For those hoping to apply early to Harvard next year, such an option will not exist. Beginning in fall 2007, Harvard will no longer accept early applicants in an effort to downplay the pressure inflicted by college admissions process and to give low-income applicants who do not have the resources to learn about “early action” processes and need to browse through financial aid packages an equal shot at admission. More changes are needed, however, if Harvard and other prestigious universities hope to attract more low-income applicants. Furthermore, eliminating the early admissions policy will hurt students who already know their first-choice school and want to avoid the stress of regular admissions.

Eliminating early admission will change nothing about prestigious universities’ applicant pools. Even though they might not know about early admissions, low-income applicants still apply during the regular application period—and if they really are qualified, even when compared with the rest of the normal applicants, they will no doubt be admitted.

There are two main types of early admission policies. The first is “early decision,” in which students can apply early to only one school and are bound by contract to attend if admitted. The second method is “early action,” in which students can apply early to one school—there are exceptions to this rule—but can choose whether or not they want to enter the school if they are admitted. Stanford and Yale employ this policy; Harvard previously did.

For “early action,” though, because a student is not required to enter the school once he is admitted, he is still able to choose between financial aid offered by other schools when applying according to regular deadlines—if a student from a low-income family still chooses to enter after being admitted early, though, then he himself made the choice to miss possible opportunities for potentially better scholarships from other schools they do not apply to regularly. Not only that, but if it is an issue of admission, if low-income student were to meet all requirements and outshine other applicants, he should be granted admission through regardless of his economic status or when he applies.

In addition, if a student is admitted through “early action,” then he will not be stressed about his admission status for four months after he turns in his application. With a relaxed attitude, the student can then focus better on learning and preparing for college instead of nervously flipping through the mail every day and being distracted from his academic career.

Soon after Harvard announced its decision to eliminate its “early action” policy, Princeton University followed suit and announced its plan to drop its “early decision” program. It is very possible that other universities will drop their early admissions policies as well.

This trend of ending early admission programs will do nothing to help universities economically diversify their classrooms. Instead, students will be hurt by the new polices, which will inflict unnecessary stress on them while they wait for admission results.