The People's Interest in Early Admission and Education

The NYTimes "Most Popular" section has been disintering education articles since its beginning. Yesterday's "Harvard Ends Early Admission" shot straight to number one on the Times list. Either people are very interested in education, or expecting their kids or themselves to apply early decision to Harvard or anywhere for that matter, or both. The "Most Popular" list shows the popularity and interest in education in general in a democratically controlled education sphere--thank you Mr. Chubb and Moe conservative may you be.

Anyway, about the article. Alan Finder and Karen W. Anderson dish on Harvard's reversal of its early acceptance policy--a policy intended to preserve diversity and reverse some of the super advantage some kids get when applying. Other schools may follow suit, and Harvard is not the first to implement a reversal of the Early Decision policy, U. Delaware beat them to the punch in May. The skeptic in me knows that Harvard is special when it comes to policy decisions. Others may not be able pass reversals of early acceptance policies through their directors. Harvard gets away with stuff like this becasue they are so selective to begin with. It's good to see leaders attempt to do the right thing, though, especially under the specter that others will follow suit.

As for Harvard's contention that backing up the admission deadline to the regular January or December deadline will alleviate college search scurrying among high school juniors--to that I add... puulease.