When Tufts Dean of Admissions Lee Coffin found out Tuesday morning that Harvard was ending its early admissions program, his response e-mail consisted of only three letters: "W-O-W."
Coffin wasn't the only college admissions officer doing a double take on Tuesday morning.
"It's one of the most profound developments in college admissions in the last 10 years," Coffin told the Daily. "It could potentially reorder things."
The earthquake was caused by Harvard's decision to end its early admissions program, making it the first elite school to do so.
Harvard had in place an Early Action policy, which is non-binding, unlike Early Decision policies. The decision to end the policy was announced in a press release on Tuesday from Harvard's interim president Derek Bok.
Harvard explains the shift by saying that Early Decision applicants tend to come from higher socio-economic classes than regular decision applicants, as applying early does not allow lower-income students to compare financial aid packages from different schools.
"Early admission programs tend to advantage the advantaged," Bok said in the press release. "Students from more sophisticated backgrounds and affluent high schools often apply early to increase their chances of admission, while minority students and students from rural areas, other countries, and high schools with fewer resources miss out."
Harvard's decision has been highly praised by high school guidance counselors and in the press. The New York Times editorial page said that "Harvard did the right thing by abandoning its early admissions program, the first elite college to do so. We hope other institutions follow its lead."
Now, admissions halls at almost every top university in the country are buzzing with the news and trying to figure out if they will, in fact, follow Harvard's lead - a prospect that is already being mentioned at Bendetson Hall.
"The word I've used is receptive," Coffin said. "We're receptive to it."
University President Lawrence Bacow is currently traveling in Asia, and so has not been able to discuss the news in depth with Coffin or others at Tufts.
"It is premature to speculate on what we might do before I have had a chance to speak to Lee [Coffin], Deans [Robert] Sternberg and [Linda] Abriola, the trustees, and others," Bacow said in an e-mail to the Daily. "We need to be thoughtful in approaching this important decision."
Still, Bacow's use of the word 'decision' may be revealing in and of itself, and his remarks show that the University will at the very least start thinking about the potential repercussions of such a move.
"When you're in a repositional moment with the sort of growth that Tufts is having right now, you have to ask, 'If we were to do it now, does it complement that growth?' In the ideal world, it's clearly worth studying," Coffin said. "Practically, I don't know."
Ending the early admissions program at Tufts would be consistent with a change the University made two years ago, when it decreased the portion of the Class of 2009 that was admitted early.
Forty-three percent of the Class of 2008 was admitted early. That number was reduced to approximately 32 percent in the Classes of 2009 and 2010.
Coffin cited many of the same reasons for Tufts' change that Harvard used in explaining its decision this year, including the notion that lower-income students are not as likely to apply early.
"It had a lot to do with it," Coffin said. "We were increasingly getting to a position in March where we were not as broadly diverse as we would have liked."
Williams College has also adapted its early decision policy over the last two years. The college began reaching out two years ago to actively recruit lower-income students to apply early decision.
"We have made lots of progress in increasing the number of early decision students on financial aid," Dick Nesbitt, Williams' Director of Admission, told the Daily.
Just like Tufts, Nesbitt said that Williams is very intrigued by the news out of Cambridge.
"We're in the discussion phase. We have in the past looked at [early decision] and haven't considered dropping it, but that will be a topic of conversation in meetings."
Kathy Lindsey, Associate Director of Admissions at Middlebury College, expressed a similar sentiment.
"We are very interested in this because it's going to prompt discussion and that's great," Lindsey said. "I can't speak for the President and the board, but we will be talking about it, and this is always good for an institution."
Coupled with all that interest, however, is a distinct sense of reserve. Harvard's decision has almost no downsides for Harvard, since almost everyone who is admitted to Harvard decides to attend.
That is not the case at other schools, and the question hovering in every admissions officer's mind right now is, "Would this be good for my school?"
"It's easier for an institution that has over an 80 percent yield - there's less of a cost there than for some other places," Nesbitt said.
"I work for Tufts," Coffin said. "Any policy decisions that we consider has to be evaluated in terms of the University's mission, policy, resources and forward growth."
Coffin presented a number of scenarios in which the idea of ending early admissions loses its luster, at least for Tufts.
"We are in a baby boom right now," Coffin said. "Imagine 2012, where there are no baby boomers, no early admissions and the economy tanks. Have we hurt Tufts by dropping early decision? The phrase President Bacow always uses is unintended consequences," he said.
"It could be that with no one committing early, now everyone is using financial aid as a carrot. That would be negative for Tufts if we couldn't compete, because our endowment isn't big enough."
"Colleges need to talk this through," Coffin continued. "Is this what we really want?"
For now, a wait-and-see attitude prevails.
"There's no way of knowing what might happen because we've done early decision for so long," Lindsey said. "My guess is that probably, if we were to change, it would be only if some of the other peer institutions were doing the same thing."
"It's almost like an avalanche," Nesbitt said. "Harvard was like a big rock that just fell down the hill. All the other rocks are sitting up there shaking. It will be interesting to see what happens."
