Hello - My D has applied to Tulane and her application was complete back in September. We are low income and thus have not visited, but she has attended local events and is very interested in the school. She has very good stats (3.9 GPA, 34 ACT) and really good ECs, but she did check the box that we will need financial aid. She will also apply for the scholarships. Hopefully she will get some merit aid.
Recently she found out that two kids in her school were already accepted. She knows that they both have much lower scores and grades than she does, and weren’t even sure they were going to get in. Probably both of them are full pay though. My D has not heard from Tulane. We are talking about the same admissions officer so the comment that was made about some officers not starting to read yet doesn’t apply here. We are wondering if this is because we are low income, or because she checked the box about applying for aid. They wouldn’t know exactly what our needs are yet though since they don’t require the forms until after she gets in.
Does anyone have any experience with this situation? Thank you!
Did she write the Why Tulane essay? Demonstrated interest? Perhaps that could be why or the admissions counselor isn’t quite through with the applications yet. It’s possible that the other two students had turned in their application earlier. When was her application marked complete? Maybe her transcript, test scores, or recommendations held her off from recieving her decision as early. I personally would not sweat it; the deadline hasn’t even came for EA/SCEA yet. More decisions will come out after Nov 15th.
She wrote a very long “Why Tulane” essay and went to two different local events. Not sure exactly when her application was complete - sometime in September and likely the same time or earlier than the other kids’ ones were complete since it was the earliest our school sent out their packets. It just doesn’t feel good to think that it might have something to do with our need for aid. I’m not sure how her test scores or transcript or recs would result in them holding off on a decision, unless they think she is using it as a safety - but I’ve read about other students with high stats already getting decisions.
My daughter hasn’t heard either. We won’t qualify for need aid, but I had her check the financial aid box because I wanted to be sure she is considered for merit aid. Seems like a lot of people would check that box. Hopefully, that doesn’t matter.
Is it possible for her to call her admissions rep and ask what her status is, just to make sure there’s nothing holding it up that you didn’t know about?
As I mentioned in another thread, she should definitely write to the admissions officer and express again that Tulane is a top choice for her. I can absolutely promise you within a 99.9% confidence level that financial need has nothing to do with it. I understand how easy it is to start to think that, but in many years of observing Tulane closely, I can tell you this just is not how they work. It might have something to do with a (mis)perception of her true intentions about Tulane. It is actually fairly common for kids with stats that hit Tulane’s sweet spot in the middle of their stat range to hear back faster. Honestly, there could be 100 innocent reasons. But a note to her admissions person might jiggle her folder to the top of the pile.
We checked the Need Box, applied on Oct 22 and found out yesterday online. Your D’s grades etc look awesome. I know you’re nervous and very anxious, but try to be patient. I think we are all going to look back at this, and ourselves, months from now and have a good laugh. I’m sure you will know soon and it’s just delayed for any number of inconsequential reasons. Good luck everyone.