The dust had barely settled on Harvard College's announcement that it was discontinuing its early action program next year before educators and worried parents began speculating about which elite schools might follow suit.

Not Stanford, said Dean of Admissions Richard Shaw, at least not for now.

"We gave lots of thought to implementing [our] system, and it's a pretty good one," he said.

But that was before yesterday, when Princeton dropped another bomb on the college admissions community and announced that it would follow suit and discontinue its binding, early application program in favor of a unitary applicant pool.

In Harvard's case, interim Harvard President Derek Bok cited the unfairness of early application programs to lower- and middle-income high school students as one of the reasons for ending its non-binding early application program.

"Early admission programs tend to advantage the advantaged," he said in a statement. "Students from more sophisticated backgrounds and affluent high schools often apply early to increase their chances of admission, while minority students and students from rural areas, other countries and high schools with fewer resources miss out."

And in what may be a signal that the tide is turning, Princeton University President Shirley M. Tilghman echoed Bok's words.

“We agree that early admission ‘advantages the advantaged,’” she said in a statement.

But Shaw said that he hasn't found that to be the case at Stanford.

"We've seen a rise in the diversity of the applicant pool early, and more and more kids who are first generation do apply early because it is non-binding," he said.

Harvard College currently employs a non-binding, single-choice early action program. Students who apply by November 1 are notified of their acceptance, rejection or deferral by December 15 and have until the first of May to make their college choice. Stanford switched to this same early admissions plan from a binding, early decision (ED) program for the 2003 application season in an effort to minimize the advantage more affluent students enjoyed.

Yet William R. Fitzsimmons, Harvard's dean of admissions and financial aid, argued that even early action has pitfalls.

"Even our non-binding program contributes to the pressures and inequities of the college admissions process," he said, noting that students from affluent families and high schools are more likely to be well informed and advised about early admissions.

Fitzsimmons said that applicants from lower- and middle-income families who are not as experienced with admissions processes receive less advice from college counselors and sometimes avoid even non-binding programs like Harvard's. Without sufficient college advising, many of these families do not distinguish between non-binding programs like Harvard's and Stanford's and binding early decision programs. The latter requires early applicants to commit to attending the school if they are accepted, no matter what amount of financial aid is offered.

But Shaw defended the University's early action program.

"I've looked at income distributions and it really does mirror to some extent what we see in the regular applicant pool," he said.

Shaw said that elite colleges would nevertheless consider the implications of Harvard's decision.

"I think the marketplace will respond, and we'll do that same and evaluate our early action program, but it's a very complex issue that demands thorough consideration," he said.

Richard Vos, dean of admission at Claremont McKenna College, which has a binding early decision program, said that the decision to eliminate early programs has been raised in the past.

"This has been a topic of discussion in the admissions community for a number of years," he said. "Every once in a while, at professional conferences, someone will stand up and say, 'This is horrible and we should do away with it.'"

But Vos said that private schools on the West Coast face a different set of challenges than do their East Coast counterparts.

"We are more fortunate for all kinds of reasons," Vos said, noting that Claremont's early decision pool and regular pool are equally diverse.

He added that early decision programs among colleges on the West Coast are not as heavily utilized as those offered by East Coast schools because many California students apply to the University of California system, which has no early program.

"Because students have to wait until mid-March to hear from the UCs anyway, they don't mind waiting until April 1 to hear from other colleges," he said.

Some members of Stanford's class of 2010, who most recently survived the application gauntlet, disputed that early action programs add unnecessary pressures.

"I wanted to get an application done early," said freshman Jack Lazarus. "I figured there was nothing to lose," he added, referring to the non-binding nature of the University's early action program.

"Of course it's less stressful when you know that you have already been accepted to Stanford when your friends haven't even heard back from any schools yet."