Other schools may now follow the lead of Harvard, Stanford, and Yale, though the practice is fuzzy enough that it could still cause confusion for some students. Harvard and Stanford, for instance, allow early applicants to also apply early action to public universities -- but not to other private ones.
Colleges and universities often have an early admissions round, allowing students to learn before the midway point of their senior year whether they got in. "Early decision" rounds forbid students from applying early elsewhere and make applicants promise to attend if accepted. "Early action" has traditionally let students apply early to one school but remain free to apply elsewhere in the regular round.
But the rules changed in 2001, when NACAC told its members who used early action that they had to allow applicants to apply early to other schools, too.
The change was intended to give applicants more freedom, but instead raised concerns it was intensifying gamesmanship by encouraging students to apply early -- even if they had not identified their top choice.
In response, Harvard said it wouldn't follow the NACAC guidelines. After adopting its version of single choice early action, early applications fell at Harvard, though William Fitzsimmons, the university's dean of admissions and financial aid, said he welcomed the decline if it indicated less hysteria among parents and applicants.
Stanford and Yale, which previously had more restrictive early decision programs, also went to single choice early action.
NACAC suspended the guidelines while it studied the matter, then approved the new policy last weekend.
Joyce Smith, the group's executive director, said NACAC members were concerned schools would begin leaving the organization rather than comply with the rules. She said the latest change recognizes "single choice early action" as a legitimate admissions program, but that work remains to define it more precisely.
"If you're trying to explain to the next group of juniors what single choice early action means and the definition keeps changing every year, it gets hard," she said.
NACAC's website lists 147 schools with some kind of early action program, 196 with early decision and 36 with both.
