An end to ED: Yale, Stanford end Early Decision. (In The News).

Yale University and Stanford University have announced their intentions to end the controversial Early Decision process in favor of non-binding Early Action, beginning with the class of 2008.

"I think it's a very important step," Yale President Richard Levin told reporters in early November. "I personally would prefer to eliminate all the early admissions programs, but realistically we can not do that,"

Soon after Yale's announcement, Stanford University President John Hennessy said his school, too, was changing its admissions program and will no longer require early applicants to make a binding commitment to attend the school.

A chief criticism of the binding Early Decision process had been that it prevented students from seeking a better financial aid package. Under Yale and Stanford's new policy, early applicants must only agree not to file any other early applications. The advantage, says Levin, is that students can name their first choice school via Early Action--without committing--but can still can apply to other schools, regular decision, to compare financial aid packages.

The announcement comes nearly a year after Levin brought the issue to national attention in an interview with The New York Times. Levin commented then that the Early Decision practice had gotten out of hand, and ending it "would be a good thing."

In the past year, a few prominent colleges--including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Mary Washington College (VA)--have dropped Early Decision programs. Following Yale's announcement, however, the University of Pennsylvania defended its current binding Early Decision program. "Our surveys of students have told us that they like Early Decision and are happy when the process is over," Admissions Dean Lee Stetson said recently. "We have not found that students feet forced to make a hasty decision to apply." But of the nation's most selective schools, only Princeton and Brown insist that applicants rule out other early admission options, both binding and non-binding. Harvard has never required students to commit to an Early Decision agreement.

Coincidentally, days after Yale announced its decision, the school also reported that it had received a record number of Early Decision applications this year. More than 2,600 students applied Early Decision to Yale, according to the school's Admissions office--a whopping 23 percent increase over last year's numbers.