Last week, Harvard University decided to drop its “early admission” program and strongly urged other elite colleges to follow. The call to change is working — Princeton made the same announcement just a few days ago. The change in policy is a positive sign that America’s elite institutions are actualizing their stated commitments to increase diversity in admissions and address issues related to financial aid. Perhaps Harvard was inspired by the University of Southern California, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Delaware and other institutions that have decided to drop their early admission or early action programs for the same reasons?

But just what are early admission programs and how do they affect low-income students? According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling’s “Statement of Principles of Good Practice,” there are three types of early choice plans. Early admission programs — like early action, early decision and restrictive early action programs — allow students to apply for early consideration at their first choice institution. However, early decision and restrictive early action policies prohibit students from applying to other early consideration programs. They may not require, but strongly encourage students to make nonrefundable enrollment deposits well before the national May 1^st college commitment date and well before students and parents receive financial aid offers.

Clearly, making a decision about college admission without a financial aid offer is a high-risk decision for families who can’t fully finance a four-year college degree. But it’s even more complicated for the poorest students — here are three reasons why. First, low-income students don’t know about early admission programs. Studies have shown that many low-income students don’t even understand the basics of admission and financial aid, much less the complicated tiered system of early action, restricted early action and early decision options. High-achieving low-income students, who would be highly regarded, are less likely to apply via early admission, so they miss out on the opportunity to be part of this “elite” applicant pool.