The number of high school students applying to the College's early action admissions program skyrocketed 31.9 percent to 3,944 this year, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons '67 said last night.

The total breaks last year's record of 2,990 and represents the largest one-year increase in the history of the program, Fitzsimmons said.

The dean attributed the stunning rise largely to the decisions of Princeton and Yale Universities to scrap their early action programs in favor of an early decision program beginning this year.

Under the early decision program, applicants are bound to accept a school's offer of admission; under the early action program, they are not.

Of the eight Ivy League schools, Brown University and Harvard are now the only ones with early action programs.

"It does appear that more and more of the top students are applying early, and the flexibility of early action has a lot of appeal," Fitzsimmons said.

In the wake of its switch to early decision, Yale witnessed a substantial drop in the number of early applicants. Just 1,096 students applied to the school's inaugural early decision program, down nearly 25 percent from last year's early action total of 1,592. Figures from Princeton were not available last night.

Other Ivy League schools also received a boost in applications as a result of Yale and Princeton's switch

Early Action at Harvard

Applications to Harvard's early action program skyrocketed this year - the 31.9% increase is the largest one-year jump that Dean of Admission and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons '67 can recall.

Source: Admission office to an early decision system. The University of Pennsylvania, for example, saw early decision applications jump 25 percent, from 1,629 to 2,045. Brown enjoyed a 10 percent increase in its early action applications.

Despite the recent switches of Yale and Princeton, Fitzsimmons said he does not foresee Harvard moving to an early decision program.

"Philosophically, we've always preferred [early action]," the dean said. "In their senior year, students often get new information about colleges, either directly or through friends, that may change which college is best for them."

Fitzsimmons said there was "nothing exciting" to report in terms of the gender and ethnic breakdown of the early pool. He said the proportion of women and blacks was about the same as in last year's pool.

Admissions

Harvard's early action applications have increased nearly 80 percent in the last four years, and the total number of applications in 1994-95 was up 50 percent from the beginning of the decade.

Even so, Fitzsimmons said that Harvard will not significantly change the criteria it uses to make admissions decisions.

"The so-called edge, where the line gets drawn for admission, doesn't seem to vary a great deal from year to year," he said.

Fitzsimmons said that the office does not have any "target" number that it hopes to admit early. In 1994, 725 students, or roughly 25 percent, were admitted under the program. The rest were denied admission or had their applications deferred for consideration with the regular applicant pool.

In recent years, more than 90 percent of students who were offered early admission have accepted it, Fitzsimmons said.

Early action admissions decisions should be finished between December 7 and December 9, the dean said