The National Association for College Admission Counseling, an organization of professionals that includes primary school counselors and college admissions officers, at its annual conference last weekend officially voted to allow its member colleges to adopt “single-choice early action” policies.

The admission policy, which is non-binding, has already been adopted at some top-tier colleges and universities, including Stanford.

Last weekend’s vote “eased recent tensions between [the association] and the three high-profile institutions that had been in violation of the association’s previous guidelines,” according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Harvard’s dean of admissions and financial aid told the Chronicle that the university would have considered leaving the association if its admissions guidelines had not changed.

According to Stanford’s admissions department Web site, “The Stanford Early Action option is designed to honor the original intent and spirit of early admission programs — to serve those students who have clearly identified a first-choice school.”

The current Stanford policy allows students to learn about their admission decision in December instead of April, but they do not have to commit to attending Stanford before hearing from other schools they applied to under the regular admission timeframe.

However, they may not apply to any other school early.

This year’s freshman class was the first at Stanford to be affected by the early action policy. Prior to last year, the University used a binding “early decision” policy, which had been criticized at many schools nationwide as being overly restrictive.

After the policy change, Stanford received 62 percent more early applications last year, as reported in The Daily on Nov. 14 of last year.