From Stanford to Harvard and Yale and other elite schools around the United States, admission committees are now gathering to pore over applications for September's incoming class.
With one catch: much of the class of 2001 has already been picked.
The nation's top private colleges and universities are accepting more students than ever through an early admissions process completed months before the traditional spring deadline.
Eager to lock in the best and brightest from high school ranks, Harvard already has offered 55 percent of next fall's slots to early applicants, while the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton and Brown have accepted enough to fill nearly half their incoming classes.
The University of Pennsylvania, Williams and Yale already have selected a third of their first-year students and dozens of other schools accepted - and received commitments from - 20 percent of their incoming classes, all by Christmas.
Though high school students have had the option of applying "early decision" to some elite colleges for decades, the use of such programs has skyrocketed in the past two years - with many other schools scrambling to join the faster-paced admissions game. Stanford only last year joined the ranks of schools inviting high school students to apply early decision.
"It's very competitive out there and you do what you have to do to not get left behind," said John Slaughter, president of Occidental College in Los Angeles.
Admission through early decision has benefits for colleges and students.
The schools solidify their incoming classes with early picks of top talent. And students who have their hearts set on a particular college can get a speedy reply, avoiding months of nail-biting awaiting word of their fate.
But early admissions come at a price.
Most colleges require that applicants - and their parents - sign a binding commitment: If admitted early, the student will enroll in the fall. No second thoughts. No more shopping around. No backing out.
That troubles some high school counselors as seniors get swept up in the competition for early openings - perhaps before they have fully researched what school is best for them.
"We've found a lot of them want to apply early, they just don't know where," said Mark Hatch, director of college counseling at the private Marlborough School in Los Angeles. "Students and their parents are being sucked in, thinking that early decision is the way to go or they might miss out."
Colleges report a record number of early applicants this past fall, cementing the trend first noticed a year ago, when Harvard accepted enough to fill an astounding 60 percent of its incoming class.
"You hear so much about it at college nights, I wanted to do it somewhere," said Jama Adams, senior class president at Hollywood's Immaculate Heart High.
She decided on Yale after visiting the campus and sent in her one early application there - because it's a commitment, the system only gives the student a single shot.
In mid-January, Jama learned her application - like most - was deferred to the regular admissions cycle. "For me, it was frustrating, because I wasted it," she said of her chance to snag an early place.
Counselors say the program has pushed some success-driven students, egged on by their parents, to prepare earlier for college admissions. They sign up for SAT prep courses as sophomores, visit campuses as juniors and try to sort it all out over summer break.
Even some college admissions officials worry that it is too much, too soon. Early decision candidates sometimes must file applications by mid-October, well before regular application deadlines.
"They swear their undying love and we promise to give them an early answer," said Bruce Poch, dean of admissions at California's Pomona College, which admits 20 percent of its first-year students early. "Is that really a decision you can make at 17?"
Poch and other critics also worry that early decision is mostly for the affluent, because those who rely on financial aid need to compare multiple offers to determine which college they can afford.
But even Poch concedes such programs are "spreading ... like a communicable disease."
While Stanford was adopting its first early decision option in the fall of 1995, places such as Yale and Princeton for the first time required the applicants to make binding commitments.
Stanford, which just last week finished picking 38 percent of its incoming class by early decision, felt it was losing top-notch students to competitors, said James Montoya, the dean of admissions.
"A significant number ... indicated that Stanford would have been their first choice had the university offered an early program," Montoya said.
Some institutions that offer the highest percentage of slots to early applicants - California Institute of Technology (60 percent), Harvard (55 percent), MIT (49 percent) - operate a different, nonbinding program called "early action."
These schools accept students early, but give them until May 1 to decide between their offer and later ones from other colleges during the regular admissions cycle.
"We want students here in September who truly want to be here and who have spent their senior year deciding if Caltech is the best fit," said Charlene Liebau, Caltech's director of admissions.
Still, given the prestige of these schools, the vast majority of applicants snap up the offers.
"There is a strategic element to this," said Marlyn McGrath Lewis, Harvard's director of admissions. "This is a very vigorous competition for the most talented students and we all come out of the situation quite well."
The nonbinding early action programs generally sit better with high school counselors because they allow students to compare offers and several extra months to make up their minds.
"The majority of students change their minds sometime during their senior year," said Elsa Clark, director of college counseling at Immaculate Heart High School.
Yet both programs contribute to competitive fervor over early applications.
"The statistics show you have a slightly higher chance by applying early decision," said Giny Kim, a senior at Immaculate Heart, who is waiting to hear from Stanford. "It's a way to show the college that you are really committed and you really want to go there."
Most colleges deny there is a strategic edge to applying early.
Public colleges have started to chase early applicants too, including the University of Virginia, Salisbury State University in Maryland and a dozen campuses of the State University of New York.
Like many admissions officers, Poch of Pomona College has mixed emotions about the trend in admissions: He wants Pomona to get its share of gifted students, but is disturbed at how colleges use admission policy to boost their national ranking on SAT scores and other criteria.
One measure of a college's desirability is "yield" - the percentage of students admitted who say "yes" to the school. By admitting more students early, a school guarantees a higher yield because these students signed an ironclad agreement to show up in the fall.