New early action policies at some selective colleges may have contributed to dramatic changes in the numbers of early applications and acceptances, admissions officers said yesterday.

For some colleges that are sending out letters to early applicants this week, the percentage of acceptances has dropped significantly from previous years.

While the number of applicants to Harvard, Brown and MIT surged, the number of students accepted did not change much, resulting in a lower early admittance percentage.

The changes from previous years are due in part to new policies adopted by

some selective schools, said MIT Dean of Admissions Marilee Jones. Brown, Georgetown and Harvard now allow students to apply to multiple schools under "early action" plans MIT has always permitted early applicants to apply to other schools, Jones said. However, up until this year, early action applicants (who are not bound to attend if they are admitted) to Brown, Georgetown and Harvard were restricted from applying to more than one school.

The results of the changes have been dramatic. At Brown, early applications

climbed to 4,922, 65 percent more than last year. This year, Brown admitted 1,037, or 21.1 percent, according to Director of Admissions Michael Goldberger. Last year Brown admitted 24 percent of its early applicant pool--720 students in total--according to the admission office's Web site.

Georgetown admissions officials could not be reached yesterday.