “Don’t apply early decision anywhere simply to apply early decision somewhere. Think about fit.”

The benefits of Early Action can be a glimpse into how the whole process works before the big application push begins, says Breck director of college counseling, Melissa Soderberg. “It can be a litmus test for someone to see how they fare in the process,” she says. “It’s not so bad to get one application in early to see how hard it is to apply.”

Local Reaction
Harvard has delayed the change in its policies until 2007, in the hope that other universities and colleges will follow suit. Although some, including Yale, Princeton, and the University of Virginia, already have or are at least seriously considering it, many admissions directors in Minnesota don’t believe that widespread changes will be sweeping through the state, or even the nation, anytime soon.

“What Harvard has done, in my view, reflects first and foremost a policy decision that takes into consideration what is best for the students looking at Harvard,” says Kyle. “I haven’t heard a groundswell of support for taking away the Early Decision option at most colleges, and I can’t imagine St. Olaf moving away from Early Decision; it has served us and many students very well.”

Gustavus Adolphus College, on the other hand, used to have Early Decision and dropped it four years ago because the college felt it was too much pressure on a seventeen-year-old to make such a firm, binding decision. “Harvard got the idea from us,” jokes Mark Anderson, vice president for admission and student financial assistance at Gustavus.

Anderson believes more colleges will move away from Early Decision toward Early Action, in an effort to reduce applicant anxiety but still give them the ability to learn whether they’re accepted early in their senior year. “By taking the pressure off students, it gives them more time to look for a good match,” says Anderson. “Maybe they can make another campus visit once they’re accepted through Early Action and see if it’s really where they want to attend.”

Echoing the sentiments of Harvard’s administrators, Anderson believes that Early Decision programs do sometimes favor students who have the benefit of personal coaching, test prep services, and counselors. Those students, he notes, tend to have more financial resources and gravitate toward college shopping and Early Decision sooner than their less privileged counterparts.

“By moving away from Early Decision, we feel better about who we are,” says Anderson. “We think it makes sense for us and our students.”

While trying to make the admissions process more fair by confronting the relationship between admissions access and privilege may have played a part in Harvard’s decision to drop its Early Action program, that doesn’t mean all institutions with early admissions programs are the same. “The reasons cited by Harvard for changing its early admissions don’t apply to us,” says Paul Thiboutot, dean of admissions at Carleton College. “The students who want Early Decision for us aren’t more privileged, they just want to declare Carleton as their first choice, and they express that by applying early. It brings the process to a close and eliminates anxiety for the rest of their senior year.”

For some local institutions, such as Hamline University, Early Action programs might be in place, but a rolling admission structure means  students have more flexibility in submitting their applications. Early Action applicants are reviewed first, says Hamline’s associate vice president for admission and career services, Steve Bjork, but they don’t  necessarily have an advantage over those who favor the rolling admission deadlines; they simply get to know earlier if they need to pack their boxes for Hamline dorms in the fall. Although, Bjork adds, it never hurts to turn applications in early because enrollment does fill up.

The University of St. Thomas, which also has rolling admissions, believes the national debate over early admission programs could spark more discussion among parents and students than among college administrators, and that it could raise awareness about the benefits and drawbacks of programs like Early Decision.

“For many students and parents, these early admission programs are confusing, and that’s why we prefer rolling admissions, because we think it’s more student friendly,” says Kris Getting, St. Thomas’ director of admissions and financial aid. “I think the scuttlebutt on the national level won’t have schools jumping on Harvard’s bandwagon, but it could bring greater clarity about the programs for those who are applying.”