Harvard University proved that its trend-setting ability extends outside the Ivy League yesterday, with the addition of the University of Virginia to the ever-growing list of schools nixing their early admission policies.
Applicants to the UVA Class of 2013 will have to wait until the spring to find out if they have been accepted, UVA officials said.
Harvard made a similar announcement earlier this month, and Princeton University followed soon after. Both schools contend that early admission is a barrier to low-income students who prefer to compare financial-aid packages in the spring.
Penn admission officials, meanwhile, reaffirmed their commitment to the University's binding early decision practice yesterday.
Yale University officials have said that they are reconsidering their early admissions policies in light of Harvard and Princeton's announcements. The Cornell Daily Sun reported last week that Cornell University administrators are reconsidering their policy as well, although Cornell spokesmen would not confirm it.
But UVA's announcement marks a new stage in the recent wave of early admission elimination announcements, since it is both the first non-Ivy and the first public university to jump on the bandwagon.
UVA Dean of Admission John Blackburn said that the school - which has been intensifying its efforts to attract low-income students in recent years - has been thinking about the move since 2004, but "couldn't do it alone."
"We probably wouldn't have done it if Harvard or Princeton had not," Blackburn said. "It changed the whole conversation. It said that this is a possibility."
He gave the same justification for the move as the other universities, and added that the adverse effects of early decision were clear when looking at UVA's student body.
Of the UVA freshman class' 172 low-income students, only one applied early. Low-income students are defined as those whose family income is below $37,700 for a family of four.
Experts in higher education say UVA's decision is not surprising considering the school's reputation.
David Hawkins, director of public policy at the National Association for College Admission Counseling, said he considers UVA a peer institution to Harvard and Princeton and that he thought it reasonable that the school would take this step.
UVA is consistently one of the top state schools in the U.S. News & World Report's college rankings, and is currently number 24 on that list.
Hawkins said that selective schools - whose acceptance rates are roughly within the 10 to 20 percent range - should have an easier time letting go of early admission. UVA admitted 36 percent of applicants to the class of 2010.
He added that the trend of schools dropping early admission will likely continue. But he also observed that schools will be less likely to make changes that will take effect in 2008 as we get closer to January, when schools will have to begin creating brochures and filling out surveys for college guides.
Nevertheless, he said that top public universities don't form as tight-knit a community as do the Ivies, so UVA's influence on other state schools will be difficult to predict.
Harvard and Princeton will begin implementing the change for the classes of 2012 and 2013, respectively.
