Universities Weblog

(Source: University of Virginia)

On the heels of similar decisions at Harvard and Princeton, the University of Virginia has dropped its early admissions program, citing disadvantages for low-income students.

"This action is an effort to remove an identified barrier to qualified low-income students and their families who have long believed that top-tier universities were not within their reach," said University President John T. Casteen III in a press release. "It is a logical next step in the ongoing effort to remedy flaws in the national and state systems of financial aid for needy students, to provide incentives for all students to pursue the most rigorous high school programs of which they are capable, and thus to qualify for admission to the top colleges, to broaden the range of economic diversity represented within the student body.

"It has become the case since about 1990 that few students from low-income families have applied for early decision," Casteen said. "The reasons are several, but in the end the effect of early decision nationally and here in Virginia appears to be that the opportunity that early decision has represented has come somehow to be the property of our most advantaged applicants rather than the common property of all applicants.

"The message is that the playing field is level for all who aspire to compete for admission, and thus that secondary schools everywhere should both promote enrollment in Advanced Placement and other top courses and encourage students who seize the challenge to apply to any college or university that might be their goal."

To hear more about UVA's decision, listen to this podcast featuring dean of admissions John Blackburn.

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