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Levin  \nWorking Paper 14844  \n[http://www.nber.org/papers/w14844](http://www.nber.org/papers/w14844)  \nNATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH  \n1050 Massachusetts Avenue  \nCambridge, MA 02138  \nApril 2009  \nThis paper developed out of work done independently by the authors, most importantly a paper by Avery titled \"Preferences and Signaling in a Matching Market.\" We thank Jeremy Bulow for suggesting a collaboration and providing detailed suggestions. Levin thanks the Toulouse Network on Information Technology for research support. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.  \nNBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peerreviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.  \n© 2009 by Christopher Avery and Jonathan D. Levin. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source.  \nEarly Admissions at Selective Colleges Christopher Avery and Jonathan D. Levin  \nNBER Working Paper No. 14844 April 2009  \nJEL No. C78,D82,I20  \nABSTRACT  \nEarly admissions is widely used by selective colleges and universities. We identify some basic facts about early admissions policies, including the admissions advantage enjoyed by early applicants and patterns in application behavior, and propose a game-theoretic model that matches these facts. The key feature of the model is that colleges want to admit students who are enthusiastic about attending, and early admissions programs give students an opportunity to signal this enthusiasm.  \nChristopher Avery Harvard University  \nJohn F. Kennedy School of Government  \n79 John F. Kennedy Street Cambridge, MA 02138 and NBER [chris_avery@harvard.edu](chris_avery@harvard.edu)  \nJonathan D. Levin Stanford University Department of Economics  \n579 Serra Mall  \nStanford, CA 94305-6072  \nand NBER  \n[jdlevin@stanford.edu](jdlevin@stanford.edu)  \n1 Introduction  \nApplying to college is an increasingly anxious and high-stakes process for many American families. Admission at the nationís elite universities has become extraordinarily competitive. In 2007-08, Harvard and Yaleís acceptance rates reached record lows of 7.1 and 8.3 percent, respectively, and Stanford, Princeton and Columbia all admitted fewer than one in ten applicants. Just a decade ago, acceptance rates at these schools were Öfty percent higher.1 At the same time, a large number of Americans have come to view admission to an elite university as a ticket to future success.2 Not surprisingly these developments have focused enormous attention on the college admissions process.  \nWe focus in this paper on a particular aspect of the process, the use of early admissions programs by selective schools. Though versions of early admissions have been used for many years, these programs have become ubiquitous in the last two decades. Over two-thirds of top colleges o§er some form of early admissions, and many schools Öll a sizeable fraction of their entering class with early applicants. Schools primarily use one of two types of early admissions programs: Early Action programs where students are accepted well before the standard March announcement date, but are not committed to enroll, and Early Decision programs where students commit to enroll if accepted.  \nParticipants in the market tend to focus on the relatively high rates of admission for early applicants. In 2007-08, for instance, Yale admitted 16.7 percent of its early applicants and Stanford 18.1 percent, about twice the rate for the regular pool. As we discuss below, some of the di§erence can be attributed to systematic di§erences between the early and regular pools of appli","cbCaiuFSISNved1T","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiuFSISNved1T","pdf",257865,38,"English","# Introduction\n## Key empirical patterns of early admissions\n## Early Action vs Early Decision\n## Proposed game-theoretic model","[{\"question\":\"What does the paper identify about early admissions policies?\",\"answer\":\"It identifies empirical facts about early admissions, including an admissions advantage for early applicants and behavioral patterns in how students apply.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the proposed model explain the role of early admissions?\",\"answer\":\"The model emphasizes that colleges want students who are enthusiastic about attending, and early admissions give students a way to signal that enthusiasm.\"},{\"question\":\"What distinction does the paper make between Early Action and Early Decision?\",\"answer\":\"Early Action involves acceptance well before the standard March date without commitment to enroll, while Early Decision requires commitment to enroll if accepted.\"}]","Early Admissions at Selective Colleges - NBER Working Paper 14844 | PDF",96]