Are you thinking about applying to Tulane University this year? If so, you might strongly consider applying during the Early admissions round. After all, Tulane, which has seen its overall admission rate plummet to below 10% in recent years, doesn’t typically admit many students in the Regular Decision round. Case in point? For the Class of 2026, the most recent cohort for which this data is available, only 403 students earned admission in the Regular Decision round. That’s right. Only 403 students out of 43,000 applicants! Talk about an Early advantage at Tulane!

In more recent admissions cycles, Tulane has sought to right the wrongs of admissions cycles past by increasing the proportion of students admitted through Regular Decision. After a widely-read New York Times article highlighted an instance in which Tulane officials barred students at a Colorado private school from applying via Early Decision after a student from that school pulled out of their Early Decision agreement at the last minute for nonfinancial reasons to attend another school, Tulane caught a lot of flak for its practice of giving a ton of preference for ED applicants. 

Since then, as reported by The Tulane Hullabaloo, “After The New York Times article was released, Tulane clarified that it regularly releases students from early decision commitments for financial reasons — those who determine that even with Tulane’s financial aid offer, they still could not afford to attend. Over 50 students were released from early decision for financial reasons in the last application cycle with no repercussions.”

Why Tulane’s Early Preference is Being Slightly Phased Out

Why would Tulane’s move to admit more Regular Decision applicants affect the student body’s socioeconomic diversity? Because lower-income students tend to apply in the RD round over the Early rounds. So what might initially seem like an innocuous admissions preference has drawn Tulane a lot of heat through the years. 

Tulane University’s Admissions Numbers Tell a Clear Story

Case in point: Scott Jaschik’s report for Inside Higher Ed entitled “Tulane Admitted Two-Thirds of Students Through Early Decision,” in which he writes that “Tulane University has become more and more popular with applicants in recent years. Last year, Tulane received more than 45,000 applications, a record, which was 55 percent more than the university received five years earlier. Last year, the university announced that half of the students who enrolled applied early…This year, the numbers of applicants and early applicants (Tulane has two early-decision programs) were even better than last year. The university received nearly 46,000 applicants and admitted only 9.8 percent of them. Michael Strecker, assistant vice president for communications, said the class was ’our most selective, diverse, largest and most academically qualified class ever.’ Two-thirds of applicants who will make up the freshman class applied in one of two rounds of early decision (with most of those admitted in the first round of early decision)…Tulane admitted 2,249 students via an early-action program, Strecker said…For regular decision, Tulane admitted only 106 applicants. The regular-decision numbers were so low that some college counselors heard a rumor that Tulane didn’t admit anyone that way.”

Jaschik wrote back in 2022, so it’s quite likely that pieces like Jaschik’s must have put pressure on Tulane to reform its admissions process and admit more RD applicants. All things considered, if a rumor is spreading among college counselors that Tulane didn’t accept anyone in the Regular Decision round, that’s a pretty good sign that your admissions process could use some more balance. And while that rumor proved untrue, when only 403 students out of thousands earn Regular Decision admission, it’s no surprise to us why such a rumor would surface. 

All of Ivy Coach’s Tulane Package Students Apply in the Early Decision I Round

Despite the tweaks to their admissions process, Tulane admissions officers still routinely admit roughly half of their applicants from one of their Early rounds, a higher proportion than at many other elite schools. Among Ivy Coach’s package clients who hold Tulane as their top choice school, every single one of them applies in the Early Decision I (ED I) round. This is the first round of early admissions, which is binding, meaning if you’re accepted, you must attend Tulane. Why? Because there’s still an unequivocal advantage to applying Early to Tulane! This is true of admissions cycles at every single highly selective school, regardless of what they might say to the contrary! 

Admissions officers want to admit highly enthusiastic students who are 100% committed to attending their college and know what they want from the jump. Can you blame them? After all, if you were in charge of admitting students to your institution, wouldn’t you want to pull mainly from the crop of students who made a binding commitment to attend at the expense of going to other schools?