Were you deferred by Tulane University during one of the following rounds: Early Decision I, Early Action, or Early Decision II? Don’t fret. If this private research university located in gorgeous New Orleans is still where you want to wind up, it’s crucial that you continue to communicate your interest in the lead up to Regular Decision application deadlines. Here is a comprehensive list of Ivy Coach’s advice for students deferred by Tulane in the 2025-26 admissions cycle.

Tulane University Accepts the Majority of Its Incoming Class Early

Approximately two-thirds of Tulane’s first years are admitted through one of the two binding Early Decision rounds each year. That’s one of the highest proportions among all elite universities. The overall acceptance rate across Early Decision I and II for the 2023-24 academic year sits at an astounding 68%! Almost all of the remaining slots are filled by students admitted through Early Action who chose to enroll at Tulane. In other words, Tulane’s overall acceptance rate, which hovered around 14% for this period, comes from the minimal number of students it admits through Regular Decision (which, by some calculations, sat in the low hundreds for the Class of 2028!).

Tulane Early Action/Decision Admission Rates Over 8+ Years

However, looking back on the past Tulane admissions cycles, we learn that this incredibly high proportion of Early round admits was not always the norm. Just four short years ago, for admission to the Class of 2026, Tulane only admitted roughly one-third of its students through one of the Early Decision rounds, suggesting that this prioritization of Early applications is of more recent vintage at the Tulane Office of Undergraduate Admission. We’ve compiled the following Early round acceptance data from Tulane’s publicly available Common Data Sets.

Admissions Cycle	Tulane Graduating Class	Tulane’s Early Action Acceptance Rate	Tulane’s Early Decision Acceptance Rate
2025-2026	Class of 2030	Not Yet Released	Not Yet Released
2024-25	Class of 2029	Not Yet Published	Not Yet Published
2023-24	Class of 2028	16.82%	68.10%
2022-23	Class of 2027	N/A	67.88%
2021-22	Class of 2026	N/A	31.38%
2020-21	Class of 2025	N/A	23.19%
2019-20	Class of 2024	N/A	33.29%
2018-19	Class of 2023	N/A	32.24%
2017-18	Class of 2022	N/A	12.54%

Does this mean all hope is lost for those deferred by Tulane in one of the Early rounds? Of course not! There’s still plenty you can do to optimize your case for admission.

6 Steps to Take After Being Deferred by Tulane University

If you’ve been deferred by Tulane, the very first thing you should do is sign up for a PostMortem with Ivy Coach to figure out exactly what went wrong with your Early round application. Take a breath, and try to be realistic about the strengths and weaknesses of your application. 

Once you’re ready to take action, read the Tulane University Office of Undergraduate Admissions advice column for deferred applicants, published in December 2023. Note: admissions officers are not always candid about what’s in the best interest of their deferred applicants. Take notice of Ivy Coach’s bolded responses to some of these tips to get the real tea on being deferred from Tulane!

“In order to make these final decisions in the spring, there are a few factors we will look at. The main one, frustratingly, is out of your control. Yield from our accepted students will impact how many more spots we will have for deferred EA, and RD students. Yield is the percentage of accepted students that choose to enroll. If this number is higher than anticipated, it can be tougher for RD and deferred students to get in, since admission is ultimately a numbers game. Yield is tricky to predict, so you never know what could happen. This is where your agency comes in. There are a few things you can do to strengthen your application and stand out in the pool. Here are some suggestions:

1. Fill out the continued interest form. This is available on your Green Wave Portal. This tool will let us quickly identify who remains interested in Tulane. If/when your admission counselor has the chance to bring more students to the committee, they will start with this group of students. This form is quite important and carries a lot of weight. Do not feel any pressure to fly down here and take a tour to show interest. That’s what this form is for![Ivy Coach note: they might deny it, but taking a campus tour before you apply will certainly help your case for admission. Demonstrated Interest is critical!]
2. Contact your admission counselor, but take the time to regroup first. I’ll be honest: we are going to be relaxing over the break. We won’t constantly be checking our emails. You should do the same! If Tulane is at the top of your list, absolutely let your admission counselor know, but let’s have that conversation in the new year. [Ivy Coach note: if you can send a compelling Letter of Continued Interest crafted with the help of one of our former elite college admissions officers before the holidays roll around, that’s even better! Don’t wait to show Tulane you mean business! Act as soon as possible to avoid the holiday email slump!]
3. Send us important updates. Please be conservative and try not to email us every time you get a quiz grade back. We don’t necessarily need to know everything that happened this fall, but major life changes, new academic information, or serious awards are worth telling us about. Please don’t over-email your admission counselor with a weekly update. [Ivy Coach note: pestering your admissions officer with unnecessary information will only hurt your case for admission!]
4. Be patient. With our pool of deferred students and Regular Decision applicants, we still have a lot of work to do. We may not have a final decision for you until April 1. Hang in there. Again, DO NOT feel any pressure to fly down here for a tour or to try to have a face-to-face conversation. That will not accelerate anything.
5. Remember how competitive selective admission is. We can’t fit everyone who wants to be a part of our class, and many perfectly qualified students are turned away every year. We’re very privileged to have this problem, but it doesn’t make it any easier.
6. Consider switching to ED 2 if Tulane is 100% your top choice. The deadline is January 16th, so you have plenty of time to mull it over with your family. There will be a button in your Green Wave Portal if you would like to change to ED 2. Keep in mind that the pool of merit money for Early Decision students is smaller. Need-based aid remains the same for every admitted student.”

What Not to Do After Being Deferred by Tulane University

1. Don’t contact a Tulane admissions officer with questions about why your application was not successful. They won’t be candid with you, so there’s no point in asking!
2. Heed their advice! Don’t continue to email Tulane with frequent updates on your academic progress. One Letter of Continued Interest is enough!
3. Don’t thrust the blame on your high school counselor for Tulane’s decision. You’ll end up alienating someone who should be in your corner!
4. Don’t upload unnecessary information to your application portal. Only clue them into the major successes that truly help your case for admission.
5. Don’t try to get in touch with Tulane via a personalized video, appointment at the admissions office, smoke signal, etc. Let your Letter of Continued Interest speak for itself. Don’t drown out the power of what should be a persuasive letter.

What to Do After Being Rejected by Tulane University

Did you receive a rejection from Tulane? Start with re-centering yourself (and maybe take a few deep breaths), and then shift gears to thinking strategically. Appealing the decision is not on the table, as all decisions rendered by Tulane are final. 

Moreover, Tulane doesn’t publish any statistics on the specific proportion of deferred versus rejected Early Decision and/or Early Action students, which doesn’t help illuminate this situation any further. We will note, though, that back in 2022 their admissions blog posted, “Some ED applicants will be deferred and released from their ED Agreement. This has been rare in recent years.” So we can surmise that deferral was a little less common pre-pandemic, and now they use deferrals more liberally with their Early Decision applicants. Note they didn’t mention anything about deferrals for Early Action applicants. 

However, you need not worry about any of that. By pivoting your focus to your remaining applications, you could set yourself up for success.

Consider an Ivy Coach PostMortem to walk away with a newfound strategy formulated with our team of former elite college admissions officers. You may even wind up with an acceptance from an even better college during the Regular Decision round! And why? Because we will help you craft a singular hook that wows admissions officers and lays out your game plan for taking advantage of all that your future campus has to offer.

It’s happened before for countless students who come to Ivy Coach after receiving a rejection, and if you act quickly and decisively, you could join their ranks and walk away with an elite college acceptance under your belt.

Tulane Early Decision & Early Action Rejection Rates

First, let’s unpack where you stand as a rejected Tulane applicant. As we can see from the Class of 2028 data, which is the only recent year they published both Early Action and Early Decision acceptance rates, students who applied by making a binding commitment were more likely to be accepted. Duh!

Now, since we have a reputation for not sugarcoating at Ivy Coach, we’re not going to stop our honesty policy any time soon. If your child was rejected Early Decision, you should take away that perhaps applying ED to Tulane wasn’t the right choice for them. Tulane’s Class of 2028 Early Decision acceptance rate was a whopping 68.1%. That means only about 30% of students heard bad news on Early Decision results day (hey, Tulane is well known to love its Early Decision applicants!). We likely would have encouraged your child to find an alternate Early Decision school to apply to had you come to us earlier in the process.

Now, if your child applied Early Action and was rejected, well, there’s not much data released by Tulane that we have to explain why this may have happened. The Class of 2028 Early Action acceptance rate was just 16.82%, which is pretty low compared to that Early Decision acceptance rate. Maybe if your child had applied Early Decision, they would have been among the roughly two-thirds of students who were accepted because they were willing to make the binding commitment. 

Although, we do understand that making a binding commitment isn’t always right for every family, and that’s why figuring out the Early strategy (both school and type of application) is crucial when shooting for success in the competitive college admissions process. 

What Should Applicants Do After Being Rejected by Tulane?

PostMortem Application Review

After receiving word that a student has been deferred from Tulane, we don’t recommend delaying before contacting Ivy Coach for a PostMortem application review. You can pause to take a few deep breaths in the wake of the disappointing news, but know now that time is of the essence. It is wise to spring into action once you’ve regained your peace in order to prevent this scenario from playing out over and over again in your admissions process.

During Ivy Coach’s PostMortem, we:

• Aid you in reevaluating the current applications you’re working on. We examine every section of every application (yes, both the essays and non-essay portions), and readjust which schools you should be prioritizing now that you’ve been rejected from your number one choice. You may think these applications are almost at completion, but, after a Tulane rejection, why would you want to make those same mistakes? This is your big opportunity to make necessary edits and tweaks. 
• Work with you to craft a narrative of a uniquely talented individual rather than a well-rounded one. If you experienced rejection, you’ve likely learned the hard way that presenting as someone who excels in numerous domains only serves to disadvantage you in the elite college admissions process. We’ll correct this all-too-common mistake and help you pivot to a strategy that we know actually works: the singular hook.
• Catch the little-known mistakes and missteps that may have played a role in your rejection. A rejection in the college admissions process can come down to something as simple as a thought or idea that was miscommunicated and did not gel with that college’s culture. For instance, students who brag do themselves no favor in the Tulane admissions process since no one likes a braggart. This includes writing about how you fundraised $15,000 for a charity or were selected out of a pool of thousands of applicants for a “prestigious” but actually totally unimpressive summer enrichment program at a highly selective university! Don’t do either of those things, and if you did, that may be why you didn’t receive the result you were hoping for from Tulane. Other times, for more competitive schools like Tulane, assuming you have met the academic standards of admitted applicants (which you should double-check before applying anywhere!), admissions officers may not have been convinced you’ll make the most out of your time on campus. It’s your responsibility to prove them wrong!
• Take stock of your admissions prospects with realism. Consider taking advantage of the Early Decision II round for a school that hits the sweet spot between elite and feasible. Note that not every student is right for the ED II process, and not all schools provide one. Do your research and select an admissions course of action that works for you.

Application Assistance

Following your PostMortem, which is a nonnegotiable first step for us to understand what went wrong and how to fix your narrative, we:

• Overhaul your applications with Ivy Coach’s assistance. Now that you have a game plan and know what works and what doesn’t in the admissions landscape, it’s time to put everything you’ve learned from your PostMortem into practice. We can’t fix every mistake you’ve made throughout your high school history, but there’s a whole lot we can still correct at this late date. Most importantly, making corrections in terms of how you position your narrative and how you hope to sway admissions officers to root for you will be crucial.

What Not to Do After Being Rejected by Tulane

Below are five definite ways to sink your chances of Regular Decision admission at other top universities after receiving the unfortunate news of a Tulane rejection:

1. Do not submit your remaining applications as is. You were offered a great gift, though it certainly may not feel that way now. A rejection is incredibly helpful data to be taken into consideration on your admissions journey, indicating that something is awry. Don’t ignore the signs and proceed as planned! Now, you have time to make those necessary changes before submitting a doomed application to every other school on your list. Remember, there is no second opportunity after Regular Decision deadlines.
2. Do not, we repeat, do not reach out to the Tulane admissions office with pointless questions about why you were rejected. Guess what: they’re not going to give you a candid answer, and your eagerness will only prove to them that they made the right decision in rejecting you. Tulane does not conduct appeals. Don’t waste anyone’s time trying to make yourself the exception.
3. Do not be super choosy with your Regular Decision school list and/or ignore safety schools. Unsure what constitutes a safety school? That’s where Ivy Coach’s team of former elite college admissions officers comes in. If you’re considering leaving WashU off your list because you’d rather not go to school in the Midwest? Let’s try that again. After getting a rejection from Tulane, we regret to inform you that you’d be so very lucky to earn admission to WashU. We cannot tolerate such pickiness at this time of year from rejected applicants, even if that’s not what they want to hear. Rejected applicants should open their minds because so often, they’ll end up attending a school that Ivy Coach adds to their list at this time of year. When we say we don’t tolerate pickiness, we really do mean it because it won’t serve the applicant.
4. Do not under any circumstances blame your school counselor for an admissions decision that is ultimately your responsibility. High school counselors admittedly may not always be perfect at their jobs (i.e., sometimes they refuse to make advocacy calls on behalf of their students), but they are your new best friend in the fight for your college future. Alienating them right now would be a big mistake. Huge. So don’t even think about it!

Tulane University Deferral and Rejection FAQ

Will my gender have any impact on my chances of admission?

Tulane is notorious amongst elite universities for admitting cohorts with highly-skewed gender ratios in which women are in the majority. All elite universities seek gender-balance. Even after Tulane’s gender-balancing, the student body skews heavily female, so it’s safe to say — despite what Tulane’s admissions office says to the contrary — that it’s easier for males to get in than females.

When should I get to work on the rest of my Regular Decision applications?

As soon as possible! If you’ve taken Ivy Coach’s advice during your PostMortem, you should be equipped to reframe your applications around your singular hook and put your best foot forward over the weeks between your deferral and the Regular Decision application deadlines!

What role should my high school counselor play in this process?

In the New Year, after you’ve submitted it to Tulane, send your Letter of Continued Interest to your school counselor and politely request that they make an advocacy call to Tulane on your behalf. This is their chance to fight for your case for admission by highlighting the singular hook you’ve crafted to optimize your case.

What’s the point of maintaining good grades and test scores now that I know Tulane may be off of the table?

Don’t let your deferral or rejection set you back. It’s still absolutely essential that you strive for excellent academic performance as you round out your senior year. Your application will not receive any further consideration if you let your grades slip!

What lesson should I take from my child being rejected by Tulane?

Tulane has a low acceptance rate. We won’t pretend that’s not the case. Two years ago, the Class of 2028 saw a 13.98% acceptance rate, and as recently as five years ago, for the Class of 2025, the acceptance rate dropped below 10% into the single digits. 

What to take away from a rejection from an elite school is that something about your child’s application wasn’t working. They may have come across as too well-rounded, unlikable, or braggadocious. They may have made any number of the tiny mistakes that we see in a student’s application that admissions officers are on the lookout for. That’s why we encourage a total application revamp before continuing to submit in the Regular Decision applicant pool.

Ivy Coach’s Help After Tulane Deferral or Rejection

Navigating a deferral or rejection to your dream school is much easier said than done. But don’t lose your faith! Instead, rely on Ivy Coach to guide you so that you can present the best case possible for admission to Tulane (if you were deferred rather than rejected) and, whether you were deferred or rejected, reposition your case for admission to your remaining Regular Decision schools. If you’d like to optimize your odds of admission, fill out our complimentary consultation form and we’ll be in touch.