<p>The debate and discussion over early decision continue - this USA today article opens with Fitzsimmons' concerns as he prepares "to conduct Harvard's last review of early-admission applicants (the deadline is Nov. 1), he worries that the admissions "rat race" is destroying "the quality of the social fabric" in high schools. "It creates a pressure cooker," he says. And it's one reason Harvard is ending its early deadline." </p>
<p>Interesting that the University of Illinois flagship public Urbana-Champagne is giving up rolling admissions in favor of an early decision program.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.oar.uiuc.edu/future/freshmen/dates.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.oar.uiuc.edu/future/freshmen/dates.html</a></p>
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Colleges don't relish the idea of federal oversight. But the commission in a way reinforces other recent efforts to steer the conversation away from what is the "best college" toward what college is best for a particular student.</p>
<p>For Ken Fox, a counselor at Ladue Horton Watkins High School in St. Louis, that has been a struggle. "What I care about is helping students understand that the list of good schools out there is really big," he says. "That's an education process, helping families understand that a school they may not have heard of may be exactly the right place."</p>
<p>Now, more key players are joining the conversation. One of the most prominent is the Education Conservancy, a fledgling non-profit in Portland, Ore., that convened a closed-door meeting last summer aimed at reforming admissions.</p>
<p>It's too soon to say what the group will come up with, although its vision differs from the one Spellings outlined. She wants a database that tracks performance; conservancy founder Lloyd Thacker says the "benefits and predictors of a good education are ... virtually impossible to measure."</p>
<p>What's notable is that his meeting included presidents of 11 colleges (Swarthmore, Williams and Amherst, to name three) that all benefit from the prestige factor.</p>
<p>That's important because presidents have the most influence with their trustees, alumni and other constituents who have an interest in rankings. And collective goodwill is critical, Thacker says, because colleges generally have been reluctant to make big changes unless others do, too, for fear it would hurt their ability to compete.</p>
<p>"Higher education has not been good at looking at (admissions) as a systemic issue," says Christopher Allen, admissions dean at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., whose president participated in the summer session. "Part of this has to be educating the right people."</p>
<p>Thacker's premise has doubters. "The new truth about the college admission process is that decisions to admit students ... are business decisions that reflect institutional values," Peter Van Buskirk, former dean of admission at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., writes in an essay for online magazine insidehighered.com. He blames society's "neurotic obsessions with having or being the 'best' ... the best appliances, the best cars, the best vacations — and the best colleges, often at the expense of good values that would be more appropriate choices."</p>
<p>A boost from doctors</p>
<p>Van Buskirk's comments are echoed by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Noting an increased campus demand for mental health services, it declared in a report this month that adolescents "may have learned that the endpoint goal — the best school or the best job — must be reached at all costs."</p>
<p>Now, more college admissions officials also appear to recognize their role in causing stress. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, for example, is mailing admission notices on only two dates this year rather than notifying each student as soon as a decision is made. That "caused a lot of anxiety in other students," says assistant admissions director Gregg Perry. "They would (try) to figure out why (they had not) heard yet. They would discuss the issue with their counselors, call admissions, talk to their friends. ... Just when the anxiety would die down, another friend would get a notice and start the angst all over again."</p>
<p>Colleges don't always change their ways by choice. The National Association for College Admission Counseling, a non-profit membership group, this month put the kibosh on "deadline creep," as some call it, because it was concerned that some colleges were pressuring students to apply even before their senior year, and in some cases waiving application fees or promising priority housing.</p>
<p>High school counselors have long been concerned that binding early deadlines were rushing teens. Though early deadlines can simplify the process for students who are certain where they want to go, many students aren't sure but think they should apply anyway.</p>
<p>"Middle adolescence is characterized by exploring, changing and rethinking likes, dislikes, interests, values — their identity — and then imagining in what milieu this morphing identity will best belong," says Patty Kovacs, a college counselor at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. "For an early-decision applicant, it means locking into that future identity."
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<p><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-10-24-tuition-dcover_x.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-10-24-tuition-dcover_x.htm</a></p>