The Early Advantage at Tulane University
Thinking about applying to Tulane University this year? If so, you might strongly consider applying during the Early round of admissions. After all, Tulane, which has in recent years seen its overall admission rate plummet to below 10%, doesn’t admit many students in the Regular Decision round. Case in point? For the Class of 2026, this past year’s applicants, only 106 students earned admission in the Regular Decision round. That’s right. Only 106 students! And not all of those 106 students, of course, chose to enroll. So of the freshman class that will consist of about 1,800 students, if history is any guide, likely only about 50 earned admission in RD. Talk about an Early advantage at Tulane!
As Scott Jaschik reports for Inside Higher Ed in a piece entitled “Tulane Admitted Two-Thirds of Students Through Early Decision,” “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.”
That’s right. A rumor spread among college counselors that Tulane didn’t admit anyone in the Regular Decision round. And while that rumor proved to be untrue, when only 106 students earn Regular Decision admission, it’s no surprise to us why such a rumor would surface. Congratulations to Tulane on such an extraordinary year in admissions for the Class of 2026 as the school continues its rise among the most selective universities in the land. And congratulations to all of Ivy Coach’s students who applied to Tulane’s Class of 2026 — you all got in and you all, of course, applied Early.
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6 Comments
How incredible that a school would go to such desperate measures to decrease their acceptance rate. It reminds me of Princeton’s transfer acceptance rate among non-Veteran students. Hint: it’s about one in 1 million- And that’s being generous. Ignore shifty and hidden agendas at your own peril!
As every top 100 private school strives to be considered an ‘Ivy PLUS’ or ‘Top 20’ school, the worst insult a school can receive is to be called a ‘safety school’. So the Northeasterns, the Tufts, the Tulanes and the rest of those wannabes are dying to get their revenge on the safety crowd. How do they do it? Lure ‘em in and reject ‘em! As Ivyies become almost untouchable I suppose there’s nowhere else to go so those former second rate schools are trying to offer an alternative- but with a catch. But have become a little too cocky for their own good? As the country gets flooded with international students first thing for higher education, any decent school can do well. But after 2 more years of the Biden Depression Plan, you wonder if these schools have over played their lucky hand. And I do mean LUCKY.
I heard Tulane’s class of 2027 will have two admission choices:
1. Early Decision and
2. Do I feel lucky- well do you punk? aka ‘Suckers’
Good job with the RD head fake Tulane. We all appreciate a good joke when we see one. Once the joke gets out Tulane may not have the last laugh.
One interesting thing to note is that it sales that a large percentage of these “binding”early admissions did not actually enroll. If this dirty little secret starts to get out, it could really start to undermine the yield advantages schools are trying get through early decision.
Specifically, those looking at Tulane’s numbers from the article calculated that Tulane admitted approximately 2,129 early-decision students, but only enrolled around 1,200 of them. Not so binding after all.
Over 900 students did not break Tulane’s binding Early Decision policy this year. That is entirely false.
Maybe. Here is the analysis of someone who reviewed the numbers presented by the inside higher education article. The analysis was as follows
Tulane says it received “nearly” 46,000 apps. Let’s say 45,750. They admitted 9.8%, or 4,484. Of these, 106 were RD and 2,249 were EA.
That leaves 2,129 ED admits.
If ED admits made up 2/3 of the 1800 enrolling students (the article reads “Two-thirds of applicants who will make up the freshman class applied in one of two rounds of early decision”) that means 1200 ED admits enrolled of the 2,129 ED admits. This would be a yield rate of about 56% for the ED pool.
The analysis seems reasonable, but maybe some of the information provided by the inside higher education article was incorrect. I’m not sure how one should know where the inconsistency lies. Perhaps you have better data to share?