<p>Just ran the numbers- if the yield stays around the same as last year, the acceptance rate should drop to 21-22% this year.</p>
<p>However, scholarships/affordability this year could throw that number either way- it's too early to definitively guess.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, and did I mention that in the email I sent asking if my first semester grades were received I asked about how the acceptance rate was changed to 27%? I was feeling really nervous when typing the email and meant to delete that part but didn't. Now they think I'm desperate and don't even have my facts about the school straight. But that's what I get for relying on what collegeboard says right?</p>
<p>hmf123 - Don't worry, they have seen far worse. And they won't think desperate, just anxious, which is normal. Relax, everything will turn out for the best.</p>
<p>I still don't think it's hard to get in. Tulane sent me a free application, and I filled it out. I never bothered to send in my transcripts. I'd bet $1,000,000 they factor my "application" into their total applications. I know I'm not the only one, either.</p>
<p>"In all likelihood, the 44% acceptance rate occurred two years ago."</p>
<p>This is correct. The acceptance rate (as well as the other admissions stats) being listed in US News and other college sites is from the entering freshmen class of 2007. That was the weakest class following Hurricane Katrina.</p>
<p>The 27% acceptance rate was from last year. The school broke a record for the most applications and highest GPA's/SAT's for the incoming class. This year the school has once again broken that record and the acceptance rate looks like it's going to drop below 25%. So if you did get in congratulations. It has gotten MUCH more difficult in the past two years.</p>
<p>"I still don't think it's hard to get in. Tulane sent me a free application, and I filled it out. I never bothered to send in my transcripts. I'd bet $1,000,000 they factor my "application" into their total applications. I know I'm not the only one, either."</p>
<p>While this is a legitimate point, the quality of the entering students has also gone way up the past two years. Last year's entering freshmen class was the strongest in the history of the school and this year's is supposed to be even stronger. So it isn't just a hollow number, the increased applications have actually resulted in a stronger student body.</p>
<p>I <3 Tulane, I don't know how much I have to emphasize this point.</p>
<p>As I mentioned last summer, while the acceptance rate was much tighter last year at 27% (approx 9200 accepted of 34117 applications), the yield dropped from 19% (if memory serves me correctly) to only about 16.3% this past year (freshman class is approx. 1500 students). That yield rate is painful. They've obviously done a great job with increasing the number of applications-- since the applications were up more than 17% this year over last year. Now they should focus on improving the yield.</p>
<p>While it would be nice to improve the yield, I'm still thrilled over the progress the school has made in the past two years. Like I posted earlier, the average GPA's and test scores of the incoming students are much higher now also. The increased applications have definitely had a positive impact despite the low yield.</p>
<p>Tulane is always going to be at a disadvantage as far as yield goes in my opinion due to the location of the school and the vast geographic diversity of the student body. Luckily US News doesn't factor yield into the rankings. Hopefully as we climb up the rankings with the improved admissions stats the university will be able to begin improving the yield as well.</p>
<p>I think that while the # of apps may be somewhat inflated per xSteven's comment, I would think the same would be true of many schools these days. Online apps and aggressive marketing are nearly ubiquitous, as anyone going through the process knows, especially very good students. Tulane is probably just the most dramatic case due to a variety of factors, some obviously quite unique.</p>
<p>In the end, after sorting through all the statistics (which are certainly important for Tulane to understand, and I am sure they do understand them very well), the key is that the incoming class is between 1800-2000 students (I believe that is the goal) and that it represents even higher quality than the previous classes. The dramatic rise in average SAT scores is a good sign that this is happening, but there are also the intangible factors such as attracting kids drawn to the opportunities Tulane and New Orleans offer right now. In theory, this should lead to talented graduates that have learned both the ideals and the practicalities of improving our society in an environment most schools simply cannot offer. I think Tulane is very much on the right track. Hopefully the yield will reflect these efforts.</p>
<p>Can someone explain the acceptance rate - if there are 40,000 applicants and the acceptance rate is 27% - that is about about 10,000 students accepted - does that mean that only about 1 in 8 of the accepted students actually attends Tulane</p>
<p>Future Longhorn - that's right. The students that apply to Tulane that are seriously considering it (you have to assume there are always some number that are set on Ivy and use Tulane as a safety, and similar scenarios) are usually also considering Vandy, Emory, and similar private liberal arts schools, as well as potentially others. If they get accepted to all, to state the obvious they can only go to one. Like insurance companies, schools do actuarial type calculations based on history to try and predict the size of the freshman class. Obviously this is a very difficult job, subject to variables they may not be able to predict.</p>
<p>Just to run some numbers, suppose Tulane is trying to get a class of 1800 freshmen. If they get 34,000 applications, and think they will get a yield (students that accept Tulane's offer) of 20%, they would have to accept 9,000 of the apps. That is an acceptance rate of 26%. If they then get a yield of only 16%, they will have a class of 1440 and that is very tough for the school. If they up the acceptance rate to 33% and stay at 16% yield, they get their 1800. But, if they up the acceptance rate to 33% and then get the 20% yield, they have an incoming class of 2250 and aren't equipped to handle that. Tough job!! Anyway, hopes that clears it up for you.</p>
<p>"Can someone explain the acceptance rate - if there are 40,000 applicants and the acceptance rate is 27% - that is about about 10,000 students accepted - does that mean that only about 1 in 8 of the accepted students actually attends Tulane"</p>
<p>Well for starters, the acceptance rate of 27% was from last year when there were around 33,000 applications. Nobody really knows what the new acceptance rate will look like with the current 40,000 applicants.</p>
<p>I'll run through last year's numbers real fast just to show you how yield works. Last year the admissions office lists approximately 33,000 applicants with an acceptance rate of 27%. That means 8,910 students were accepted and 1,639 actually ended up attending. That puts the yield at 18%, which isn't great but it is better than what was listed earlier. The admissions office probably monitors what the yield is likely to be and uses that information to make decisions on students that have been deferred.</p>
<p>Good explanantion of acceptance rate vs yield. I think the actual numbers might be a little different than you posted Monstar (see post # 28). Only about 1500-1550 are in the current freshman class. They initially had about 1600 acceptances, which was about 200 over what they anticipated, but had some attrition over the summer, likely due to waitlist movement, etc. Are they really up to 40K applications this year?? Yikes.</p>
<p>The freshmen class size came directly from the registrar's website. It should be the correct number of freshmen that actually enrolled. The one I wasn't sure about was the 33,000. I've seen numbers like 34,000 and some change before.</p>
<p>Anyway, yeah the applications are really up to 40,000 this year. Here's a link to an article from the student paper:</p>
<p>Dont know when the registrar's website was posted or updated. The # I mentioned for this year's freshman class was the number reported at freshman orientation. The number they accepted in the spring was around 1600 but the number that actually showed up in August was around 1500-1550 (I forget the exact #).</p>
<p>Here is the link for Tulane with last years numbers. <a href="http://admission.tulane.edu/apply/gettinginto.php%5B/url%5D">http://admission.tulane.edu/apply/gettinginto.php</a> Current (2008-9) freshman class is 1550.</p>
<p>^^ Hmmm. The Hulabaloo article says there were jsut under 33K applications lst year, yet the school has consistently reported about 34,117 applications. Maybe they removed the incomplete applications to get the final number. Either way, they are reporting just under 40K for this year. I am still baffled by the report that last year there were 10K DHS applications (per my s's letter) and this year the letter says 1000 applications? That seems like a typo somewhere....</p>
<p>I agree with you about the typo. Which do you think is more likely?</p>
<p>Why doesn't someone email Dean MacLaren and ask for clarification??</p>