<p>Also remember that Tulane is doing some weird stuff with their admissions these days… the personal app didn’t come out of thin air, they got kicked off the commonapp if you remember correctly (theres a reason why there acceptance rate has dropped dramatically since then. Occasionally you do have to read into the situation.</p>
<p>Please elaborate, mongoose8p. This is the first I’ve heard about getting kicked off the common app, and it sounds interesting.</p>
<p>Mongoose8p - Yes, please elaborate as this is the first time I’m hearing about this also. I know that in addition to using the Personal App, they also use the Universal App. Why do you feel that Tulane is doing “weird stuff” with their admissions?</p>
<p>newyorkmom22 - I see how you could be incredibly frustrated with this whole process, the waiting is so difficult, and your daughter has been waiting a very long time. You said that her stats are pretty much the same as your other daughter who attended Tulane. How do they match with what you have seen of this year’s admits?</p>
<p>Wow- lots of interesting updates!
First- thanks Montegut for your concern. The car he was riding in seemed to have weathered the storm ok, but they drove slowly in the torrential downpours (did they pull over?? NO!)</p>
<p>NYmom-
I hope you get some good news. I’d suggest, if possible, that you have your dau call the adm office, not you. I think the adm offices look more kindly on the kids handling these calls if possible. It can be hjard to do during a school day- thtnk heavens they are an hour behind the E coast timezone, so that helps a little.</p>
<p>Lovegoldens-
sorry about the deferral. Hopefully with cintunued interest and updates of mid year grades and any other accomplishments this will lead to good news in the spring.</p>
<p>mongoose-
Can you clarify about the change from common app to universal app? How/why does a school get “kicked off” one? Is it possible this was Tulane’s decision, as I imagine the universal app, being a new competitor inthis market, might offer a financial incentive (eg reduced cost) to use their system.</p>
<p>My s applied EA as well. We had lots of trouble figuring out if everything was there. Tulane had duplicate files. They cleared that up on friday/ Then Then the Gibson message changed to decision by the 15th. Then this morning it went to by April 15. But it does not say deferred. VERY CONFUSING. We were planning a visit if he was accepted but not now…</p>
<p>It is starting to sound like the message of April 15 is equivalent to a waitlist message. Perhaps someone will get in touch with admissions and confirm this. I agree it is confusing and they should just say what it is online.</p>
<p>I also received the April 1 message this morning. I’m disappointed, but not losing hope yet. Could it be that the admissions staff just ran out of time and couldn’t get everything (especially NE applicants) reviewed by 12/15? “A few weeks…” doesn’t seem like a deferral message to me…</p>
<p>I put calls into a few different places but haven’t heard anything back yet; no surprise that admissions didn’t pick up since they must be swapped with calls. Will post any feedback I get here which I hope will fill in the blanks for everyone in a similiar position. I agree, a few weeks more isn’t the biggest deal but it’s the hearing by April 1st that’s a killer, pretty big range and am having a hard time staying optimistic. Just a little more info would of helped, it’s the not knowing that fuels all of the anxiety here.</p>
<p>Just thought I’d thow my data point in here. Ds used priority app, had it in by Nov. 1 and had to go RD because of a scholarship that prevented him going EA. His status still says: “Your application is complete. The Committee on Admission is working to render your decision as quickly as possible.”</p>
<p>I know this isn’t on point with the discussion, but why would a scholarship specify not being able to go EA or even ED? I don’t doubt this is true, I just cannot for the life of me understand the reasoning behind it.</p>
<p>We are also frustrated with the adissions office we have called at least 5 times and he probably has a big black mark on his file. lol. We have also emailed his adcom at least 3 times and not received any answers. It took forever to get the files merged. The worst thing for my son is that there really are not alot of schools which meet all of his criteria for Music Technology, DIV 1 sports, large school…He is accepted at Ohio State but they do not have the program…</p>
<p>it all stems back to the days of katrina here is what happened to my knowledge and my private school college councilor who knows the school well for 15+ years</p>
<p>After Katrina happened the school had to be evacuated for the year due to the hurricane for the remainder of that semester. The next year the school had a record low number of applicants and didn’t even fill the school. Obviously something had to be done to counter this issue and so they made it easier and cheaper to apply. This has eventually turned into what we have today, the personal app (quite the opposite in my opinion as its about as far from personal as it gets). Anyway the next year they over accepted the amount of people which I believe is the current Senior grade (It might be Junior I can’t remember off top of my head). I know I student in that grade and he has confirmed this to me. Basically what happened is when they started introducing this easier application that requires no work they began getting a record number of applicants each year, DIRECTLY due to this system. As a result they were artificially boosting their accepted SAT/ACT scores for the past five years or so which is why you have also seen their acceptance rate drop dramatically. Simultaneously Tulane’s yield is not great at all as a result of this. Basically what has happened is they have DRAMATICALLY increased their average acceptance scores/grades/etc. Every year the school gets tougher to apply to because its becoming a “harder” aka “better”, in the general populations mind, school- therefor more and beyond qualified students apply. Not to say that Tulane isn’t a fantastic school, because it certainly is and anyone should feel blessed to be able to attend. But at the same time one must remember that the current stage they are in is causing a type of inflation that hurts applicants that truly will attend and are qualified. I wish Tulane had a HARDER and more extensive APP to complete so they could truly get the full picture. In my mind the personal app does not provide this… it does succeed in what the school needed post Katrina scare but there is no reason it should continue. Tulane is very well known and fantastic school I don’t think they need to make it easier and simpler to apply just to get those inflated results. These are just my thoughts thoughts- in fact UVM is starting the same thing this year and are heading down very much same path</p>
<p>I think the April 1st thing is a combination of messages which is why its SO vague</p>
<p>The next couple weeks certainly applies to applications that they did not get to as they have had yet another RECORD number this year and they probably didn’t get to ALL the New England apps, in specific </p>
<p>The April 1st is more towards those that have already received their deferred letters in the mail — if you were ALREADY deferred you WILL hear in the mail this week according to their office so everyone hold your horses on the deferral and give it a week or so to make sure</p>
<p>My two sense is that if you haven’t received the letter yet, or by the end of this week, they simply haven’t gotten to your APP yet which is why its strategically worded so vaguely! So wait to speculate until you received that differed letter!</p>
<p>again makes me feel that the people who have the next couple weeks/april 1st message are the early action applicants they didn’t get to… thats what the evidence adds up to at this point!</p>
<p>Thanks for taking the time to make some sense of what’s going on, you did a great job. I do remember life after Katrina as well, my daughter was starting her sophomore year when the storm hit, the school remained closed for the semester and she returned in the spring. Some kids didn’t return but the majority of kids and all of my daughters friends were thrilled to come back. Everyone really pulled together with community service, rebuilding and painting elementary schools, etc. it really bonded us to the area and created this emotional attachment. </p>
<p>The real damage that was done to the school was mainly in the low num of admissions for the following year; kids were understandably scared to apply and enrollment was def. down. I remember my daughter telling me that professors had to relocate and overall life was substantially different prior to Katrina. I can certainly see how the school needed to regroup in order to survive which is why the current application process has a different feel than it did five years ago. It’s true that Tulane is a safety school for a large group of my daughter’s friends who were recently accepted into Michigan, Cornell, Brown, Penn and Dartmouth. They had and have no intentions of attending Tulane as opposed to my daughter who considered it one of her top choices. It’s really a shame if in fact it has become more of a numbers game that might ultimately backfire down the line. </p>
<p>And no we haven’t heard back from anyone yet and still have no idea what to make of the updated status.</p>
<p>Change in date to April one means you are deferred. Letter will follow. This happened to my son. He just got the letter yesterday before online status changed</p>
<p>that may be true to your son but could be different for others lets give it some time …</p>
<p>The problem with a school having a bad yield and playing the numbers game is that it causes a ton of deferrals which is inevitable. Now that most ED’s are back a lot of accepted will have to withdrawal so remember that as well! We may all hear back soon enough</p>
<p>good point re EDs. For my son the biggest disappointment is that so many of his friends were accepted that have no intention of attending Tulane - just applied for the heck of it. But he really wants to attend.</p>
<p>thats exactly how I feel as well really obnoxious that people do that!</p>
<p>Mongoose & newyorkmom: Agree with what you say, you got the sequence of events exactly right as far as I know it also. I will only clarify one thing mongoose said and add one thing to newyorkmom’s comment. Mongoose, I am sure you are right that the free and easy app has raised the average SAT/ACT scores of ACCEPTED students, but that doesn’t mean much. Those numbers are not reported anywhere that I know of. What is reported are the average scores of ENROLLED students, and those also were records for Tulane the last 2 years, and early indications are they might tick up a bit this year as well. We will see on that last point. But whether they thought the classes would get stronger or it was an unintended benefit, it has nonetheless been the case.</p>
<p>I cannot emphasize strongly enough how totally unknown it was for the Tulane administration what students would do come January 2006 following the “lost semester”. There were real fears that the return rate could be as low as 50%, which might have meant the end of Tulane University. But as newyorkmom said, in an amazing show of resiliency and character on the part of the overwhelming majority of students (and parents!) 90% or so came back. It was quite telling too that many students reported that they got to attend their first choice school that turned them down the prior spring (for example a lot of the students in this area attended Brown for the semester) and had offers from those schools to stay. They instead came back to Tulane, with only a few exceptions.</p>
<p>However, back to the point, I agree that many students use Tulane as a safety, and I think that is fine because enough of those students visit and change their mind and come to Tulane, especially since many get a nice financial incentive. That helps Tulane. Where it hurts is when that phenomenon gets to the point that the numbers overwhelm admissions and the whole process gets screwed up for a lot of students and parents. That absolutely has to be addressed. But in and of itself, getting a lot of applications, even if many are not serious about attending, is not a bad thing. It only becomes bad when it adversely affects those that are serious about Tulane.</p>