My daughter applied to Tulane early action and just found out her application was deferred. She is upset and we are both surprised. She has a 4.0 unweighted gpa, has taken 12 ap classes, received a national merit commendation and does sports and volunteers. She also applied for the Paul Tulane and deans honor scholarships. My questions are:
1 why deferred and not accepted?
2) what are the chances she will get in?
3) any hope for the scholarship? (We can’t afford full tuition and don’t qualify for financial aid).
Thanks!
Deferred still means she still has a chance of getting accepted. She’ll have to wait until regular decision results come out.
@freakiestfern, while we do not have her standardized test scores and details about her extracurriculars and therefore cannot answer your questions, I will say that a deferral from Tulane literally, truly, madly deeply is not a reflection on your daughter’s qualifications. The fact is, admissions at Tulane and many other places has gotten so competitive that the schools have more than enough kids with high stats who show more than enough interest, so what they are left with is way more than enough highly qualified applicants who are likely to attend if admitted. From that pool, they then select according to the need to have the most diverse, interesting, involved class possible, one that spans the gamut of the school’s academic offerings and extracurricular interests. For example, they may need more male liberal arts majors, female engineers, Native Americans of any kind, people from Montana, musicians, dancers, vocalists, pre-meds, architects, etc, etc. So, to answer your question from a 30,000 foot level, her qualifications and demographics might have been overly represented in the December applicant pool. However, that does not mean that they will be overly represented after the December admits respond and after the January applications are in. Thus, as the previous poster has stated, if she is really interested, she should definitely stay in touch with the admissions office as per the guidance in Jeff Schffman’s blog.
Did she “show interest”? Tulane doesn’t want to be a safety for students that will attend elsewhere.
Thanks for the responses. She got a 1500 on her SAT. She did email admissions about her interest after getting deferred. As far as showing interest we didn’t visit Tulane because we are in Washington state. We were going to visit if she got a good offer. It’s definitely not a safety school for her. I just wonder if she has a chance for any scholarships or if that’s out because she was deferred?
She is the typical student that uses Tulane a a safety with the expectation of merit. She obviously showed that in her application. It is what it is, right? You wouldn’t give it a thought if there wasn’t big merit potential. Otherwise the Tulane leg work would have been before the deferral, there are tons of high stats kids vying for merit at Tulane, don’t take it personally. It has to be a numbers game. Upset or surprised means she didn’t do the homework on Tulane.
https://tulanehullabaloo.com/27262/showcase/class-2021-academically-qualified-diverse-class/
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the 50th percentile ranging from 1410 to 1500.>>>>>>
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The following won’t be able to help your D, but could be useful if you have any other children to be facing college in the future:
- Sign up for the college email list.
- Attend local or regional info sessions, and sign the attendance sheet.
- In the "Why here" essay, highlight specific things about the college that appeals. It could be volunteering at a specific group off campus, or the name of a specific professor related to her intended study.
- If affordable, visit the college. This has multiple benefits. It shows interest, and it vets the college for your family. Finally, it can make for a much better essays.
Now for your D, if Tulane is really a top choice and she would attend if accepted (and was affordable), have your college counselor send an email to that effect. You can only do that once of course, but that is the best you can do at this point in terms of showing interest.
@freakiestfern A couple of my son’s friends who are equally qualified as your daughter are in the same boat. In both cases Tulane was not their number one choice but instead was serving as a safety(at least in their minds) that they would only consider in the event that their first choice did not come thru or did not give enough aid. They took it for granted that Tulane was not only going to accept them, but provide large sums of aid as well and they are insulted at the outcome in addition to being worried that their first choice schools won’t come thru either. My son has those same stats and thankfully was accepted and I think it was because Tulane is his first choice school and it showed in his application. He enjoyed writing the essay why he wanted to attend Tulane, we gladly drove two hours each way to attend their information night, and he jumped at the chance to interview with an alumni. I’m sure the admissions folks at Tulane are very good at telling who is serious about attending.
DD has a friend with a 25 ACT who got accepted, DD with 33 ACT deferred.
@1S1Dforcollege, the 25 ACT must have brought a heck of a lot to the table, given that the class 25%-75% range is 31-34 (See,https://tulanehullabaloo.com/27262/showcase/class-2021-academically-qualified-diverse-class/). That’s great for her and it also shows that standardized tests are not the be all end all. Hooray for holistic admissions!
Thanks for all the comments. I guess maybe we should have visited but it’s a lot to fly across the country. Figured it made sense to wait but I guess not. Do you all think there is any chance to get admitted? To get a scholarship?
Yes, she has a chance to get admitted and to get a scholarship. A 1500 SAT and a 4.0 unweighted GPA are nothing to sneeze at! Good luck!
@freakiestfern I think she still has a very good chance of getting admission and if she does, she will get a good scholarship. One last thing to consider that nobody has touched on relating to this thread is that certain majors are a lot harder to gain admittance than others. IE scores and grades that work for humanities and social science majors might not work for impacted subjects like computers and engineering.
Thanks! Any advice on what she should do? She emailed the school and got a reply to contact her admissions counselor. She’s going to do that tomorrow.
I would say make sure she talks to her admissions counselor on the phone, not just e-mail. Ask the admissions counselor what she should do to show that Tulane is her first choice. Follow up again with whatever questions she can think of every couple of weeks. The phone is better than e-mail in my opinion. I had my son start calling Tulane with questions last summer. He thought it was awkward at the time, but he’s glad he did it now.
My daughter with high stats was also deferred 2 years ago. She continued to reach out to her Admissions Counselor and express how interested she was in Tulane and that it was her #1 choice. She was granted acceptance in mid-February, along with the highest level of scholarship money and honors program invite. She is now a very happy Sophomore and it all worked out as planned.
@freakiestfern Lots of helpful suggestions have been shared. Tulane is one of my D’s top choices, and her application showed her love for the school. We’re from WA, too. D attended the 2016 reception (in Seattle), and we could only afford to visit 1 school this summer, so she chose Tulane. She connected with the regional admissions officer both times – a great guy and knowledgable about the local schools and Seattle area in general. When she couldn’t attend the reception this fall, she emailed and let him know. She called the office with questions and spoke to another person who happened to know someone from our high school currently attending Tulane. The Admisions team built a rapport with her as much as she built one with them. FYI, she did NOT have the same connectivity with her other top choice school, and did not get in. I think her affinity for Tulane and her contact with the admissions team made a difference in being accepted. My advice is to have D pick up the phone and call the regional contact (Neill). She should let him know that Tulane is a top choice and ask if there’s anything else she can add or do to add to her application.Good luck!
Want to add that I got in EA without a visit, interview, email to the admission person, or meeting with the rep who came to my school and town. I decided very late in the game to apply to Tulane (discovered they had a strong program in what I want to study) and didn’t have the time nor the money to visit and the reps coming to town already happened. I did take the time to write a very compelling and specific Why Tulane essay and activity essay and contacted someone in the department that I am interested in. I was nervous that not visiting would do me in, but it was just not feasible and thankfully I overcame that with my essays.
Can your daughter apply ED2? That would help a lot to show interest if it’s her first choice.
Have you spoken to your admissions counselr? A friends son was deferred but after calling found out if he came for a campus visit that he would be accepted.
My son was accepted with lower credentials than your daughter but went to the Tulane information nights, visited Tulane & had the optional alumni interview. Showing interest is very important.
Just got in! (email saying portal was updated)
Accepted with founders award ($80,000)
Was deferred- early action now admitted