College education is a huge investment.

To better understand the cost of college, you should think of college tuition as the aggregate cost of a four-year education. There is no point in thinking of the cost of college in annual terms since one year of college doesn’t do you much good. You need to earn a bachelor degree, which in most cases consists of four years. If a college charges an annual tuition of $30,000+, and $10,000 for room and board, and another $2,000 in fees, the total cost of a bachelor degree is at least $168,000. This number excludes books (which you will probably need), incidentals (like shampoo), and inevitable tuition increases.

In the end, you will probably spend at least $175,000 for a bachelor degree from a private college. It is remarkable how many people will commit to spending that much money on an education without knowing very much about the college, with little or no independent research, and with no guarantees. Imagine if you bought $150,000 worth of stock from a company without any independent analyses, without any SEC regulation, and without any recourse if you later discover that the company prospectus did not disclose the whole truth. That would be crazy, wouldn’t it?

While $168,000 is a lot to ask a middle-class family to spend on something that has no guarantees, some colleges take this responsibility seriously, but many do not. There are colleges that continue to increase tuition and then spend $50,000 buying teak trash cans at $4,000 each.(No, I am not making this up.) Colleges have raised their tuition far above inflation annually for decades – all but one private college have raised their tuition fees every year for the past four decades. Many colleges continue to raise tuition despite the fact that they do not need the money.

To make the problem worse, colleges are increasingly offering loans instead of grants to students. In 1980, loans comprised about 20% of all financial aid; now, loans comprise about 80% of all financial aid. More recently, a few colleges, such as Princeton, have decreased or eliminated loans; most or all financial need will be met with grants instead of loans. But this trend is limited to a few very wealthy colleges. More than ever, most colleges expect students to borrow money and bear the brunt of these excessive, continuous tuition increases.

Today, the total tuition+room+board costs of the most expensive private colleges are mind-boggling: Sarah Lawrence $54,410; NYU $51,991, George Washington $51,730; Bates College$51,300; Skidmore College $51,196, Johns Hopkins University $51,190, and the relative bargain Princeton University at $47,020 (making it only the 96th most expensive U.S. college).

Currently, there are over 100 colleges that have a 4-year total cost of over $200,000 – that’s just slightly under the 2010 median new home sale price of $222,600. Those $200k colleges include all the Ivies and every highly desirable private college in the country (Duke, U. Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore).

Colleges expect you to pay a lot, and they will expect you to graduate with $20,000 (or more) in debt; you should keep these numbers in mind as you investigate colleges. Be aggressive and thorough in your research.

So colleges are wildly expensive and making an informed decision is difficult, but there are many things you can do to alleviate the cost and obtain good information.

“You want to know what I look for in a college? Hot chicks in the view book. If there are lots of
babes in the view book, I apply.”

Parents and students are swamped with information about colleges: college directories,
magazines, and view books all offer a variety of facts and figures. Some of the information is
useful, much of it is useless, and occasionally it’s simply inaccurate.

Here is a list of things that matter when considering colleges:

Location. Geography will play an important role in the college selection process. First, you
should narrow down the parts of the country where you would be interested in attending
college: Northeast (New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and New England), Mid-Atlantic
(northern Virginia to Delaware), South (Mid-Virginia to Florida and west to the Mississippi),
Midwest (Ohio west to the Dakotas and south to Kansas), Southwest (Texas and environs), West
(California north to Washington and east to Colorado).

Here’s a rough sketch of some characteristics of each area:

Northeast. The Northeast is the powerhouse of private universities. Without a doubt, the
Northeast has the most impressive collection of private colleges anywhere in the world, from
small and distinguished Williams, Amherst, & MIT to the eight coveted Ivy League colleges. Most of the
colleges have the “classic college” look—beautiful campuses with red brick or neo-Gothic
buildings. The exceptions to the “classic campus” aesthetic are the several Northeast colleges that are in
cities, often in undesirable neighborhoods (Yale, Vassar, Columbia, Penn).

Northeastern colleges are known for their long-standing traditions, century-old rivalries, and
famous alumni. The Northeast’s failure is in its public colleges—dollar-for-dollar they are
probably the worst collection of public colleges in the country. (The reason is obvious: unlike
the rest of the country, the Northeast only recently saw the need for public colleges due to the
overwhelming success of its private colleges.) If you’re looking for a college in the Northeast,
it’s advisable to stick with a private one.

Mid-Atlantic. These colleges range from Johns Hopkins, a school so focused on its graduate
research that the founding president didn’t even want undergraduates, to St. Johns, a great-books
school greatly concerned with the undergraduate education. The Mid-Atlantic is mostly known
for its DC-area schools: Georgetown, George Washington, American, Catholic, U. Maryland
at College Park, and George Mason. If you’re interested in politics, policy, or law, these Mid-
Atlantic schools may be right for you.

South. Despite its unearned reputation for being backward, the South is the powerhouse of
public universities: University of Virginia, College of William and Mary, University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Florida, New College, and James Madison University.
There are also many well-known private schools: Duke, Washington & Lee, Wake Forest,
Davidson, Vanderbilt, Emory, Tulane, University of the South, and the University of Richmond.

The private schools in the south, with the exception of Duke and Emory, tend to be more
traditional (meaning you can’t major in the History of the Toilet in Southwest Mongolia). Many
southern schools still maintain “old south” traditions such as formal dances and honor codes. Many Southern schools still require that students dress in formal attire for football games. If
you’re looking for a good public school or a traditional private school, the south is the place for
you.

Midwest. The Midwest has an eclectic bunch of schools, the powerhouse being Rockefeller’s
baby, the University of Chicago. The Midwest also has U. Michigan (50,000+ students and
counting), the best overtly Protestant college in Wheaton, and some wonderful private schools
like the Ivy-caliber Northwestern, the remarkable Hillsdale, and the excellent Kenyon. Most
private Midwest colleges tend to be conservative/traditional, reflecting the values of the people
of the Midwest, while most Midwestern public schools have vocational tendencies that focus on
the “useful.”

Midwestern colleges offer a big advantage to you if you don’t live in the Midwest: they are
eager to attract non-Midwestern students. There simply aren’t many students from the Northeast,
South, or West dying to attend college in Illinois or Ohio, so geography may be to your
advantage.

Southwest. The Southwest has the University of Texas at Austin, Rice, SMU and others. There
are many other respectable schools, from Texas A&M to Kansas’ two universities (Kansas
State and U. Kansas), but it’s rare that a competitive student from outside the state would be
interested in them. Both UT-Austin and Rice are good schools; UT-Austin’s big advantage is the
city of Austin (the so-called live music capitol of the world).

West. The West’s strength is obvious: technology. From Stanford to Cal-Tech, technology is
king. The West’s other strength is Hollywood. UCLA and USC both have excellent film and
entertainment-related programs. (The other big-hitter in the film-entertainment field, and one
of the best undergraduate schools in the country for film, is NYU.) The West’s weakness is
traditional, student-focused, liberal arts and humanities-based education (small classes, real
professors, actual discussions—no 400-student classes).

It’s unfortunate that with all the wealth and the intelligent students in the West, it has no
equivalent to Yale or Princeton. Reed, Pomona, and Colorado College are probably the West’s
best liberal arts colleges. If you’re considering Colorado College, you should keep in mind that
it’s one of only two colleges in the country where students take only one course at a time.

Other Considerations. There are other geographical considerations, such as weather,
accessibility, and distance from home. The best way to assess these issues is to visit the campus
during the academic year to determine whether you can withstand the cold of Cornell or the
bucolic cow-tipping plains of Notre Dame. You also need to decide if you would prefer an urban,
suburban, or rural school. Many students have both Cornell and NYU on their list of schools,
and if they truly like one, they will probably dislike the other. Cornell is quite rural- hours from
anything. While NYU is the ultimate urban college—so urban it doesn’t even have a campus.

Most students strongly prefer small, suburban or urban campuses with traditional buildings.
Nearly every study of campus community finds that small, private, rural colleges with traditional
campuses (like Dartmouth) have the strongest communities. Similarly, NYU’s high freshman
dropout rate is no doubt due in part to its ultra-urban environment: many students find out the
hard way that they’d prefer a school with a traditional campus. While there’s nothing more
exciting than an urban campus – NYU, Columbia, Yale, Georgetown – you should be very
careful choosing an urban school because the overwhelming majority of students prefer a
traditional campus. (An aside: Georgetown’s campus is somewhat traditional, though small, and
DC really isn’t a typical big city, but Georgetown does have unattractively modern high-rise
dorms.)

Visiting the campus will also give you a feel for the surrounding community. For example,
you will want to assess whether or not a car will be necessary (as they are at many large public
colleges). If the campus and surrounding community are small enough so that everything
is within walking distance, a car may actually be cumbersome. You will find that on many
campuses you will be required to park a great distance from your dorm, and countless college
seniors have tales of enormous parking tickets and fines that had to be paid before they could
graduate. And finally, the primary crime committed at colleges is theft, so the fewer valuables
you bring to college, the better—and the most valuable thing you can bring is your car.

Assessing the larger community in which a college is located seems relevant, but the importance
of such an assessment can be overrated. For example, many students who decline to consider
Vanderbilt because they think Nashville is “too Southern.” While this may be true, it’s difficult
to subscribe to the notion that one should discount a college because the larger community—the
surrounding neighborhood—may be undesirable.

If one followed this advice, one would discount colleges ranging from USC and UC Berkeley
to Chicago, Penn, Vassar, Columbia, Yale and numerous others because of the undesirability of
the surrounding neighborhoods. There is a balance between judging the college on its own merits
and gauging the safety and vitality of the surrounding neighborhoods, but it’s unproductive to
discount a college a priori because “Nashville is too Southern” or “New Haven is a rust-belt
town.” Those comments may be true, but it could still also be true that the college that’s perfect
for you is Vanderbilt.

This is not to imply that the surrounding town shouldn’t be considered: certainly, there are
exciting places to live (Boston, New York, Atlanta) and boring places to live, and this should be
factored in after you consider the college on its own merits.

Size. Colleges range from the small (Swarthmore, Drew, Colby, Kenyon, Pomona, Haverford, Stonehill),
to the medium (Yale, Princeton, Lehigh, Boston College), to the large (Penn, Cornell, NYU),
to the ridiculous (UT Austin, U. Michigan, U. Florida, Purdue). Small colleges are those that
have fewer than 4,000 students. There are many colleges, such as New College (FL), that have
considerably fewer than 2,000 students (your high school may have more students!). Medium
colleges range from 4,000 to 9,000 students; large have 9,000 to 20,000 students, and the
ridiculous have more than 20,000 students (sometimes over 30,000).

The size of the college can be crucial as it may be the difference between a personal learning
experience and an indifferent education factory. You will be a number at Michigan State – what
else would you expect from a college with nearly 50,000 students? (The average town in the
United States is smaller.) In fact, most small and medium colleges believe that the size of the
student body is so important that they work very hard to keep their colleges small: Williams and
Hamilton could admit twice as many students, but they don’t because they believe that a small
student body is vital to their educational mission.

If you don’t mind being a number and taught by graduate students, then save your money and attend a large public university. At a large university, you will be responsible for educating yourself and will save a lot of money. But if
you prefer small classes, interactive professors, and personal attention, then you should consider
small colleges. Keep in mind that one of the primary reasons you wish to apply to a private
college is to be a part of a community, which means that it makes no sense to apply to a large
private college. The best way to get a feeling for the size of the college is to visit the campus
during the academic year. It’s important to visit while the students are still there.

Reputation. According to a recent survey, the top college selection criterion of college freshmen
was “reputation.” What does this mean? No one knows. The reputation of a college is some
witches brew concocted from your parents’ advice, your friends’ opinions, something you
heard on the radio, something your older sister once said, a few reviews you read in books, a
silly “Best Party School” survey, a comment made by your college counselor, and the record
of the college’s basketball team. There are no relevant measurements of reputation and no
guidelines regarding this criterion that seems so important to high school students.

And yet sometimes, nothing else matters but the college’s reputation. Harvard is the #1 college
brand name in the world, so Harvard does not need to be concerned with the quality of its
undergraduate education because it knows the brand will sell. You will probably get a better
education at St. John’s College or Washington & Lee, but it’s hard to turn down the prestige
of a Harvard degree. If you’re going to college for an education, then be aware that sometimes
the top “brands” have the lowest quality (because they’re not selling quality; they’re selling the
brand name). If you’re going to college in order to go to grad school or get a high-paying job
right after graduation, then the college’s reputation will be important. Think of blue jeans: if you
wish to quickly impress someone, you will buy over-priced designer jeans; but if you want jeans
that will last, you will probably buy less expensive but more durable jeans. The reputation of the
label doesn’t necessarily correspond to the quality of the material.

Colleges have other types of reputations: male-friendly, extremist, low-school spirit, great parties, and so forth. Many of these reputations are earned. For example, colleges such as
Antioch, Brown, Dartmouth, and U. Michigan (Ann Arbor) all have reputations for being
antagonistic towards men. For example, Antioch has a campus rule that requires “willing and
verbal consent” at each stage of intimacy (sort of like getting someone to sign a waiver as you
round the bases). Such a rule results in a very stilted, abnormal environment for relationships.
(Frankly, it’s just weird. And perhaps not unrelated, Antioch shut down in 2008 … they hope to
re-open in Fall 2011.)

Other schools have reputations for being male-friendly (Davidson, Princeton, Vanderbilt,
Washington and Lee). Some schools are known for poor (or no) school spirit (Emory), others
known for being traditional (Hampden-Sydney), and still others get a bad reputation for banning
file-sharing even when it’s legal (NYU). It’s worth noting and investigating these reputations;
usually, they have a bit of truth to them.

Social Life. There are two sides to your college experience: academic and social. This may seem
obvious, but too many students (and parents) don’t fully consider the social side. College will
be a place you will live for four years, learn a lot, and (hopefully) grow up. The environment
that surrounds you is vital to your success—it should be a place you love and enjoy. It’s not
surprising that students who don’t like the social climate of their college often do not perform
very well academically.

So how do you find out about the social life at a college? Well, it’s impossible to really know
until you live there (as it’s impossible to really know what any place is like unless you live
there). It’s useless to ask the admissions office (they’ll say, “It’s great! We just spent ten billion
dollars on a new gym complete with a dozen coed clothing-optional hot tubs!”). The first step
is to visit the campus and stay overnight if possible. Talking to people you know who recently
attended the school is sometimes helpful, but it can be prejudicial. If your older friend is at Wake
Forest and hates it, that means that Wake Forest isn’t right for your friend. This information may
not apply to you (unless you’re exactly like him). It’s foolish to say, “I’m not applying to Brown
because my friend goes there and she hates it.” The opinions of students and recent alumni are
potentially helpful, but they are also only one piece of the puzzle.

Staying overnight, attending classes, going to parties, and loitering around the campus on a
Friday and Saturday during the school year can be very helpful. You should be able to get a good
feel for campus social life. For example, you may discover that everyone deserts the campus
during weekends and goes to the nearest big city (which isn’t conducive to building a close
community) or you may find that most stay on campus and party (New College, Dartmouth),
which tends to build friendships (and rumors).

Campus clubs and organizations are also a sign of campus life. However, it’s important that
you actually investigate the club’s activities. Nearly every college view book or directory lists
dozens (if not hundreds) of clubs ranging from the Eco-Lesbians for Dolphin-Safe Tuna Club to
the Libertarian Student Union (not to mention a newspaper, College Republicans, Rugby club,
and so forth). However, many of these clubs may only exist on paper. You may find out that
the club in which you’re interested is, in fact, only two boring anthropology majors who meet
once a semester over a pizza, or the campus newspaper is only one guy with a camera. While
on campus, seek out the leaders of the club(s) in which you’re interested, and talk to them. If
possible, attend a club event. The admissions office should give you the information you need.
By directly investigating the vitality of clubs, you will get a decent idea of campus life.

***Check out the article “Frat Life & Campus Culture” for more on social life!***

Recently, the U.S. Education Department created a website for campus crime statistics, but the statistics on that web site are jumbled and, in many cases, clearly inaccurate (in the past three years Brown reported only one drug and no liquor violations – does anyone believe that’s accurate?). Colleges sometimes claim that the reporting process is too confusing or that they didn’t have enough time to “add up the numbers.” The same people who are responsible for organizing the lives of tens of thousands of undergraduates can’t seem to add 500 (or so) arrests made for weapons and drug charges. More than one government official has suggested that colleges are less than interested in reporting accurate crime statistics (despite the laws that require them to do so and the $25,000 per instance fine if they don’t).

Even when faced with expensive fines, universities may try to trim some crime incidents off their numbers. In the spring of 2011, The Department of Education found that Yale University “violated several federal regulations — which include a mandate to report all sex offenses to the government — at the end of a nearly seven year-long investigation into the Yale Police Department last week. Now Yale could face punishment ranging from fines to reduced federal funding for student aid as a result… Yale violated the Clery Act when it failed to properly compile and disclose crime statistics. The University also failed to comply with the timely warning and crime log requirements and improperly defined campus boundaries. Additionally, Yale failed to report accurate crime statistics for the Medical School and Yale-New Haven Hospital. Required policy statements were also omitted from campus security reports.

The only way to get reasonably accurate information about crime on campus is to have an
informed college counselor who can get his or her hands on the statistics. Colleges are required
by federal law to provide a crime summary to those who ask for it, but they often make this
process cumbersome and lengthy. For example, they may require you to request the crime report in writing. Usually, the easiest thing to do is to ask for the crime summary while you’re visiting. (By the way, the FBI refers to it as “crime” whereas most colleges refer to it as “security.”)

College campuses are usually very safe, but they can also be prime targets for criminal activity.
For example, thieves take advantage of the close-knit community and relaxed security on some
college campuses to easily steal televisions and stereos. Crime matters for one simple reason:
most teenagers have yet to develop the responsibility necessary to avoid being a victim. Parents worry; the suburbs are safe; the house and car have alarm systems. None of this may be true on a college campus. (Parents may still worry, but they won’t lock the dorm door each night.)

The most dangerous college campuses tend to be large public universities such as Michigan
State and UC Berkeley. Campuses can also be dangerous because of their neighborhoods.
Most colleges, particularly private colleges, are very aware of the potential for crime on their
campuses and in their communities and usually employ private security firms.

Many colleges, such as UC Berkeley and U. Miami, suffer from being in or near unsafe
neighborhoods and being either powerless or unwilling to do anything about the crime in the
area. What is often most disturbing about this situation is that, often, the college owns and
controls much of the real estate surrounding the campus. For example, there is a park near the
UC Berkeley campus that is a notorious home for all sorts of derelicts, alcoholics and drug-
dealers. Although many students have asked Berkeley to do something about this problem, the
college has refused; this is particularly galling when one considers that the college actually owns the park.

You will want to make sure you feel safe and comfortable at college (and that you will feel safe
parking your car, bringing your stereo, walking to class or club meetings at night). How do to
find out about the crime on and near campuses if colleges are so unwilling to be honest on this
subject? Visit the campus; walk around the campus and around the surrounding neighborhood at night. (Many colleges will offer to “shuttle” you to the campus in lieu of you driving yourself;
kindly decline this offer. Drive to the campus yourself. You should find out if the surrounding
neighborhoods are safe.)

While visiting the college, pick up both the college newspaper and the
local neighborhood’s newspaper; this will help you get a good idea if the area is “high crime.”
Often, the best people to talk to are the campus security guards. They are often not employed
directly by the college and have not undergone any training from the admissions office. In most
cases, they will be candid. While security guards don’t know what goes on in the classroom,
they usually have a very good idea of what campus life is like: crime, parties, emergencies, and
so forth. Finally, ask a few current students (who aren’t employed by the admissions office) and
recent grads about crime on campus.

One last word: the most common crime on campus is theft (mostly committed by other students). So I suggest not bringing anything highly valuable to campus until you’ve lived there at least one full semester. You need to get to know what your roommate, the campus, and the surrounding area.

Fraternities and sororities are often the cause of embarrassment, and admissions offices won’t be quick to share embarrassing information. Even at high-frat schools,the admissions office will give you some version of “There are frats if you’re interested, but there are numerous other social and living options for upperclassmen who aren’t interested in frats.” Translation: Frats are a big deal, and either you join one or you spend Friday night ordering pizza and watching Jersey Shore re-runs. How do you find out the truth? First, find a junior, senior, or recent graduate of the college, and ask them; unless they work for the admissions office, they will usually give you a fair and reasonable answer. Second, ask the admissions office what percent of upperclassmen (juniors and seniors) join fraternities and sororities. You can then take this number and compare it with the other colleges you’re considering.

You should translate the answer like this:
• Less than 20% of upperclassmen in frats and sororities: not a big deal; substantial social life exists outside of frats.
• 20%-30%: not bad, but you will probably “loose” some freshmen friends to frats unless you join too.
• 30%-50%: not much social life outside of frats; you will want to join one (or get a satellite dish to amuse yourself while all your friends are at frat parties).
• Over 50%: frat city; you should either love frats or not apply to this college.

Whether or not you would like to join a fraternity is a complex question. While many fraternities are of the Animal House variety, colleges are aggressively trying to reform the Greek scene by (typically) limiting or banning kegs, restricting alcohol during rush weeks, punishing hazing/initiation rites, and often requiring parties to be registered and/or monitored. The social life the Greeks engender usually is of the superficial, Mardi Gras sort, but they do tend to provide some semblance of community at large universities where there otherwise is little.

It’s also worth noting that frat culture can vary greatly from college to college and region to region. Fraternities in the South are much less Animal House and much more country-club and usually have a strong (and serious) emphasis on community service. It’s also not unusual for southern fraternities to have black-tie events, sometimes several per year. Of course, they also sometimes have dress-as-your-favorite-Confederate-soldier events.

Another question to ask admissions offices and current students is whether or not a large number of students stay on-campus or in town over the summer. Usually, if a large number of students stick around over the summer, then the college and/or the town have developed a desirable collegiate community. It’s a bit suspect if all the students immediately evacuate the campus and town once final exams are over: what’s wrong that everyone is so interested in getting out?

And finally, the political climate on campus may affect the social life of the community. Political activists on college campuses have birthed untold inanities, from protesting the campus newspaper by stealing and destroying all the copies (Cornell) to requiring students to sign a “dating agreement” prior to going on a date which spells out what each person can and cannot expect from the other (Antioch). And in many cases, the professors on campus tend to be activists, chasing the latest theoretical fad and exorcising the newest demon in society. Some campuses are notoriously activist – Stanford, UC-Berkeley, U. Michigan, Duke. You can ask current students and recent graduates about the political climate, but this may be fruitless because different people will have different opinions: the liberal activist may think the UCBerkeley campus isn’t political enough. You should pick up a copy of the campus newspaper when you visit, and hopefully you have a well-informed counselor who can teach you the ways of campus politics.

When in 2006 Harvard and Princeton announced they would end their early admissions programs, both universities claimed it would make the admissions process more socioeconomically equitable.

“Officials from both universities were concerned that low-income students would not want to put themselves in situations in which they were unable to compare financial aid offers,” claimed David Hawkins, director of public policy and research at the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

Prior to eliminating their early admission programs, Harvard offered Early Action and Princeton Early Decision. Early Decision (ED) allows high school seniors whose sights are set on a certain school to apply by early November and receive an admission decision by mid-December. This decision is binding, so students cannot apply early to any other schools and must accept an offer of admission if granted.

Early Action (EA) often includes the stipulation of single-choice, meaning you cannot apply early anywhere else. However, students who apply through EA programs don’t have to accept an offer of admission, and can defer their decision until after receiving admission decisions from other colleges. This allows them to apply to other schools during the regular admissions process and compare financial aid packages before committing to a school in May.

Besides being done with the college search months ahead of peers, students enjoy other incentives associated with applying early. Acceptance rates tend to be two to three times higher for early applicants than for the regular applicant pool; however, admissions directors are adamant that higher admittance rates are indicative of strong early applicant pools—not weaker standards. Early decision programs still remain controversial due to the perceived advantage.

“What the research suggested is that applying early decision basically gave students a bump of something like 200 points on the SAT,” Hawkins said.

The ED bump could be a result of some colleges’ desire to improve their standing in U.S. News and World Report’s annual college rankings. Schools that aim to boost their ranking will manufacture lower admission rates (making them seem more selective) by accepting a greater percentage of their incoming class ED. Such maneuvering also creates higher yield percentages (% of the class admitted who matriculate), so the college can accept fewer applicants during the regular round because they have less seats to fill. Critics speculate that Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Pennsylvania saw a rise in their respective rankings because they aggressively practiced these tactics.

Research suggests that ED programs are mainly attractive to families not seeking financial aid, and, in fact, disadvantage those from less affluent families:

1) Applying ED precludes families from considering and comparing multiple colleges’ financial aid offers, thus preventing them from making the most fiscally responsible decision.

2) Peers without financial concerns could benefit from the apparent admission advantages associated with ED programs without worries about being bound to a certain college and its tuition expenses.

Dartmouth’s Dean of Admissions, Maria Laskaris, said low-income students are not disadvantaged by binding early decision programs at the College since Dartmouth offers “a very strong and comprehensive financial aid program.”

Harvard and Princeton reversed their early admission policies yet again in 2011—Harvard reinstated EA and Princeton adopted EA as well. Harvard feared it was losing top students to peer institutions that offered early admission—including “some of the best prepared low-income and underrepresented minority students”—according to Harvard Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences Michael Smith. Ironically, Harvard cited low-income and minority students as their main cause for eliminating EA in 2006 and for reinstating it in 2011.

Princeton had hoped that ending ED in 2006 would instigate an avalanche of academic institutions dropping their early admissions programs. Princeton’s President, Shirley Tilghman said, “In eliminating our early program four years ago, we hoped other colleges and universities would do the same and they haven’t. One consequence is that some students who really want to make their college decision as early as possible in their senior year apply to other schools early, even if their first choice is Princeton.”

Peer Ivy League institutions experienced a rise in applicants to their early admissions programs during the years that Harvard and Princeton had none, but the increase in early applications paralleled increasing application numbers in the regular decision pool. 2011 yielded a decrease in early admission applications to a few of Harvard and Princeton’s peers, namely Yale, Columbia, and UPenn. Each year prior to 2011 has been marked by record high application numbers and record low admission rates in both early and regular admission cycles.

Whether or not applying early increases your chances of admission may be left entirely to speculation, but it’s certainly nice to know your top-choice school’s decision earlier in the year. Dartmouth’s Dean of Admissions offered some insight about why a student might not apply ED.

“I think it’s a lack of readiness to apply early — some of that is lack of preparation in terms of schools and counselors helping students to begin to think about the college admissions process in a more timely fashion,” she said. “I think if you haven’t, for instance, gotten the majority of your standardized testing done by the end of your junior year, it’s tough to get an early decision application out the door.”