Among competitive universities a two round admissions process has emerged during the last decade

Early Admission

Among competitive universities a two round admissions process has emerged during the last decade. Although early admissions programs have been around for thirty years, they were widely adopted about ten years ago. Today more the 250 colleges and universities—almost all of the competitive campuses—offer an early admission option. Early admission takes two forms: early decision and early action. Early decision limits the student to one campus and requires a promise of attendance, if accepted. In other words, it is binding. Early action is non binding and allows the student to apply during the early admissions period to several campuses.

Today about 40 percent of the students admitted to the most selective campuses (the top 50 in the US News ranking) enter through early admission (Fig. 1). Students accepted through these early admissions programs effectively rule out the University of California . The early admissions programs usually have a November 1 application deadline and notify students by December 15. The University of California has a November 30 deadline but doesn’t provide notification until March 30, several months after the December 15 date.

Students who apply using early admission (round 1) may, if they are not satisfied with the outcome of the early admissions process, simply apply during the regular admission period (round 2). The regular admissions deadline for most universities is between January and February 1. Students are notified of the admissions decision by April 1. This makes the University of California competitive in the regular process (round 2).

The University of California is competitive with most of the campuses in the top 50 of the US News ranking. In fact, six of the UC campuses are in this ranking. Careful study of the qualifications reveals that, in fact, the students at the UC campuses are competitive with the students at the best research universities in the country.

Why doesn’t the University of California offer an early admissions program? The Academic Senate at Stanford University approved their early admissions program in 1995. During this period it would have been expected that Berkeley and other campuses would have considered a similar program. But the University was knocked off track by SP-1, SP-2 and proposition 209. Since the passage of these programs the University’s central concern—as it should have been—was to solve the problem created by these measures. Essentially, these politically motivated measures dramatically reduced enrollment among under represented minorities and the University spent the next several years fixing the serious problems these measures created.

As a result, concern with early admissions was not taken up. Rather, the University engaged a number of other admissions reforms: Dual Admissions; Eligibility in the Local Context, Comprehensive Review, and rethinking the SATs. However, providing an early admissions program is vital to the competitive success of the University in recruiting and enrolling the very best students. The University regularly competes to bring the best athletes to the campus. It hires recruiters and even provides for early admission. We ought to do the same with our academic programs. Making our best effort to recruit the best students to UC would reflect the University’s commitment to serving the best students and providing them with the very best education.

Return to newsletter