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"College Admissions: Is This the Beginning of the End for Early Decision?" from Town & Country


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In this piece, James Murphy summarizes the state of Early Decision — both more prevalent than ever and precarious due to concerns about its use and abuse by colleges and by families who violate the binding agreement to attend.


My thoughts? There are too many for one blog post, but ED is still an option that we have to discuss when highly selective colleges are on the table. However, the guiding questions are still:


Am I in range of being admitted to this college? ED is not a viable Hail Mary lob into a pool where a student is not competitive; rather, it's where students in the middle 50% ranges are admitted, with the Regular pool being much, much more selective for many colleges with sub-15% admission rates. ED works out for colleges that are "Targets" in all respects, including the financial piece of "fit," and maybe in some cases, reasonable reaches-- but ED does not convert a big reach or statistically unlikely college into a Likely admit.


Am I truly committed to attending, if admitted? This is tough! I have seen plenty of cases of buyer's remorse, when students are admitted to an ED college and begin to wish they had offers from other schools on their list to consider.

Personally, having watched the creep of November deadlines, over a 20+ year period, come to dominate the college application process for most students I work with, I regret that we have pushed the process and these decisions so early into senior year for so many. There is a whole spring semester and summer after an ED offer for students to continue growing, learning, and living out their lives-- and things change.

In general, if possible, an ED decision requires a visit, as much certainty as possible about the daily "lived experience" of a school (not just the prestige factor) confidence about the ability to afford the college, and confidence that this is the best option among other ED possibilities, as well as the best option among other schools that may be less selective but passed over if the ED application is admitted.


I know from my school-based counselor friends, and my own experience in the last few years, that the senior year high school experience is significantly diluted because of the impact of application work being underway as soon as school starts in senior year, and the absolute exhaustion that comes with the process being at least partly wrapped up for November 1. Students are understandably less motivated to be the upperclass leaders, role models, and thriving scholars and community members that senior year should enable them to be. The impact on school communities and individual students is noteworthy and a real loss.



It was one of the first major media reports to demonstrate a genuine understanding of what was happening in college admissions. It's a fascinating read 25 years later. The piece outlines how ED came to be, and why colleges were rewarded for manipulating their yield rates and student profiles. It also quotes many of the leading voices in college admission from my early career saying that ED should be kept in check, and that it would be unethical to exceed admitting 25-30% of a college class in a given year via ED.



The 2001 article is worth reading in its entirety, but here are some jarring quotes when considered after 25 years of change:

Yet not one of the more than thirty public and private school counselors I spoke with argued that because the early system is good for particular students, or because they had learned how to work it, it is beneficial overall. On the contrary, they had three basic complaints: that it distorts the experience of being in high school; that it worsens the professional-class neurosis about college admission; and that in terms of social class it is nakedly unfair.
Tom Parker, the admissions director at Amherst, oversees an ED plan but nonetheless says that too many colleges are taking too many students early: "My own fundamental belief is that eight to twelve months in a seventeen-year-old's life is a very long time. For us it's a blink of an eye. Kids may begin the year with the idea of going to a large urban university and end up very happy to come to Amherst. They do so as a result of insight, growth, challenge, and family dynamics, and we really need to allow those things to play out. An awful lot of kids are making the decision too early because they feel that they can't get in if they don't."
"In an ideal world we would do away with all early programs," Fitzsimmons [note: still Harvard's Dean of Admission in 2025] said when I asked him about the right long-term direction for admissions systems. "We'd go back to the days when everyone could look at all their options over the senior year. Students, parents, and high schools would be very grateful. Philosophically and in every other way it would be so much better if we all could make the change."


The 2025-26 admission cycle is underway, amid a challenging higher education landscape. I will be observing closely how ED impacts this year's process, and how the legal and ethical challenges being surfaced will play out in the coming years. Amid all of it, my personal hope is for a long-overdue set of changes in our college admission process that can allow for more personal growth and college decision-making in senior year. If you have big ideas about how we can make that change in a slow-moving industry, I'd love to hear them!






 
 
 
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