Should colleges continue early admissions? and why or why not?

Question

articles or anything pertaining to the subject would be great! :)

Answer 1

Early admissions favor people who already have financial aid lined up, and it favors the college when it comes time to talk about financial aid.

The reason is simple - by forcing the student to commit to their college, the college prevents the student from seeking competing offers from other colleges. If the student already has their education costs lined up, this is irrelevant - for example, a National Merit Scholar has significantly more bargaining power for financial aid than an average student.

Thus, the answer to your question depends heavily on:
1.) Whether you're asking from a college viewpoint or student viewpoint.
2.) Whether the student is attending a school that will provide enough financial aid (eg.: Harvard is free to children whose parents make less then 60K) or the student's educational costs are already taken care of, or the student is assured of gaining enough financial aid.
3.) Whether the student has a strong preference for the school in question (since you're bound to the decision).

As a note, Early Action is similar to Early Admission, but is usually non-binding - and thus the student retains bargaining room.

Personally, I feel that early admissions programs are unfortunately weighted against lower-income students - lower income students should be able to have some alternative that protects their interests caused by their financial needs.