Penn may benefit from Ivy early-admit cuts

High-school seniors planning on applying early to college next fall will not have Harvard University as an option - and some say that Harvard's loss could be Penn's gain.

Harvard University announced several weeks ago that it will be discontinuing its early-admissions practice after this year. Princeton University and the University of Virginia will both be eliminating early admissions in 2008.

But Penn remains among the top schools that say that they are standing by their existing admission policies - a decision that could net the University more early applicants.

Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admission Officers, said that because some students make applying early a priority, a fraction of those that would have applied to Harvard and Princeton may turn to other schools instead.

Although there will not be "an exodus from Harvard to Penn," there may be "a significant uptick in early applications to Penn and other Ivies that continue to offer" early admissions, he said.

Nassirian added that early admissions was originally instituted by schools looking for an advantage over peer institutions. When early admissions became universal, the competitive advantage was lost - but with a number of schools now letting go of the policy, it may be regaining some of its competitive value.

He added, however, that the difference will ultimately matter to neither Penn nor Harvard, since they have no shortage of qualified applicants.

But not all in higher education share Nassirian's view that keeping early decision will be advantageous to Penn.

Ashley Fleming - a senior consultant at the admissions counseling company AdmissionsConsultants - said she did not expect Harvard and Princeton's policy changes to have a considerable effect on Penn.

Fleming said so many factors go into students' decisions about where to apply that the unavailability of early admissions would not make a big difference by itself.

Students who want to attend Harvard or Princeton like the distinctive features of those schools and will be willing to wait and apply to them regular decision, she said.

"Schools are just not that easily interchangeable," she said.

Fleming said students who want to go to Harvard or Princeton but end up applying early to other schools will be making bad decisions and will be taking the "panic approach to the admissions process."

Still, both Nassirian and Fleming could only speculate, and it may not be clear whether Penn will benefit until Harvard's and Princeton's new policies are actually implemented.

University President Amy Gutmann said it's too soon to say how Penn's applications will be affected.

She added that Penn administrators took note of the decisions at the other two schools but concluded that they should have no bearing on Penn's policy.

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