For early admissions, an unclear fate.

WILL 2006 BE THE TIPPING POINT FOR THE END OF EARLY ADMISSIONS? This fall, a trio of elite institutions--Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Virginia--opted to end their binding early decision or nonbinding early action programs.

The University of Delaware also stopped early admissions this year, while the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill put the kibosh on early decision in 2002.

Elite institutions aren't the only ones with spotlights on them. Many universities offer rolling admissions options to accept applications even before the start of the senior year. Members of the National Association for College Admissions Counseling voted in October to ban programs that offer admissions decisions before the middle of September, and to stop colleges from setting application deadlines before October 15.

"This was a very under-the-radar move that ultimately I believe our members hope will help provide the kind of clarity and transparency in the admissions process that will allow people to keep it simple," says David Hawkins, director of public policy for NACAC. Still, many officers plan to stick to their current application structures.

University of Pennsylvania's President Amy Gutmann detailed her institution's stance in a Washington Post piece titled "Early Admissions Aren't the Problem." The debate over early admissions, Gutmann wrote, "is a distraction from a far more important matter: the urgent need of all but a handful of colleges and universities to improve financial aid for students from low-income and middle-income families."

But what of proof that early applicants do not typically apply for financial aid or come from low-income backgrounds? In UVa's current freshman class, for instance, of the 172 students considered to be low-income only one enrolled through early decision. "What we've found in two years is that we've had very few students enroll through the early decision process and at the low-income level," says John Blackburn, dean of admission at UVa.

Andrew Fairbanks found similar statistics through his research for The Early Admissions Game (Harvard University Press, 2003). With co-authors Christopher Avery and Richard Zeckhauser, Fairbanks sifted through databases for 14 of the country's 20 most selective IHEs. The results? At every school, the decision to apply early had a significant effect on outcome. Despite that evidence Fairbanks believes most institutions will keep early admissions to maintain enrollment yields. "I am not overly optimistic that this is going to lead to a widespread change."