The national organization that oversees college application practices has decided not to sanction Harvard, Yale and Stanford universities for violating early-admission rules and will instead launch a two-year study of the increasingly controversial and confusing higher education application process.

Joyce Smith, executive director of the Alexandria, Va.-based National Association for College Admission Counseling, said that the organization had circulated a memo to its college and high school members declaring a moratorium on enforcing rules that govern early admissions to colleges and universities.

The move is the result of a continuing debate about the popular early-admissions programs, which some educators say do not give applicants enough time to consider their choices, and put low-income students at a disadvantage because they risk losing some financial aid if they apply early.

Under the early-admissions system, students can apply to schools as early as November of their senior year in high school and receive an answer before Christmas, in time to apply elsewhere if they are rejected.

The early-admission programs were originally designed to give applicants the opportunity to get into their favorite schools early, reducing their anxiety about where they would attend college, as well as allow colleges to spread out and control the admissions process.

Early decision vs. early action

Most selective schools offer an “early decision” policy, which requires the applicant to go to that school if accepted early. Some colleges have the less-restrictive “early action” policy, which allows students to apply to multiple colleges, both early and at the standard time, and not make up their minds until April.

When Yale and Stanford announced they were dropping their early-decision policies in favor of early action, they said they would still insist that applicants for that special status agree not to seek early admission from any other school.

Some association members said that violated the official definition of early action.

Harvard, after experimenting with an early-action policy that allowed students to seek similar treatment from other schools, ultimately returned to a policy similar to Yale’s and Stanford’s. Harvard’s director of admissions, Marlyn McGrath Lewis, said that her staff found it difficult to carefully assess the additional early applications that poured in when the school lifted its restrictions.

Many college admissions directors and high school guidance counselors said they welcomed the association’s decision to take a long look at the whole process rather than to penalize some schools by revoking their membership privileges or declaring their practices unethical.

“It’s a very good idea,” said Nina Marks, assistant head and director of college guidance at the National Cathedral School in the District of Columbia.