In violation of a national policy set forth by the National Association for College Admission Counseling, Princeton and Brown are refusing to alter their early admissions policies.
At last year's annual convention, NACAC decided to change its policy to uniformly allow students who apply early decision to one school to also submit non-binding "early action" applications to other schools. NACAC gave schools one year to change their policies, but Brown and Princeton have yet to comply.
"The impetus of the change came from [college] counselors, under pressure from parents and students, for a well defined, uniform policy for early admissions," said Mark Canon, deputy executive director of NACAC.
Princeton and Brown, which both have early decision plans, have refused to allow students to apply early to any other schools, placing them in direct violation of NACAC policy.
"Princeton is simply sticking with the principle on which our early application program has long been based," Princeton Dean of Admissions Fred Hargadon wrote in an email. "If a student wishes to seek early decision from Princeton, the student may do so as long as the student has concluded that Princeton is his/her first choice and as long as it is the only early application the student is filing."
Brown's Dean of Admissions Michael Goldberger expressed similar reasoning in an interview with the Brown Daily Herald, saying, "[Early decision] is a policy of first choice. So it doesn't make sense to have admission officers at other schools go through applications."
The association took no action either to change the rule or to sanction the two universities at this year's meeting, which took place last weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah.
"We do not consider our application requirements, of which this longstanding early application requirement is but one, to be subject to a vote of the membership of NACAC," Hargadon said. "Neither do we ask NACAC for approval of our testing requirements or for our essay requirements, and so forth."
Even though Princeton and NACAC find themselves in direct opposition, both the university and the association indicated that they are not purposely seeking conflict.
"I have been a member of NACAC for a long time and have a great deal of respect for the organization," Hargadon said. "But I have never thought of membership in NACAC as being tantamount to giving up an institution's autonomy when it comes to settling application requirements. I don't like being at odds with NACAC, but sometimes people of good will simply disagree on the merit of one or another matter."
"There's a desire to keep the dialogue open and to try to resolve the matter as collegially and professionally as possible," Canon said.
Dartmouth's early decision program is in compliance with the NACAC guidelines. While students applying early to Dartmouth are required to attend if accepted, they are not forbidden from applying non-binding early action at other schools.
But Princeton and Brown's exclusive early decision policies have not prevented students from doing just what the NACAC is encouraging. Though it is forbidden, several Dartmouth students reported having applied early decision to Brown or Princeton, but also having applied early action to one or multiple other schools. Because these schools have no effective means of keeping track of where students apply in addition to their own
Dale Correa '06 said he applied early decision both to Brown and to a seven-year Boston University medical program.
"I called Brown and asked them if I could apply to BU, and they said no," Correa said. "But it seemed ridiculous to me, since the medical program wasn't even binding."
However, universities such as Princeton and Brown that insist on maintaining their one-school early decision policy are forced to deal with the reality that students could be violating the policy right underneath their noses.
"We don't have any way of knowing whether early applicants to Princeton will have honored the agreement that their applications to us are the only early applications they will have filed. We simply trust them," Hargadon said.
But Princeton is not worried about the possibility of discouraging prospective early applicants who are turned off by the restriction of applying early to only one school.
"If we see fewer applicants of the 'I-want-to-eat-my-cake-and-have-it-too' variety, I won't shed any tears, believe me," Hargadon said. "There are far more terrific young men and women who apply to Princeton, Dartmouth, the Ivies and lots of other great colleges every year than any of us are able to admit."
