The Ear­ly Ad­mis­sions Fray

The New York Times
By JACQUES STEINBERG and REBECCA R. RUIZ
Published: January 20, 2012

THE big sto­ry con­cern­ing early ad­mis­sions pro­grams this past fall was the re-en­try of Har­vard and Prince­ton into the fray. Both de­cid­ed to re­in­state sin­gle-choice early ac­tion pro­grams be­gin­ning with the class of 2016.

While those who are ac­cept­ed un­der such pro­grams have un­til May 1 to de­cide wheth­er to at­tend, pro­spec­tive stu­dents are pro­hib­it­ed from put­ting in ap­pli­ca­tions early to any oth­er col­lege. The re­sult? More than 4,200 ap­plied early to Har­vard and more than 3,400 to Prince­ton. Sev­er­al com­pet­ing in­sti­tu­tions saw their ap­pli­ca­tions flat­ten over the pre­vi­ous year, if not drop. Still, the University of Penn­syl­vania has re­served a­bout half the seats in the in­com­ing fresh­man class for such ap­pli­cants, just as it had last year. So have Johns Hopkins, Co­lum­bi­a and Middlebury.

Ear­ly pro­grams have long been de­bated. Some be­lieve they rush stu­dents to con­clude their col­lege search­es, and fa­vor ap­pli­cants with ac­cess to so­phis­ti­cat­ed col­lege coun­sel­ing. Mean­while, applicants to bind­ing pro­grams can’t com­pare of­fers of fi­nan­cial aid.

The chart here pro­vides a snap­shot of this ac­a­dem­ic year’s early ad­mis­sion sea­son, col­lect­ed from a sam­pling of col­leges by The Times’s Choice blog.

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Ron Denaro is the president of College Campus Trips, a tour company providing high school students with tours of college campuses, nationwide. For more information, call (954) 567-5751 or e-mail: ron@collegecampustrips.com

Princeton Is Swamped in Early Applications

The New York Times
By JACQUES STEINBERG
Published: November 10, 2011

Princeton canceled its early-admission program four years ago to delay the beginning of the annual frenzy of applicants hoping to secure a precious seat in the next freshman class. But when none of their main competitors followed suit, they announced in February that they would once again offer applicants an opportunity to apply in November, two months before the regular deadline.



The response, at least at Princeton, was a flurry of early applicants. A spokesman said Tuesday night that 3,547 students had applied by last week’s deadline through the university’s “single-choice early-action” program. That figure is nearly triple the size of the entire freshman class.

It appears among about 100 colleges and universities queried, that early applications to some highly selective colleges were up, despite the pinch that the economic downturn has placed on families’ college savings accounts. (Those who apply under early-decision programs commit in advance to enroll if accepted, and lose the ability to compare other colleges’ financial aid offers; early-action programs like Princeton’s are not binding on applicants.)

Duke, for example, said that 2,716 students had applied under its binding early-decision program, a 23 percent increase over last fall. Johns Hopkins said it had received 1,440 applications to its binding program, an increase of nearly 8 percent. And nearly 1,800 applied through Dartmouth’s early-decision program, a 2 percent increase.

I'm Ron Denaro and thanks for joining College Campus Chatter today!

Ron Denaro is the president of College Campus Trips, a tour company providing high school students with tours of college campuses, nationwide. For more information, call (954) 567-5751 or e-mail: ron@collegecampustrips.com

Harvard and Princeton Restore Early Admission

The New York Times
February 24th, 2011

Harvard and Princeton each announced Thursday that they would revive their early-admission programs, allowing high school seniors who apply by next Nov. 15 to get a decision by Dec. 15 without having to promise to attend the college if admitted.

In September 2006, when both universities decided to eliminate early admissions for those starting college in 2008, Harvard and Princeton said they wanted to start a trend that would help even the playing field between wealthy applicants and those who needed to compare financial-aid offers from different colleges. But only the University of Virginia followed their lead — and it announced last year that it would reinstate early admissions. Read More

I'm Ron Denaro and thanks for joining College Campus Chatter today!

Ron Denaro is the president of College Campus Trips, a tour company providing high school students with tours of college campuses, nationwide. For more information, call (954) 567-5751 or e-mail: ron@collegecampustrips.com