Early admission

Early admission (English for "early admission"; more common are the terms of the two individual procedures: Early Decision and Early Action ) is a procedure that US universities offer their applicants. It is aimed at prospective students who are ready early on to decide which college they would like to go to after high school .

Difference to the regular application process

The early admission applicants have to apply to the university of their choice relatively early compared to the regular application (often regular decision ); if you start your studies in late summer, the deadline is usually in November of the previous year. Applicants will find out around mid-December whether they will be admitted. Some universities with a high demand for applicants already have their regular application deadlines at this time or at least towards the end of November. However, many other universities set their deadlines at the beginning of January at the earliest and do not announce their decisions until the beginning of April; some universities even accept applications until April. US universities give regular freshmen applicants who apply for pre- or undergraduate studies for late summer / fall generally until May 1 to decide for or against their study place.

The early admission procedures of almost all "selective" (applicant-selecting) universities are binding ( early decision , for "early decision"), only in a few exceptions are they non-binding ( early action , for "early action / early action") ). In the event of a binding early decision , any early confirmation of the university must also be accepted. A distinction must be made between the non-binding procedures (e.g. Harvard University until 2006), in which the applicant may only receive an early confirmation, but not have to accept it. There are two variants: In one variant, many universities allow him to only apply to one university within the framework of early admission (e.g. since 2004 Yale and Stanford ). The other variant, according to which the university allows the applicant to apply in other (non-binding) early admission procedures (e.g. Georgetown University ), is also becoming increasingly popular . If the procedures only allow a single early application, compliance with this is monitored primarily by the high school application advisors that are customary in the USA, who then only send the school grade excerpt required for applications to a single university.

Advantages for applicants

The main incentive of early admission is that most colleges accept a higher percentage of early-decision applicants than of regular applicants. This is explained by the fact that only students apply who can show promising grades and application documents at this point in time, and that applicants, since they have to commit to a university, pay particular attention to a good fit between their profile and the university. Nonetheless, the early applicant is overall considered a means of improving opportunities.

Advantages for the university

The universities, in turn, rely on the process to get more highly qualified applicants and thus to attract better students and at the same time to improve their university rankings. Because in the well-known, albeit controversial, university ranking from US News & World Report up until 2003, it was assessed how many of the admitted applicants started studying at a university. Binding procedures improved this value very effectively, since the applicants admitted early had committed to accepting their place of study. According to a Harvard study (approx. 2002), applicants who were admitted through the procedure actually had poorer academic performance and an average of up to 100 points lower SAT test values ​​than regularly admitted applicants.

history

Early admission procedures have been in place at some colleges for several decades (e.g. at the University of Virginia since the 1960s). In others, they were only introduced in the 1990s (e.g. Yale around 1996 and Stanford in the mid-1990s) or recently changed (e.g. Harvard switched from binding to non-binding procedures in 1998; likewise Yale and Stanford 2002 , see below).

Criticism of early admission and abolition at some universities

About the early approval is discussed in the US for several years. A problem is that the early admission offer is less noticed by certain groups of applicants. In particular, this includes applicants from low-income families whose children are more reliant on comparing the financial support offered by universities; In general, many U.S. colleges prefer early applicants for funding regardless of early admission procedures. Minorities, applicants from rural areas and uneducated families and international applicants are considered to be other population groups disadvantaged by the procedure. Instead, applicants from well-off families of academics and from performance-oriented schools are prepared and informed relatively early on for their university application by their families and teachers. On the other hand, it is controversial whether the procedure increases or minimizes stress. Opponents of early admission argue that stress is increased long before the start of studies in order to be able to make an early decision and submit an application. Proponents, however, argue that if early admission is successful, the stress in the remainder of high school will be eliminated; High schools and universities, on the other hand, counter that this leads to a decrease in efforts in the final school year and thus to problematic knowledge gaps.

In 2001, Brown University , which switched from the non-binding to the binding procedure (for applicants for 2002) due to the high number of “early” applicants, was a major, renowned university that tightened its early admission procedure.

In recognition of the criticism, however, Beloit College in Wisconsin announced at the end of March 2002 as the first “selective” (applicant-seeking) university that it would cancel its early decision-making process without replacement. One month later, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the first large and renowned US university, followed; it had only reintroduced the process three years earlier, after a brief deployment in the early 1970s. After Yale's university president had criticized the injustice of the early admission procedure for at least 2001 , the university announced in November 2002 that it was changing its binding to a non-binding procedure for applicants for fall 2004. Stanford University announced the same move within hours . Both universities said they acted independently.

In June 2006, the University of Delaware went public with news that it would be phasing out its early-stage decision-making process and only accepting regular applications for fall 2007. In the fall of that year, Harvard, closely followed by the renowned universities of Princeton and Virginia, announced that it would abolish the early admission procedure. Their change came into effect for the beginning of the course in autumn 2008. All three universities saw strong increases in application numbers for this academic year, with Harvard also announcing increased financial support for students from middle- and high-income families. The universities attributed the increased numbers at least in part to the change in their early admission policy. The University of Florida announced in spring that it would abolish its early decision-making process.

See also

• Tertiary education in the United States

Web links

• "Seven Things You Need to Know About Early Action" (2007) (presentation on NPR )
• "The early-decision racket" (2001) (longer, mostly negative account in The Atlantic ; Eng.)
• List of US universities with non-binding early admission , admission quota and application deadline ( memento of July 24, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (as of 2005) as well as unofficially typed lists for binding procedures and other admissions

supporting documents

1. ↑ Karen W. Arenson (November 7, 2002). Yale changes its approach to admissions. New York Times (accessed October 30, 2008)
2. ↑ James Fallows (September 2001). The early decision racket. The Atlantic (accessed October 30, 2008)
3. ↑ Steve Drummond (September 12, 2006). Why Harvard is holding its early action program. NPR (accessed October 30, 2008)
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Diana Jean scheme (April 26, 2002). A key university abolishes early decision admissions. New York Times (accessed October 30, 2008)
5. ↑ no author details (September 25, 2006). University of Virginia to End Early Decision Program in Admissions. UVa Today  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed October 30, 2008)  
6. ^ ^{A b} Margaret Olszewski (March 29, 2002). First selective college in US eliminates early decision. The Yale Herald ( Memento of the original from November 26, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Rebecca Trounson (November 7, 2002) . Yale, Stanford Drop Early Pledges (Print Edition: P. A-15). Los Angeles Times Andy Coghlan (November 8, 2002). Yale and Stanford go early action. The Chicago Maroon ( Memento of the original from March 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (all English; accessed October 30, 2008)  
   
    
7. ↑ Melody Kramer & Thomas Pierce (February 18, 2007). Seven Things You Need to Know About Early Action. NPR (accessed October 30, 2008)
8. ^ Brown University News Service (February 24, 2001). Brown adopts an 'early decision' admission policy for early applicants. News , published on the Brown University website (accessed October 30, 2008)
9. ^ Margaret Olszewski (March 29, 2002). First selective college in US eliminates early decision. The Yale Herald ( Memento of the original from November 26, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed October 30, 2008)  
10. ↑ Kathy Canavan (June 6, 2006). UD to drop 'early decision' for 2007-08 applicants. UDaily (accessed October 30, 2008)
11. ↑ no author details (September 12, 2006). Harvard to eliminate early admission. Harvard University Gazette ( Memento of the original from November 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English; accessed October 30, 2008) no author details (September 18, 2006). Princeton to end early admission. News at Princeton (accessed October 30, 2008) no author details (September 25, 2006). University of Virginia to End Early Decision Program in Admissions. UVa Today  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed October 30, 2008)  
    
     
12. ↑ Linda K. Wertheimer (January 17, 2008). Applicants on rise after halt to early admissions. Boston Globe (accessed October 30, 2008)
13. ↑ Elizabeth F. Farrell (April 3, 2007). U. of Florida abandons early-decision admissions. The Chronicle of Higher Education news blog (accessed October 30, 2008)