Chance daughter for EA/Merit Aid?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tulane University
1

Daughter is a white female HS senior , applied EA mid September, but her application was only complete October 11.

Attending competitive HS with GPA UW 4.0. Her school doesn’t rank students but she would be in the top 3 in her class

Senior classes AP Spanish, AP Chemistry, Dual enrollment Statistics, Theater this semester

Has taken AP US History (5) , AP English (5), AP European History (3)

ACT 33

Visited Tulane last year and went to her local event last month

Part time job working 20-30 hours a week

Lettered in Volleyball for all 4 years of high school, but her HS team is awful

NHS, Recycling club officer , FBLA officer, Teen Court, around 100 hours volunteer time, Spanish Silver award times, several others I can’t remember right now

Wrote the Why Tulane essay

Tulane is her number one choice, but she needs some good merit aid to be able to attend. We won’t qualify for need based financial aid, but can’t really afford 65,000 a year. She would have applied SCEA, except we wanted her to be able to apply to back up schools that don’t cost as much.

Do you think she has a good chance of EA admission and merit aid?

Thanks

2

@X22011

Yes, excellent chances for both admission and for the top initial merit award, the Presidential. Last year this was $32,000 per year. She would also have a good chance for either the DHS or the PTA, both full tuition plus fees. She should apply for both.

3

Thanks fallenchemist. We hope you are right. The Presidential would be fantastic. She is going to apply for the Paul Tulane and DHS as well. Hopefully, we will find out soon. I like that Tulane is so nice about notifying students early and is so generous with merit aid. Otherwise she would end up going to one of the big state schools.

4

@X22011 -Did your daughter mention in her “Why Tulane?” essay (or anywhere in her application) that Tulane is her top choice? If not, she might want to send a brief email to her regional rep to say so. If she hasn’t emailed this admission staff member yet but she did attend the local program, this email would be a good time to tell the rep that she enjoyed the local event (which, presumably, the regional rep hosted) and that Tulane is her first choice. If she so chooses, she can also point out that she will definitely enroll if her parents deem it affordable.

5

Thanks Sally. Now that you suggest it, mentioning that Tulane is her top choice in her essay or in a note to her admission rep sounds like a good idea. Her essay is very pro Tulane, but it may have sounded awkward to put in the actual essay. She did send her admission rep an email after the local event telling her she enjoyed meeting her and learning more about Tulane, but again she didn’t let her know it is her top choice. Do you think she should send another email or is that bordering on stalking? She has already sent wo emails. Thanks

6

@X22011 -I don’t think it’s overkill for your daughter to send one more note to the regional rep. And a touch of humor never hurts … something like this:

If she wants she can also add:

7

Also waiting

8

So my daughter sent her regional rep the email. She received an automated reply that her rep is out of the country until November 16th recruiting international students. The reply said if she has any questions to call admissions or she can contact two different admissions counselors and it listed their email addresses. Do you think my daughter should now send an email to the other reps or just wait? The waiting is tough. But, my daughter hates to feel like she is brown nosing or desperate or maybe showing too much interest. Do you think her decision will not come until after her rep is back in the country after Nov 16th? Thanks

9

I think she can just wait because, even if the rep is out of the country, it’s highly likely that she will still read your daughter’s email … even if she doesn’t have the time to reply.

I know the waiting is hard! I assume that your daughter has been checking the online portal for her decision. My son’s was posted there for perhaps as long as a week before he discovered it last fall! Yet that turned out to be something of a blessing in disguise because the merit awards come via snail mail. So he actually got his online verdict AND his snail-mail letter on the same day, so there was no need to be on tenterhooks waiting for the actual letter to come to see if he’d gotten $$$ or been invited to join Honors.

10

I also would wait since she really didn’t have a specific question. As Sally says, it will all come to fruition soon.

11

My daughter is still waiting on her admission decision and hopefully merit aid offer. She submitted her DHS project yesterday and is working on the Paul Tulane essays so maybe that will help. It is maddening to see so many other kids get accepted so quickly with similar or worse stats, but we feel better after looking at this thread from last year. It does look like lots of applicants usually get in later and still get merit aid. We have our fingers crossed . She would love to attend Tulane.

12

I assume that your daughter’s high school got all of their part in, right? My son applied very early last year and then it took many weeks afterwards for the high school to submit his transcript, counselor rec etc. Have you confirmed that the application is complete?

Hope good news comes soon!

13

It says on Gibson that her application is complete and awaiting review.
Do you think she should call admissions to be absolutely sure? Thanks

14

Also, she was accepted at her 3rd and 4th choices already. So if those schools received everything, probably Tulane did as well. Her 3rd choice gave her full tuition and admission to their honors college. Her 4th choice gave her a nice scholarship offer as well and admission to an honors college. Just hoping Tulane will award her enough money that she can attend. Thanks

15

No need to call if Gibson says all is well. You mentioned that her regional rep has been abroad so I bet this affected the decision timeline. Have other applicants from your region received decisions?

16

So far, I have only seen one acceptance from Tennessee on this forum. Three other kids from my daughter’s school have applied and one of them was accepted about a week ago. The annoying thing is that the one girl that was accepted from her school is not that interested in Tulane. Ironically, two of my daughter’s male friends that would be likely to enroll at Tulane and have really high stats have not heard anything either. Anyway, I guess she has done about everything she can do so we just have to wait and see.

17

The acceptance letters can go out in a seemingly random way so the best plan is to just wait and see, as you’ve said. But this apparent randomness can be very frustrating. I’m a bigger fan of specific notification dates.