high enough and then find out they know other’s like themselves who got in? Tulane’s ED decisions came out today, and my D knows girls who got in. I was under the impression that she shouldn’t bother if her SAT score weren’t close to 1500 coming from our city. Apparently I was wrong, and feel bad for discouraging my D from applying. All I know about the girls who got accepted were that they were full pay and didn’t have super high stats.Anyone else second guess themselves after they didn’t apply?
Tulane’s middle 50% is 1420-1510. I don’t know how you got the 1500+. Even if you think you may be from an over-represented area, that is a high bar to apply. Anyone that doesn’t get into their clear first choice second guesses themselves. Even some of them do.
There was some second-guessing about a lot of things with my kids, but you do your best with what you know. It will work out. Don’t beat yourself up, @citymama9.
@Eeyore123 I thought if you were unhooked and had my daughter’s demographics you had to be close to the top of that range. Oh well.
@suzy100 Thanks so much. My daughter is now saying “I should have applied ED there”. All I can say is that the humidity is really high in New Orleans. Anyway it’s all good.
If she loved it for ED as her favorite college of all I don’t see any reason not to apply RD?
Can she go ED2
@wisteria100 The thing is she has another ED2 school in mind if she doesn’t get into her ED1 school. I think she has a better shot at both of them than Tulane, but I guess we can talk about that. Thank you.
@momofthreeboys She never saw the school since we would only go there if her test scores were what we thought she needed to have a shot. I think she likes the idea of Tulane. It appeals to so many kids, especially girls in our area.
She can still apply RD. You can also emphasize what “full pay” means. Kids get it.
OP - If she never saw the school, applying ED would not have been a good decision.
Was it her clear first choice, without needing to compare financial aid offers?
She should not ED to schools she has not visited, period. Full stop.
You and your D can drive yourselves nuts second guessing every choice you make. As you go through the process it is best to keep looking ahead rather than behind.
So for a real world perspective–my daughter’s close friend from high school visited UPenn, decided to ED as a long shot, got accepted, and hates it!
There are no simple questions or answers.
And you don’t know that the other student didn’t have 10 other reasons she was accepted. Maybe she is quadruple legacy. Maybe her grandfather is the governor of a state. Maybe she can twirl fire batons while singing opera.
All you can do is focus on your (her) apps. If she really wanted Tulane, she shouldn’t have ED’d to another school, or she should EDII to Tulane. ED is supposed to be for the school you want more than any other, not just to get into the highest ranked school you can.
Trust me, we would never let her ED a school she hasn’t seen. Hopefully she will get into her ED1 school which is an excellent fit. Tulane was her fantasy school from the beginning along with Vanderbilt. Once we knew that her test score weren’t tippy top she didn’t visit or apply to these schools.
Today was the first day that kids were getting acceptances to a school she was interested in. I feel like we will go through this several times in the near future. She looked at her college list (all the schools she has applied to already) and announced that she isn’t thrilled with the colleges except for a couple, and that we didn’t let her apply to her dream schools. We never stopped her from applying anywhere, but what I did was tell her what stats would give her the best shot of getting in. I talked to her about being in the range. Bottom line is we told her she can add a couple of more schools RD including super duper reaches. It’s really hard to hear your child tell you that they don’t like the colleges they applied to. These were all schools she wanted to apply to except for a couple thatI pushed for since I wanted sure-thing safeties as a backup. She gave her approval at the time for these schools.
I think I just needed to vent. Thanks for "listening:.
Oh, and she would never have ED’ed a school that she didn’t love.
Kids are stressed right now. She’ll feel better if she gets a couple of acceptances. Don’t let her get you on the roller coaster with her. Be steady and matter of fact. (And if she adds those reaches RD and doesn’t get in, she may very well blame you for not supporting them as ED schools).
@intparent Good advice! Not to get pulled into the roller coaster. Thank you. And she already got an acceptance to a rolling admissions school that I suggested, but now she is saying that she’ll only go there if she absolutely has no other choices. Shaking my head.
1500 is approximately the 75th percentile of admitted students. With approximately 3/4 of admitted students having lower scores, it should come as no surprise to see admitted students that have lower scores. Tulane and most other selective private colleges have holistic admissions that consider far more than just scores, which can make trying to predict chance of admission based on just SAT score highly inaccurate.
For example, according to the CDS the average GPA of matriculating students was 3.56. Students who have GPAs closer to UW 4.0 are likely to have a greater chance of admission than the overall average. The CDS also indicates Tulane considers demonstrated interest, so students who apply ED are likely to have a further increased chance. They also focus on more subjective criteria like course rigor, character, and “high levels of academic and extracurricular achievement.” Students who excel in these criteria likely have an even further increased chance of admission. Student A who excels in all of these criteria and has a 1400 likely has a far greater chance of admission than student B with a 1500 who does not. The college is need blind, so I certainly wouldn’t assume the other girls acceptances were primarily due to being full pay, rather than a holistic decision based on more than just stats.
Fortunately, it’s not too late. If she really likes Tulane, she can still apply early decision 2 or regular decision.