It doesn't look as though many more schools are jumping on the bandwagon that started with Harvard's decision last month to end early decision. Princeton, Virginia, North Carolina...and that's about it so far. While I may have missed some and a few schools will certainly follow suit in the months and years ahead, it appears that early admissions is here to stay.

The final impact? Not much. Harvard's plan wasn't binding anyway; Princeton merely joined Harvard and Yale as not having a binding early decision policy.

Unless a lot of schools change policies, colleges ending early admissions will find themselves losing applicants to other colleges' early admissions programs. So expect them to be skeptical and cautious.

Friday October 6, 2006