A growing number of colleges are following the path of UNC-Chapel Hill and doing away with binding early decision, according to Thomas Griffin, director of undergraduate admissions.
Several colleges including Harvard, Princeton and the University of Virginia have decided to eliminate early admission starting this fall, which could cause a shift in applications this year.
N.C. State has early action, a nonbinding early admittance, that allows prospective students to find out if they are accepted early but still gives them until May 1 to make a decision, according to Griffin.
“The benefits of early decision are clearly on the side of the college because I don’t feel like it benefits most students to tie them into a contract,” Griffin said. “N.C. State cares more about its students.”
According to Griffin, UNC-CH is the only UNC school system school that has had binding early admission, and it moved away from it years ago.
“While early decision mainly benefits the University, early action has the most benefits for prospective students and universities,” Griffin said. “We don’t want to tie students’ hands to not be considered for other schools and opportunities that might be available to them.”
Sarah McElveen, a senior in business management, said that she didn’t apply to schools with binding admissions because she wanted her options open.
“N.C. State’s early action is good for students,” McElveen said. “In most cases, I would assume it would entice students to apply early because they will know sooner but still have time to decide.”
According to McElveen, by having binding early decision, some students would be more hesitant to apply early to these colleges.
According to Griffin, many of the private schools still use early decision because it makes the yield — the percentage of accepted students who actually enroll — practically 100 percent. Yield is often used to determine ratings for colleges.
“We are a land grant institution and we’re here to serve the people,” Griffin said.
N.C. State’s early action policy provides students a chance to apply as early as fall of their senior year, and hear back at one of the four notification dates, according to Griffin.
“N.C. State has never had early decision,” Griffin said. “N.C. State has always been less interested in manipulating ratings and more concerned with serving students.”
Chris Dildy, a senior in computer engineering, said he did not apply to any schools with early decisions, but that he would have done early decision with N.C. State because it was his first choice.
“I don’t think binding decision is fair to students,” Dildy said. “Things change from the time you are a senior in high school until that magical fall semester such as financial or family related things.”
Danielle Gruley, a junior in communication, said she didn’t apply to any binding early decision schools because she didn’t know where she wanted to go and didn’t want to make any commitments beforehand.
“It’s a good policy to have until May to decide because then you have the opportunity to find out more about each school you get into and also visit them if you want,” Gruley said. “College is a big decision and it should be researched before you commit to something.”
