The resulting boom in early admission applicants stretched Brown to the limit, and now Brown is thinking about dropping the non-binding option. The George Street Journal's Mark Nickel discussed the issue recently with Michael Goldberger, Brown's director of admission. Brown has always felt philosophically that early action would provide students with the most options. During their senior year in high school, kids mature and change and are exposed to new things. We've offered early action to make sure applicants can choose the school that is the best match.
Early decision locks a kid in.
About a year ago, the national Association of College Admissions Counselors told us that our policy of limiting kids to only one early-action college was not permissible. We were obliged to change our rules so that kids could apply to more than one early-action institution. That led to a dramatic growth in early action applications. It also led to a change in philosophy. Students used to apply early action because they were pretty sure they had found the school where they wanted to be.