(Editor's note: After a decade in which high school students across the country have increasingly turned to early decision when applying to college, national controversy has erupted over the benefits of binding November applications. This is the second article in a three part series examining the complicated issues surrounding early decision policies.)
In May 1958, then-Assistant Director of Admissions Davis Jackson announced a new admissions policy that, little did he know, would fundamentally change the college application process.
Jackson "admitted that there is a plan under consideration whereby early decision might be made in some clear-cut cases. However, this plan may well present too many problems to be feasible," The Dartmouth reported.
In the fall of 1958, the first year of what would ultimately be called early decision, Dartmouth accepted 91 students early, or 10.8 percent of the incoming class. The next year Dartmouth accepted 145 early, a jump to18.7 percent of the Class of 1964.
"It was something that was needed, I thought, at the time," Frank Logan '52, who worked in the admissions office from 1956 to 1962, said. "But the fact that it would escalate, no one thought that."
Long before the current debate over early admissions erupted and long before colleges began admitting large percentages of their classes in November, Dartmouth helped to create the first form of early admissions more than 40 years ago.
Dartmouth was a founding member of "the Pentagonals," an alliance of five New England colleges that offered students better odds for acceptance in return for a binding commitment to attend, according to past and current admissions officers.
Dartmouth allied with Amherst, Bowdoin, Wesleyan and Williams to create the early admissions system. The move was a response to the gentlemen's agreements between Harvard, Yale and Princeton with area prep schools.
Known as the ABC system, admissions representatives from Harvard, Yale and Princeton ranked students at elite prep schools. An "A" ranking practically guaranteed a student acceptance even before applying.
Dartmouth's early decision was created to attract the best students, and, past directors of admissions insist, was not part of a competitive strategy.
"We always looked at it as a great way to form a nucleus of very special individuals in the class and not have to worry about them going somewhere else in April," said Dick Jaeger '59, who joined Dartmouth admissions in 1964 and retired as its director in 1989.
"In one sense, it was an example of people who were well-intentioned doing something which they thought was good for their institutions but also a good thing for students," Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg said. "As things became more competitive, self-interest enters in."
No one at the time believed it would mushroom into such a large or controversial issue. Prospective students and universities both saw it as "a mutually beneficial approach" to admissions, Jaeger said.
"Secondary schools weren't critical of it either," Al Quirk '49, who joined the Dartmouth admissions office in 1963, said. "They saw it as a good deal for the students."
Because early admissions was publicly acknowledged, unlike the ABC system, many New England colleges began to adopt similar programs. The policy did not spread much outside the Northeast, mainly because "other institutions didn't see much point to it," Quirk said, explaining that most students outside the Northeast attended their hometown schools.
While Dartmouth's early admission program has remained virtually the same for 40 years, many universities have constantly reinvented their programs to adapt to changing times.
In the late 1970s, many universities initiated competitive marketing strategies, including introducing variations of early decision, prototypes of the current rolling admissions and innovations like double early decision and early decision at odd times of the year.
Schools began to focus on "jockeying-for-position kinds of decisions," Furstenberg said.
In the late 1980s, the U.S. News & World Report college ranking phenomenon provoked many schools to use early admissions to lower their acceptance rate and increase their yield, thereby jumping in rank.
The last boom occurred in the late '90s and continues to grow. Factors commonly cited are the media fascination with the college admissions process, the large number of baby boomer children and the growing belief that acceptance to an elite college is necessary for successful careers.
"People began to perceive that applying early was a way of maximizing your chances of getting in, and at some institutions that sadly is true," Furstenberg said.
Schools also began aggressively promoting their early admissions, to the point where many high school students saw it as the only chance for admission.
In contrast to the current controversy, early admissions at Dartmouth has historically not been controversial and there was never talk of changing it, past directors said.
Dartmouth has ridden these waves without changing its early decision or aggressively advertising it.
"Early decision is a program we offer, but don't promote," Furstenberg said. "We sometimes discourage people from applying early. We're quick to say, 'if you're not sure, wait.' Our use of it has been very consistent throughout our over 40-year history."
The early decision pool is typically "a little more Northeast, little more affluent, little less diverse" than the regular admissions, Furstenberg said.
Over the last 13 years the average percent of the class accepted early is 34.5 percent, but the number has fluctuated between 27.5 percent for the Class of 1997 and 39.7 percent for the Class of 2004.
"I don't have an arbitrary limit," Furstenberg said.
The admittance rate has varied from 25.6 percent for the Class of 1999 to 39.4 percent for the Class of 2004. The average acceptance rate for the last 13 years has been 32.6 percent.
Three hundred and eighty seven members of the Class of 2006 were recently accepted early decision. The College usually receives 1,100 to 1,200 early applications and around 10,000 regular applications.
While Furstenberg said he keeps an eye on the "competitive environment," the actions of the other Ivy League institutions do not affect Dartmouth. "I think it would be unwise to do what some of the Ivies have done, which is to take 50 percent of the class early. We've resisted the tendency to admit more early."
