The University of Virginia (UVa) Board of Visitors is considering a plan for the university to adopt “early action” admission, in which students would apply earlier than they do now and find out far sooner if they are accepted, rejected or deferred acciring to an article in The Daily Progress.

Under an early action model, the university’s offer of early admission would not be binding and the student would have until the normal deadline of May 1 to make up their mind if they want to attend. Students can apply for early action admission to other schools Under a proposal before UVa’s board members, the early action admission model would be put in place for fall 2011.

The university’s current deadline for applying for regular admission is Jan. 1. Under the proposal, early action admission applications would be due Nov. 1. The university currently sends out its offers of admission to students by April 1. Under early action, the university would aim to make early offers of admission by mid-December.

Beginning in the 1960s, UVa offered students the option of applying for “early decision,” a model in which students apply early but had to agree to attend UVa if they were accepted. The university, however, dropped that model in fall 2008 over concerns that it was disadvantaging low-income students. Offering applicants a non-binding early admission option is not expected to decrease the number of low-income students at the university, according to Dean Roberts.

Such a move would, however, make UVa a more viable choice to students who want to complete the college application process as quickly as possible.

“Some students are just interested in getting this finished and done with,” Roberts said. “They don’t want to wait around until April.”

Plus, Roberts said, an early action model would put UVa in line with several of its peer institutions, such as the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, which offer students a similar non-binding application model.

The Board of Visitors is likely to take up the early action admission proposal in the coming months.