Harvard to drop early admission

I personally like the idea of early admission, but on the ground they lay out I am for this change, at least their purpose is positive. Do I wish Princeton to follow? I'm not that sure. I sort of believe the negative fators are not insurmountable. But it looks like Princeton is the only school likely to follow so far.

Harvard announced plans Tuesday to drop its "early action" admissions round — and urged rivals to follow. Under early action, applicants get word by late fall if they've been accepted to a college, but can still apply elsewhere in the spring. Some other schools have "early decision," meaning accepted applicants cannot apply elsewhere.

Harvard said such early admissions programs have two harmful effects: they may hurt schools' diversity because poor and minority students are less likely to use them, and they create anxiety for the typically more affluent applicants who take advantage of them.

If other colleges don't follow Harvard, the school's dean of admissions William Fitzsimmons acknowledged it may soon abandon the experiment.

Harvard admits about 21 percent of early applicants, compared to about 7 percent in the later pool. It says that's largely because the earlier pool is academically stronger. Still, the early pool is far more likely to contain sophisticated applicants who have access to savvy college counselors and don't need financial aid.

"We have said previously it would be a challenge for an institution to make a policy change in isolation," said Cass Cliatt said, a spokeswoman at Princeton, which has early decision. "If we see our peers moving towards a policy of a single admissions date, we could be comfortable making a change."