Staff Editorial: End early decision

Early decision has always been controversial.

Over the last decade, the admissions policy under which a student applies to a school in the fall and receives a decision in December, with the understanding that if the student is accepted he is bound to matriculate, has soared in popularity -- at Penn, the number of early decision applicants has doubled since 1993 -- though many have questioned its fairness and the effect it has had on students.

Yesterday, Yale University took the courageous step of abandoning early decision, explicitly noting that it "helps colleges more than applicants," results in undue "pressure" that takes applicants' minds off of "reasoned choice" and pushes them toward a decision based on "strategic grounds." Instead, it will offer students whose first choice is Yale and who want to receive a decision before April the option of applying early action, which is non-binding, a policy currently in place at Harvard after it did away with early decision.

The competition for spots at the country's top schools has almost been overshadowed in recent years by the competition among top schools for the country's top students. With Princeton officials spying on Yale applicants and great controversy over whether early action applicants need to rule out all other early application programs, rightful concerns about whether the "admissions game" has gone too far have become more pronounced, and last year, the University of North Carolina became the first top-tier school to do away with early decision.

Penn should follow suit. Early decision not only puts unnecessary pressure on high school students and forces many into choosing a college before they are ready, it also demonstrably puts poor students and racial minorities at a disadvantage. At UNC, some 82 percent of early decision applicants were white, while in the general pool white students made up only 69 percent.

Early decision has turned college admissions into a game of strategy instead of a search for the "right" place for a student. It has also severely stacked the deck against those without the means to play the game. And it's time that Penn and the rest of the Ivy League follow Yale and do away with that game.

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