An Attack on NACAC?
Although Yale and Stanford are no longer binding their early applicants to attend, they are prohibiting them from applying early to other colleges. By doing so, they are violating NACAC guidelines, which specify that students can file as many early applications as they want so long as they do not apply Early Decision to more than one college.
NACAC requires that its member colleges adhere to its definitions of Early Action and Early Decision to remain in the organization.
Princeton and Brown, which still offer Early Decision, also prohibit their early candidates from applying elsewhere, which has led to a standoff with the national association.
“[The new policies] would be in direct conflict with the NACAC statement of principles of good practice,” Wilder said, “and that is troubling and potentially an area of concern for the profession.”
Mamlet said Stanford had “hoped to enter into conversations with NACAC” about the issue, but went ahead with the announcement because it “was important to also signal our intent and to provide applicants and families with as much information as possible.”
The NACAC policy stipulating that students can apply to Early Action schools alongside an Early Decision school was instituted last fall and reaffirmed at the organization’s annual conference in Salt Lake City this September.
It was implemented this fall, which led many to speculate that Early Action colleges would see a substantial spike in applications.
Early Action applications were due Nov. 1, and Fitzsimmons said that it was “very clear that [Harvard] has a new record. We are well over 6,000 applications, which was where we were the last two years.”
Early Decision has come under increasing fire over the last two years. The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill abolished its Early Decision program last spring, and Harvard threatened to undermine the system this summer by letting students enroll who had been accepted elsewhere under Early Decision.
—Staff writer Dan Rosenheck can be reached at rosenhec@fas.harvard.edu.