The majority of respondents - 73 percent - said they believe Brown should offer an early admission program to the College, while only 15 percent said the University should not offer early admission. Another 12 percent said they had no opinion or did not answer. The poll was conducted from Jan. 29 to Feb. 2 and has a margin of error of 4.7 percent with 95 percent confidence.
The University currently offers high school students the opportunity to apply early decision in the fall - the deadline is traditionally Nov. 1. Early applicants hear back from the University in mid-December and are required to attend the College if they are admitted.
Early applicants constitute 36 percent of the class of 2010 and were admitted at a rate of 22.7 percent, compared to the class' overall acceptance rate of 13.8 percent.
Early admission has received extensive attention since Harvard University decided last September to discontinue its single-choice early action program, which did not require admitted students to commit to attending Harvard. In the following weeks Princeton University and the University of Virginia followed suit and terminated their binding early admission programs.
Harvard, Princeton and UVa's decisions were primarily in response to concerns that early admission disproportionately benefits applicants with more resources and knowledge about college admission.
"Early admission programs tend to advantage the advantaged. Students from more sophisticated backgrounds and affluent high schools often apply early to increase their chances of admission, while minority students and students from rural areas, other countries and high schools with fewer resources miss out," said interim Harvard President Derek Bok in a Sept. 12 news release.
Princeton presented similar reasons for its decision. "Less than 10 percent of the entire pool of students applying for financial aid were in the early-decision pool. We had similar findings for students of color, and we simply didn't think it was fair. We didn't want to continue to have a process for applicants who were privileged and could therefore get to us first," wrote Princeton spokeswoman Cass Cliatt in an e-mail to The Herald.
Dean of Admission James Miller '73 said the Office of Admission recently reconsidered early admission in light of other universities' actions. "When Harvard and Princeton made their announcements, it was an impetus for everybody to go and take a look at their programs, and we did. I know we're very happy with our early decision program, and we have no plans to alter it."
Miller said many students are ready to make decisions about which college they want to attend by the early admission deadline.
"Early decision gives students who have made up their minds a chance to get into the college application process and to make a decision relatively early in their senior year," Miller said. "It doesn't make a lot of sense to make people wait until April when they know where they want to go by December."
"We have early decision as opposed to early action because we see it as a clear commitment on the part of both parties. We are willing to extend to (students) the opportunity for an early decision and, in exchange, we expect that to be a firm and clear decision on (their) part," Miller said.
Most students interviewed by The Herald said they support having the early admission program.
"It gives students who really feel passionately about coming to Brown a chance to dedicate their time early on to the application," said Laith Kadasi '10. "It's an easy way to distinguish the students who have Brown as a top choice from those who are applying to all the Ivies and who haven't researched Brown."
But some students said they oppose the program.
"I think that the early admission process runs counter to the Brown idea of taking time to explore one's options and have academic flexibility," said Alex Cox '08.
Many students said they doubt early admission substantially disadvantages lower-income students and minorities.
"I think early decision is great. I myself am on financial aid, and at the same time I was accepted early. It didn't affect me," said Sonya Mladenova '09.
"I'm not quite sure why a lower income would lead to not knowing about your different admissions options," said Andrew Ahn '08.
Other students said they think early admission does favor applicants from certain backgrounds.
"Coming from a very upper-middle-class public school, early admission was on the tip of everybody's tongue. But that's certainly not the case with some family (members) of mine who go to school in rural districts," said Steve Hazeltine '09.
Other students said they favored alternate solutions to the under-representation of particular groups. Gillian Heinecke '07 said she knew Harvard had dropped its program in an effort to increase representation of minority students, but she questioned whether ending early admission was the best strategy. "I think that it would be more productive to do campaigning in other ways to get more minority applicants," she said.
Princeton and Harvard students interviewed by The Herald had mixed feelings about their schools' decisions.
"I consider it a noble attempt to try and bring diversity, but I question its effectiveness, at least from the arguments I've seen for it," said Princeton freshman Tim Branigan. "They really didn't provide much statistical evidence saying early admission hurts diversity."
Other students said dropping early admission was a move in the right direction. "I thought it was a good decision as I thought that the policy only benefited those with the resources and means to apply early," said Harvard freshman Geoff Smith. "I thought it was something that other institutions should follow and in some cases did follow."
But Brown students were not eager for the University to follow Harvard, UVa and Princeton's lead. "What other schools do shouldn't really dictate how Brown runs its admission process," Kadasi said.
