Today, Harvard’s Daily Crimson announced that Harvard will reinstate its Early Action Decision plan for the class of 2016. That means that this fall, students will be able to apply to Harvard Early Action (EA – which is non-binding) and not just regular decision.
Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Michael D. Smith said,
“Offering an accelerated decision cycle for interested applicants will increase Harvard’s potential to attract top-caliber students.
Hmmm. Who knew that Harvard needed to increase its potential to attract top students?
Less than two hours after Harvard made its statement, Princeton University also jumped on the bandwagon and announced that they too were going to reinstate their Early Action plans. Princeton President Shirley M. Tilghman said she believed that,
“…bringing back an early program would allow her school to better recruit underrepresented groups.”
The Harvard Dean stated similar concerns,
“We looked carefully at trends in Harvard admissions these past years and saw that many highly talented students, including some of the best-prepared low-income and underrepresented minority students, were choosing programs with an early-action option, and therefore were missing out on the opportunity to consider Harvard,” he said.
And that’s right. No one should miss out on the opportunity to consider Harvard or Princeton. But if you’d like to consider some other colleges as well, why not give us a call.
Juliet Giglio
