Austin, Tex. — At the annual conference of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, members voted on Saturday to reverse a policy approved at last year’s conference that would have prevented colleges from making admission offers to students before September 15 of their senior year in high school.

The new policy will allow colleges to notify students of acceptance upon receiving a transcript that “reflects completion of the final semester of the junior year of high school or the equivalent,” meaning that colleges can accept students as early as June.

The previous policy, which had been scheduled to go into effect next year, was intended to rein in “admissions creep,” the trend of students’ increasingly becoming involved in the college-admission process — and stressed out about it — earlier in their high-school careers. Many guidance counselors and college-admissions professionals have said they think students need more time to contemplate their college choices and feel too much pressure to make decisions about which institutions to apply to and attend before they are ready (The Chronicle, October 9, 2006).

But that rule drew complaints and criticism from some community-college and state-university officials who felt the policy did not fairly account for the many students they educate. Many of their applicants, officials of those institutions say, need encouragement to realize that college is a viable option for them. An early acceptance offer, they say, helps many first-generation and low-income students realize that college is possible for them.

When Mary Lee Hoganson, the association’s departing president, announced the decision at the association’s general membership meeting, she noted that the September 15 deadline had been debated for two years, and that the current decision was a compromise. “The final decision that was made recognizes the validity of both perspectives,” Ms. Hoganson said.

The new policy is scheduled to go into effect beginning with students who would matriculate in the fall of 2009, but at the same time, members voted to have the association’s Board of Directors appoint a panel to research the actual impact such a change would have on colleges.

That study group is scheduled to report its findings in September 2009. —Elizabeth F. Farrell

More Chronicle coverage of the Nacac meeting:

Private Admissions Consultants Are Popular With the Middle Class, Not Just the Rich At Admissions Conference, Marketing Mixes With Mission Frustrations With Standardized Testing Boil at Annual Admissions Conference Report Notes Trends in College Admissions Common Application Group’s Leader Hears Complaints About Online Version of Form