At the beginning of 2018, Syracuse University released a statement announcing that the university had received a record number of applications. It was also reported that early decision applications were at a record high, with a 1 percent increase in students of color applying to SU, year over year.

Kevin Camelo | Digital Design Editor

CollegeData indicates that 66 percent of students who applied to SU through early decision were admitted, while 52 percent of all applicants were admitted. There’s no question that the early decision application offers advantages.

But the commitment can come at a cost: Early decision eliminates the chance for applicants to compare financial aid packages of multiple colleges.

Applicants are contractually bound to the financial aid package that a school offers them. There’s always the option to withdraw from the early decision commitment if the financial aid package isn’t sufficient, but that leaves applicants behind in their college search. The time between when financial aid packages come in and new applications are due is short.

This isn’t all to say that colleges shouldn’t offer forms of application that give students a better chance of being admitted. The problem is that if colleges are going to offer advantageous applications, the options have to be available to all applicants. Syracuse’s commitment to inclusion and diversity will be nothing but words until their policies, such as their admissions process, reflect that.

Drew Carter, a senior broadcast journalism major, when considering his college option, decided he wanted to do whatever he could to get into the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. He decided to apply early.

“I was more than willing to sacrifice flexibility for a higher chance of security at a college that I liked,” Carter said.

It’s clear: This isn’t all to say that colleges shouldn’t offer forms of application that give students a better chance of being admitted. But if colleges are going to offer advantageous applications, the options have to be available to all applicants.

Schools such as Harvard and Yale have implemented restrictive early action applications that give a student a chance to indicate their first choice without having to take the financial risk that comes with early decision.

Early decision applications provide a key benefit to the schools that use them by offering a sense of stability — the process gives applicants a higher chance of getting in, but more importantly, it assures the school that they will receive a certain amount of students in a given year.

Schools, including SU, that offer early decision applications may be honest when they advertise their commitment to diversity and inclusion. However, things like the early decision application confirm that their own sense of stability is more important to them than their commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Nick Turner is a senior political science and policy studies major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at nturner@syr.edu.

Published on September 4, 2018 at 11:04 pm