Harvard To End Early Admissions

University Says Practice Favors Wealthy Students Over Minorities And Poor

(CBS/AP)  In a change certain to shake up college admissions, Harvard University will ditch its "early action" round of applications on the grounds that it favors wealthier students over minorities and the poor. It called on other universities to follow suit.

Starting next year, Harvard will eliminate its early round of admissions that allows high school students to apply by Nov. 1 of their senior year and receive a decision — accept, reject or defer — by Dec. 15.

Applicants hoping to enter in the fall of 2008 will face a common application due date of Jan. 1.

"The college admissions process has become too pressured, too complex and too vulnerable to public cynicism," said Harvard interim President Derek Bok. "We hope that doing away with early admission will improve the process and make it simpler and fairer."

Early-action applicants must agree not to apply early to other schools, but can apply elsewhere in the spring and weigh all offers before picking a college by May. More commonly, colleges allow students to apply early-decision, which requires them to commit to attending if accepted.

"The college admissions process has been transformed radically during the past 20 years from an educational transition for students to a high-priced, high-stakes, overly competitive frenzied game," Lloyd Thacker, executive director of Education Conservancy, tells CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts. "When the most powerful college in the country takes a step like this, most of the people in the profession will listen."

Early admissions programs were designed to let students get the process out of the way once they had selected a college. Such programs also help schools such as Harvard identify particularly enthusiastic applicants.

Acknowledging what many critics have long contended, Harvard said early admissions had become a strategic tactic for students trying to game the system to boost their admissions chances.

Other prestigious universities have tinkered with their early admissions policies, but Harvard is the first to drop it altogether.

"Harvard's obviously the only college that could attempt to do this, I think, because it's so popular. But even so it is at a risk," Christopher Avery, a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and author of "The Early Admissions Game," told CBS radio station WBZ.

"Lots of other colleges have been saying we would like to get rid of the system, but we can't move unless other people move. Well, now Harvard's made the first move, so it will be interesting to see if other colleges really meant what they said or if it was just a convenient thing for them to say," said Avery.

Colleges typically take a higher percentage of early applicants, though the applicant pool is usually stronger, too. Last year, Harvard offered admission to about 21 percent of its early-action applicants, according to university figures. But its overall acceptance rate was just 9.3 percent.

"Early admission programs tend to advantage the advantaged," Bok said in a statement issued by the university. "Students from more sophisticated backgrounds and affluent high schools often apply early to increase their chances of admission, while minority students and students from rural areas, other countries and high schools with fewer resources miss out.

"Students needing financial aid are disadvantaged by binding early-decision programs that prevent them from comparing aid packages," he said. "Others who apply early and gain admission to the college of their choice have less reason to work hard at their studies during their final year of high school."

Harvard's statement said the university would wait one year to implement the change in part to give other universities an opportunity also to drop their early programs. If other prominent schools follow, it could significantly change the admissions calendar and strategizing for high-achieving students.

William Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions at Harvard College, said the university would reconsider the decision after a few years if applicant quality suffered.

[joefnblow-2009]

I'm a big fan of merit but I'm also a realist. Harvard is a top school as a result of their pool of alumni and donors. I don't believe for a second that this change will prevent any "privileged" child from gaining admission. What it may do is prevent your average middle class kid (black, white, Hispanic, whatever) who planned ahead in order to gain a competitive advantage from gaining admission. In my experience, with most issues, the majority resides somewhere near the middle, grey as opposed to black or white, middle class as opposed to rich or poor, and so on.

Kudos to Harvard for trying, I'm sure they only have the best intentions.

[whatithink-2009]

"Merit should be the first requisite in the process for all application of admissions."

- I'm not sure the elite have ever listened to this rhethoric. There have been plenty of idiot sons and daughters of alumni and donors who have gotten into Harvard and didn't deserve it...many via early admissions.

[whatithink-2009]

I think the decision made by Harvard is a good one. Harvard IS a very expensive school and this would allow more time for those with less money to find the resources to pay for it, should they get in. Kudos to Harvard.

[whatithink-2009]

"Talk about reverse discrimination. White and affluent students shouldn't go to Harvard any more and thus let the college's scores dwindle because apparently they are not appreciated there."

Somebody has stolen all the poor white people in America. Now if you are poor it automatically means you are a minority. Just last week the majority of the poor people in America were white. Who took them?

[msjai4u]

Antonio, where do you get your "statistics"? They are erroneous at best.............

[msjai4u]

Don't put too much stock in what Antonio is saying. It's obvious he's wishful. The spelling errors and rhetoric scream loud and clear - I'M A WANNA BE. Truly, he "isn't" Ivy League material. I think what Harvard is doing is GREAT. I have Relatives who have graduated from Harvard, more from Yale and I am at University of Southern California (USC). I believe, the more the merrier. Level the playing field without compromising the level of education we receive.

Maybe one day Antonio can experience such a rich education. People who spew venomous rhetoric such as the word liberal really don't have the capacity to understand ANYTHING outside of their own "little" world. How sad, they are truly missing out on a FABULOUS world.

KUDOs to Harvard. USC has already discontinued the "early" admission process.

[mjv2944]

sorry antonio, i don't care if you are latino you are a SNOB!!!!!!!

[oldbear313]

You all don't really understand "the system". Harvard, Princeton, Cal Tech, Stanford, etc. will always get "the 'top' students" no matter what selection "system" is in place. It is the simple truth that only about 15% of all high school students have what it takes to be in college. (The vast majority of high school seniors don't know "up from down" let alone "work/study from play".) The other "choosen" 85% are just there to "pay the way" for the other 15%. Just look at how many "students" drop out of college before they graduate and therefore don't "finish school" and yet they pay a lot of money for just a couple of years of unsupervised "entertainment". A total waste of time, energy and money. In the military they refer such folks "cannon fodder" in the acedemic community they call such folks "tuition fodder". If you really want to solve this problem, limit financial aid to just those students who score 1100 or more on their SATs no matter what their "background" may be. Why should parents, any parent, or why should a "student", any student incur "student loans, financial aid" in the thousands of dollars that has to be paid back over the years when they don't really have THAT "thirst for knowledge" or real drive to be something "special" from the get go?

[mjv2944]

Hope "antonio" don't choke on his golden spoon. Has no idea what the "real" world is all about.

[tngreen]

I don't understand how this simple move to help level the playing field "favors" anybody or represents "reverse discrimination." Affluent students already have the benefit of better schools, private tutoring, admissions test prep classes, and the money to apply at multiple schools and attend them. Poor students have enough obstacles to overcome in accessing higher education as it is. Kudos to Harvard for taking one small step in the right direction. ALL worthy students should have the same educational opportunities.

I would assume that "antoniorego" is one of the elites who is accustomed to enjoying favored treatment in such things as college acceptance, except for his inability to distinguish "its" from "it's" and use each correctly in a sentence.

[richbak7351]

Harvard has made very bad decission in ending early admissions - the reasoning is terrible.If this decision is not revisited, Harvard will be the school that leads the race to mediocrity. Claiming that minorities are disadvantaged in this process is only creating a divide-The system should reward students(regardless of race or any other distinction), who think and study harder than their peers. The announcement makes it sound as if students whose family encouraged their sons or daughters to make good life decisions are bad and evil. All univerities should be encouraging students to work and study more. The answer is not to increase the number of exclusions but to increase`the number of inclusions. Merit should be the first requisite in the process for all application of admissions. Period----