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Stanford Report, Jan. 21, 2004

New early admission program more popular than anticipated

BY RAY DELGADO

A new program for offering early admission to the university proved more popular than university administrators had been expecting, resulting in almost two times the number of applications that were submitted last year as part of the binding early admission program.

Nearly 4,100 students submitted applications to the "Single-Choice Early Action" program, which forbid them from submitting applications to another university's early admission program but did not require them to enroll at Stanford if they were granted admission, a condition of the old "Early Decision" program.

More than 2,400 students submitted early decision applications last year, and the university admitted 599 of the applicants, a record at the time. This year, the university offered admission to 803 single-choice early action applicants, all of whom have until May 1 to make their decisions.

Robin Mamlet, dean of admission and financial aid, said she thought the number of applications under the new program might drop this year because of the requirement that high school seniors not apply for early admission programs elsewhere. But she said she was pleasantly surprised when the opposite happened.

"We went from 2,400 [applicants] to 4,100 because students found that this was an application process that they were comfortable with," Mamlet said. "It was a particularly tough group of decisions -- our early applicant group has always been quite strong, but this year it was quite a bit larger as well as quite strong."

Stanford was one of only three top universities (the others were Yale and Harvard) to change its early admission program this year to help ease the pressures on prospective students.

Mamlet said university officials had always heard complaints from students, parents and high school guidance counselors about the requirement that students enroll at Stanford if granted early admission. Many students were hesitant to apply with that condition because they were unsure of their financial aid package and may have had other top choices of universities.

"Even though we assured students that Stanford gave good financial aid, many of them just weren't sure they could sign on the dotted line," Mamlet said. "Now they are able to weigh their decision once they see their financial aid offer."

The change in the early admission policy eased many student anxieties, Mamlet said, and the university saw one of the best early applicant pools ever.

"This was simply an amazing group of applicants," Mamlet said. "The combination of their very strong academic records, their high level of intellectual curiosity and engagement, and the range of other gifts they possess that they will contribute to this community absolutely stood out."

Many students found the prospect of getting an early admission to the university too good to pass up, even though it turned out that they had a slimmer chance of getting in than they did under the old system. According to Mamlet, the admission rate fell from 24 percent to 19 percent, even though the university accepted 200 more early applicants than last year.

Evaluating prospective students

The spike in the number of the applications submitted this year proved to be an enormous undertaking for the admissions office staff, which had to scrutinize each student.

"With the doubling of applications, we had to work very hard to get the decisions made and give the applicants the kind of consideration they deserved," Mamlet said.

And while the staff is now considering the mountain of standard admission applications, it must also try to respond to the questions of the students who have been offered early admission while they ponder their decision.

"[Under the old Early Action program], I think there had been a sense that once we admitted the students and they were bound to enroll, we had to move on to the regular applicants and deal with them later," Mamlet said. "We can't do quite as much of that right now."

Mamlet said her staff has been fielding many questions from students granted early admission since they received their offer letters early last month. To date, 111 of the 803 students offered early admission have accepted.

"Most, I assume, will wait until the spring to make a final decision," she said.

But while the new program clearly proved to be more popular than expected, the future of early admission programs is somewhat murky. Later this year, the U.S. Senate will consider a higher education proposal that could prompt many colleges and universities to drop early decision programs.

The proposal is sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), and, if passed, would require universities "to report disaggregated information on students who take advantage of and benefit from early decision and legacy admissions policies." Many universities would surely balk at disclosing such information and would effectively be forced to abandon early admission programs rather than comply.

The legislation will be considered later this spring as part of the reauthorization procedures for the Higher Education Act, said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Kennedy's office.

In a recent editorial, Mamlet wrote that Stanford and other universities should be allowed to operate early admission programs as they see fit.

"Our experience this year affirms the wisdom of allowing colleges to define their own admission programs to responsibly meet their own needs and those of the students they serve," Mamlet wrote in the San Jose Mercury News Dec. 18. "This is not to suggest that all schools should move to a similar program. And not all colleges with binding early decision programs should end them. No single admission practice can meet the needs of the millions of students we serve."

Mamlet said the university was concerned about the issues surrounding legacy admissions and the benefits of early admission programs but said that Stanford's experience proved that colleges "are responsible enough to reform their own programs."