Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Admissions Changes

After 12 years of offering a restricted Early Action policy, Georgetown has altered its Early Action admissions program to allow applicants to apply to other universities’ Early Decision programs.

This change in admissions policy for the class of 2007 was a response to revised guidelines issued last year by the National Association for College Admission Counseling. Harvard University has joined Georgetown in altering their requirements for Early Decision applicants.

Traditionally, Early Action gives strong applicants advance notice of their admission to a university but is non-binding. Early Decision is a binding process through which accepted applicants are expected to commit to one favored school early in their senior year of high school. If admitted, the university then makes a similar commitment to the student.

Previously, Georgetown applications instructed Early Action students not to apply for binding commitments offered in Early Decision applications, since a student accepted into this agreement would then have to break their agreement with another institution to attend Georgetown. Early Action applicants are permitted to apply to other schools’ non-binding Early Action programs and regular admissions processes.

The current application informs prospective students that the university’s “hope is that students applying under our Early Action program will not apply at the same time to other binding Early Decision programs since they would not be free to choose Georgetown if admitted.”

Students who stealthily apply early to more than one institution and face the dilemma of breaking binding agreements – a concern that is a detriment to Georgetown’s new Early Action policy, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Charles Deacon said.

But how many students, under pressure to appear desirable to many schools, would chance this ethical trespass?

“There are a few,” Deacon said. “If we find out, we’d remove their admission.”

Under the old policy, a student who applied to Georgetown’s Early Action and a binding Early Decision program would have been in violation of Georgetown’s application rules and disqualified, no matter which institution they favored. By stating the rule in the first place, Georgetown would be able to legally dismiss candidates who were, according to the other school’s rule, not up for grabs.

The new Early Action policy, however, removes Georgetown’s legal right to reject an application based on the student’s choices of early application, even if the student was not playing fair with another school.

“Under the new rule, you’re not violating our policy, you’re violating Yale’s policy,” Deacon said, offering a hypothetical. “It puts us in the awkward position of enforcing a policy we don’t agree with.”

In changing its Early Action policy to comply with NACAC standards, Georgetown must now deal with the effects of combining Early Action and Early Decision, a policy it has long disliked, Deacon said.

“We don’t like it one bit,” Deacon said. “It’s not fair to our other applicants. If we admit 20 percent of our Early Action applicants and some of those have already agreed to other schools, they’ve taken away the opportunity for you. That’s hardly fair.”

Deacon requests applicants who apply to Early Decision programs to “be considerate of other people,” noting that students can apply through the regular process with no disadvantage.

Despite schools’ assurances to the contrary, many students feel early application will give them an edge. According to Deacon, competition among applicants has produced an attitude of “`I’m going to apply early, I just don’t know where,'” – an attitude that does not serve Early Action’s founding principles.

Competition is not limited to students, however. Universities also vie for top applicants and high rankings in publications such as U.S. News and World Report’s college rankings. One way schools compete is by judging their “yield,” the number of accepted applicants who decide to take a school’s offer.

Schools that offer an Early Decision program are almost guaranteed a 100 percent yield for the students selected early. In Georgetown’s case, because Early Action is non-binding, their early yield is about 48 percent, according to Deacon.

Competition among universities in other ways gained national attention this summer after Princeton University officials hacked into a Yale University admissions Web site used by Yale applicants to learn the results of their application.

In a statement posted on the Princeton Web site, Princeton University President Shirley M. Tilghman said investigators found that Princeton admissions officials accessed the Yale site using applicants’ name, social security number and birth date – information both schools had requested on applications.

“This exposes the idea that colleges are in a competitive environment,” Deacon said. “Yale went around bragging about their great Web site . when you log on, fireworks go off, a barking bulldog comes across the screen . I’m sure Princeton wanted to see that, to see what Yale was doing.”

Georgetown does not currently allow prospective students to view their application results online, nor does it offer applications that can be electronically submitted. While an application to Georgetown may be downloaded off the admissions Web site, students must mail it in the old-fashioned way.

In the face of an admissions arms race in which a large number of schools must fight over a small number of top students, some officials are calling for reform. Recently, Yale President Richard Levin called for universities to abolish Early Decision. Deacon agrees with Levin’s proposition, and suggests limiting students to three Early Action applications.

“The pendulum is beginning to swing, and it’s swinging our way,” Deacon said.

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