Yale to continue early-action admissions program

Despite calls for change, Penn isn't alone in its favor of early admissions.

Amid continued debate among colleges and universities over the program's merits, Yale University announced last week that it will not be ending its early-action program.

In an interview with Yale Alumni Magazine, President Richard Levin said the school will be keeping its early-action program because it believes that the best way to make schools more accessible is to improve financial-aid packages.

Penn Dean of Admissions Lee Stetson has repeatedly said Penn will not change its early decision policy despite the actions of peer institutions.

Early admissions came under fire last fall when Harvard University ended its own early-action program, which officials said edged poorer students out by preventing them from comparing financial-aid packages.

Princeton University and the University of Virginia soon followed suit.

Levin stressed that there is a big difference between early decision and early action because the latter allows students to apply to other schools in the spring.

Early action is "helpful to everyone and especially helpful to students from low-income families, who can now apply early without fear of being locked in to a single school's offer of financial aid," he said in the interview.

In 2005, Yale decided to provide full rides to students whose family incomes are less than $45,000. Since then, the percentage of students on financial aid increased from 40 to 42 percent, Levin said.

"We don't believe that eliminating early admissions would change the socioeconomic diversity of the class. . We are only choosing half the class in the early round," he added.

Levin's office declined to provide additional comment.

Some admissions counselors say non-binding early-action programs are still unfair since accepting half the class early disadvantages students who might not have access to the one-on-one counseling sought by their wealthier peers.

Nadine Warner, a senior counselor with Admissions-

Consultants, said early admissions can help students who have their mind set on a particular school. However, she said colleges that do keep early admissions programs must increase awareness of the process among lower-income students.

"These programs do skew and favor middle-class and upper-middle-class [students] who have accetss to the guidance counselors who can counsel them in this process," she said.

College-counseling company College Connections President Jeannie Borin agreed, saying that, when colleges raise awareness about their early-admissions programs, lower-income applicants are more likely to apply.

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