Between issues: Harvard axes early admissions

Harvard University officials announced today that the school will end its early-admissions option beginning with the class entering in 2008.

Harvard will become the only elite school to lack an early-admit process.

Interim Harvard President Derek Bok said in a statement that "The college admissions process has become too pressured, too complex, and too vulnerable to public cynicism."

Bok cited unfairness to poorer students as the motivation behind the move, saying that rich students exploit the option to increase their odds, while the disadvantaged may suffer from being unable to compare financial-aid packages.

Harvard's current policy is one of "Early Action," which allows students to apply early but, unlike Penn's Early Decision, does not obligate them to attend if accepted. The policy is over 30 years old, according to the school's Web site.

While all the Ivies and their peers have some sort of early-admit policy now, Harvard has a way of setting trends in this sort of thing.

Ten years ago, Harvard was the first Ivy to accept the Common Application, now taken by all but two of the League's members.

And more recently, Harvard was among the leaders in implementing a full-tuition policy for students whose family incomes fall below a certain cutoff, a move that has been mimicked by Penn and several other schools.

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