1	Early Admissions Should UC be competing for the very best students? Should UC provide applicants with an early admissions option?
2	Two approaches to early admission: Early Decision (apply to one school and promise to attend if admitted—binding) Early Action (can apply to more than one school and no promise to attend if admitted—non binding)
3	Early Admissions Yale started a binding early decision program in 1995. Stanford approved a similar program in 1995 Early decision started at most elite colleges in the late 1990s. During this period UC was confronting SP-1 and 209.
4	Round 1
5	Round 2
6	Round 2 UC
7	Top 25
8	Top 50
9	latest
10	Without “early admission” the UC campuses become, by default, second choice schools for the top academically ranked students.
11	UCLA Yield
12	Can the UC campuses compete with the best private universities?
13	Competitive Campuses On what are widely viewed as the best measures: the National Research Council Ratings and the Top Science Index the University of California campuses are ranked among the top.
14	National Research Council Ratings of Ph.D. Programs Mean # Rank Score Rated 1 MIT 4.60 23 2 UC Berkeley 4.49 37 3 Harvard 4.40 30 4 Cal Tech 4.29 29 Princeton 4.29 19 6 Stanford 4.21 43 7 Chicago 4.13 30 8 Yale 4.08 30 9 Cornell 3.95 37 10 UC San Diego 3.93 29 11 Columbia 3.92 34 12 UCLA 3.85 36 Michigan 3.85 41 14 Pennsylvania 3.79 36 15 Wisconsin 3.70 39 16 Texas at Austin 3.63 37 17 U. Washington 3.60 39 18 Northwestern 3.58 30 20 Carnegie Mellon 3.56 15 Duke 3.56 33 Illinois 3.56 37 Johns Hopkins 3.56 34 23 Minnesota 3.45 39 24 North Carolina 3.44 34 25 Brown 3.40 30 Mean Score # 26 New York U. 3.37 25 27 UC Irvine 3.35 24 28 Virginia 3.34 32 29 Purdue 3.31 25 30 Arizona 3.25 29 31 Rochester 3.24 28 32 Emory 3.23 33 Rutgers 3.23 33 34 Washington U. 3.22 27 35 UC Davis 3.18 26 Penn State 3.18 39 37 Ohio State 3.18 39 38 Indiana 3.16 39 39 Stony Brook 3.13 30 40 Rice 3.11 22 41 UC Santa Barbara 3.08 32 42 Colorado 3.05 31 CUNY 3.05 26 44 Maryland 3.04 28 Southern California 3.04 36 46 North Carolina S.U. 3.03 23 47 Texas A&M 3.00 27 48 Vanderbilt 2.99 26 49 Massachusetts 2.98 31 50 U of Iowa 2.97 33
15	Twenty Leading Public and Private Universities, Ranked by Top Science Index Private Top Science Rank Index 1 Cal Tech 3.96 2 Stanford 1.21 3 MIT 1.16 4 Harvard .93 5 Princeton .83 6 Johns Hopkins .75 7 Yale .65 Cornell .60 Wash U. .55 Chicago .54 Public Top Science Rank Index UC San Diego 1.07 UC Berkeley .92 3 UC Irvine .56 4 Colorado .55 5 Stony Brook .54 6 UC Santa Barbara .53 7 UCLA .50 8 Illinois .45 9 Wisconsin .42 10 Washington .37
16	UC
17	Is early admission just for private universities?
18	How many campuses offer early admission?
19	Drawbacks Stress: Yale switches from binding “early decision” to nonbinding “early action” “Yale leaders hope the new policy, called "early action," will prompt others to end their (binding) early decision programs, which have been criticized for putting too much pressure on high school students by forcing them to choose before they are ready to. Yale president Richard Levin acknowledged that the change may cost the Ivy League school up to 20 percent of the top applicants. "Our final thinking was that it would be unfortunate, but the value of making the change outweighs the concern," Levin said. Levin floated the idea of ending binding early decision last winter. He spent the year talking with other college officials, students, parents and teachers, who generally opposed them.
20	Drawbacks Unfair to disadvantaged students The policies are especially difficult for students who need financial aid, because they cannot weigh aid offers from competing schools. Members of the Yale Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid Policy say that early decision favors wealthy students who can commit themselves to a university before they know the size of their financial aid package, since aid is not decided until the spring.
21	Drawbacks UC has spent the last several years improving its admissions policies to insure access to disadvantaged and underrepresented students. Is it possible to design an “early action” program that would not harm disadvantaged and underrepresented students?
22	Requirements for a UC Early Action Plan Improve access for all students. Insure disadvantaged and underrepresented students have equal and fair access. Allow each UC campus flexibility to adjust program to campus needs. Perhaps, like Yale and Stanford, limit “early action” to one campus and limit each campus to 500. Connect program with outreach and “eligibility in the local context” programs.
23	Impact of Early Admissions at Penn University of Pennsylvania Dean of Admissions Willis Stetson … says that Early Decision (ED) has benefited his school in many ways—most notably, in increasing number of students for whom Penn is their first choice. For many years, the school was seen as a "safety" school for applicants applying to other Ivies. Since the switch to ED, not only has the quality of the student body increased, according to Stetson, but it has also changed the attitudes and tone of the campus. Stetson said, "We find that Early Decision serves us quite well. It's a more talented applicant pool, so we're able to enroll an excellent group from the early program." Due to the increased selectivity, Penn's applications have increased. As a result of increased applications, Penn has risen steadily in the U.S. News rankings; it was ranked 16th in 1994 and did not break into the top 10 until 1997. "Obviously Penn and Princeton use Early Decision heavily because it serves their interests. At Stanford, we did not have any early program for many years until we were told by the administration to implement one for competitive reasons," Reider said. This year Penn was ranked fourth overall. Excerpts from: Ivy League weighs pros and cons of early programs
24	Impact of Early Admissions at Penn (2) Early applications from minority students also rose 7.1 percent -- from 708 to 758 -- following a smaller increase the year before. That number includes 73 applications from African American students, up from 65; 625 from Asian Americans, an 8.5 percent jump from 576 last year; and 49 from Latino students, up from 43. New records for early-decision applications were set in four western states as the Admissions Office received 156 applications from California, 63 from Texas, 16 from Washington and 15 from Colorado. Excerpt from : Early applicants rise for Class of 2003
25	Impact of Early Admissions at Stanford Stanford officials, who have been criticized because the university's "yield rate" of top high school graduates has been declining, have decided to use an early admissions program to better compete for top students with Ivy League schools. All eight Ivy League schools have similar programs. James Montoya, the dean of undergraduate admissions, announced the decision at last week's Faculty Senate meeting (November 1994). "It seems to make sense to expand the period for students to consider applications to Stanford," he said. The number of students who actually enroll at Stanford, from the pool of students who are accepted, was 49 percent in 1993. Called the yield rate, it was 64 percent 10 years earlier. Harvard's yield rate was 75 percent in 1993. After implementing Early Decision, Stanford reported a yield rate of 64 percent in 1997. "Many said they would have chosen Stanford if it had an early admissions program," Montoya said of top seniors who chose competing schools. Montoya read a letter from one student who accepted early admission to Harvard: "Harvard had months to recruit me while Stanford had slowly slipped out of my mind."
26	Compare
27	Data
28	End
29	Selected References November 16, 1994 STANFORD: Early bird gets the best students? University will add early decision program to aid in recruiting top scholars November 26, 2002 Early-admissions programs are drawing criticism By Fred Tasker, Miami Herald November 18, 2002 Early applications rise By Adaku Ibekwe, Daily Princetonian November 21, 2002 Ivy League weighs pros and cons of early programs Yale and Stanford's programs cause changes in the admissions world By Chaitanya Mehra, Yale Herald September 2001 The Early-Decision Racket James Fallows, Atlantic Monthly November 20, 2002 "The Early-Decision Racket" Redux James Fallows, Atlantic Monthly Inside Admissions An e-mail exchange with Jacques Steinberg, the author of The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College and James Fallows, Atlantic Monthly, September 25, 2002 Ivy Group agree on common admission dates Statement on common Ivy Group procedures for Admission