The University of North Carolina (UNC) has decided to act on the nationwide conversation among college admissions personnel of eliminating the early decision option. On April 26, UNC officially announced that they are going to eliminate it. The University of North Carolina is the first college or university to break this increasingly popular, and somewhat trendy, way for high school seniors of applying to college.Dr. Jerome Lucido, director of admissions and vice provost for enrollment management at UNC, said the university dropped the early decision Option because he said he wanted its applicants to approach their college searches in a thoughtful manner.

"Students would play games with the admissions process," Lucido said, adding that the admissions personnel at UNC would not tolerate those games.
Lucido said the University of North Carolina had reintroduced early decision in 2000, after they had experimented with it for a few years in the early 1970s. He said he felt he "saw so many students and families ready to go Early Decision (three years ago)," so that he felt UNC needed a plan. And, he said he wanted the admissions office at UNC to run a program as student-friendly as possible.

With this early decision plan that UNC devised in the year, 2000, Lucido said the university only accept ed between 20 to 25 percent of the incoming class through early decision. He also said the university would provide financial aid estimates to the applicants accepted early decision. Finally, he said the early decision applicants were examined under the same rigorous academic standards as the regular decision applicants.

These new early decision credentials ran from 2000 to 2002, and Lucido said he feels, after this three year trial, the early decision option did not allow for the maturing process of a high school student's senior year to take place.

Specifically, Lucido said he feels students would make better decisions at the end of their senior year when they were better informed of the college applications process, have had more time to visit campuses and knew their financial aid and scholarship options from the various higher institutions that accepted them.

Brandeis's Director of Enrollment, Deena Whitfield, when asked about her reaction to UNC's decision to eliminate early decision, said she feels Brandeis was not directly influenced by it. "Right now, I don't anticipate (any decisions) getting rid of early decision," she said.

"We will balance the student's desire to know early with our desire to increase diversity," Whitfield said.

Lucido specifically addressed problems with UNC's early decision plan. "The application pool was strong, but not nearly as stellar at the top end of our applicant pool," he said. He said he feels the applicants who applied regular decision were stronger and more qualified than the applicants who applied early decision.
Lucido also blamed the national college admissions environment for creating problems with UNC's early decision plan. Specifically, he said he feels the national college admissions environment currently pressures students to apply early.

A third problem Lucido said was that the early decision applicants compromised diversity, saying that the early decision application pool was more affluent and homogenous. "Far less early decision students applied for need-based aid than regular decision students," he said. He also said approximately 82 percent of the early decision applicants were white.

Lucido said the final problem was early decision deters the maturing process for high school students. He said he feels a student's senior year of high school is the time where the most maturing takes place. "Ultimately, we felt it wasn't in the student's interest (to apply early decision)," he said.

Whitfield said she felt that Brandeis's system of early decision has minimal problems, if any. "I think we have the best of all possible worlds," she said. Whitfield said she feels Brandeis does not compromise diversity when they accept their applicants. Also, she said she felt that the deadline of Jan. 1 to apply early decision gives students half of their senior year to decide where to apply and decide to mature. Finally, she said that only 20 to 25 percent of Brandeis's incoming classes are from early decision applicants, as opposed to some colleges or universities that fill close 50 percent of the incoming first-year class through early decision applicants.

"It would be scary for students to use early decision as a strategy," Whitfield said.
Lucido said he feels future college students have to go through three steps in the college application process and that with early decision, they would miss the last step. He said the first step is deciding where to apply. The second step is waiting until they hear from colleges. The third step is deciding where they will go to college.

"If you choose early decision . you give up the point where you get to choose among from those schools that accept you," he said.
Lucido said that UNC's talk to eliminate early decision was much in progress before the president of Yale University, Dr. Richard Levin, made the announcement in December that"it would be a good thing" if colleges and universities would drop binding early decisions. "We (UNC Admissions) were very happy to hear Dr. Levin make that statement," Lucido said.

He said that in place of the early decision option, they are going to have the early action plan, meaning that students can apply early to UNC, but it is not a binding decision. Therefore, they are not forced to enroll at the university if they are accepted under the early action plan.

UNC's early action deadline was Nov. 15 and students will be notified by Jan. 1."Sometimes early action can be defacto to early decision if you only allow students to apply to one school early," he said.

Lucido said he predicts that the early action pool will increase in number and have a better quality of applicants."If seems to me, making more applications is a rational response," he said.

Lucido said that responses to UNC's action have been nothing but positive. From walking around and observing the campus environment, he said he felt that "our students are pleased."

He also said that the high schools in North Carolina are content with UNC's decision."Our high schools (in North Carolina) are very enthusiastically endorsing what we've done," he said.

"We're trying to return to an environment where there is more time for thoughtful choice," he said.