Priority Application

<p>Hi. My S received a Priority Application and a fee waiver. Stats are good but not great so we find this confusing. Anyone else get this or have any insights on this Priority Application?</p>

<p>To tell the truth, it is mostly marketing and lots of schools do it. What triggers it varies from school to school, but something in his record must have met Tulane’s parameters for sending it out. SAT, PSAT, # of AP courses, something. I wouldn’t overthink it.</p>

<p>Our D received on and Tulane has never, ever been on her radar. Tulane, CWRU, Fordham, CWRU and several other ‘good’ schools send these out, as well as some that are way lower tier wise. We have yet to see anything like this from a ‘great’ school…but then again they would not need to do this.
D researched Tulane, found it interesting, and filled it out. It is a VERY easy application…FYI. So I agree with fallenchemist. Don’t over think it. Let your S look into it and apply if he thinks it might be a fit.
T</p>

<p>Definitely have her apply if she is interested! I visited Tulane last year and loved it, so it was a no-brainer for me when I received the priority application, but I would definitely recommend it based on what I know about the school and based on how quickly I was able to fill out the application.</p>

<p>Also, I received a decision from Tulane within two days of submitting my app. I don’t mean two days after it finished processing, I mean two days…Sunday morning → Tuesday morning</p>

<p>ROLLLL WAVE!</p>

<p>

I would have thought the same, but my D received a letter from Harvard encouraging her to apply. Admittedly, it is far more subtle than a “priority application”, but it is still marketing the school. I think the other Ivy she got material from was Columbia, which was a more traditional looking brochure type piece. So even the big boys know they have be diligent in maintaining a brand image. After all, that is certainly what they teach in Harvard Business School. Of course this was 5 years ago, but I assume they are still doing it.</p>

<p>There was a student on CC this year who said she had an invite from Yale.</p>

<p>And Rice sent out invites to apply (waived fee) based on AP scores. So yes, top schools are using that as a marketing tool.</p>

<p>Yes, D has received email from Harvard, Yale, etc. encouraging her to apply and showing videos of the school, etc. That I just consider standard recruitment based on scores and some other aspects a company matches for the school. However, she has not received any type of ‘PRIORITY APPLICATION’ with her data pre-filled in, essay requirement waived, etc. from a TOP school.
Those we have NOT seen.
Fee waivers from Amherst, Bowdoin and a few others is the closest. But a Priority Application with ‘Fast Track’ decisions available from a top school? We have not received.
Just from Tulane, Fordham, CWRU and a few others that are a step down.
The Tulane App was incredibly easy to fill out.</p>

<p>T</p>

<p>Yes, that is true that the nature of the marketing differs, no question. You are right that the Ivies and similar schools have no need to push this way. I think Tulane started this after Katrina, when they needed a big push to get application numbers back up. But it worked so well they just keep doing it. Not just for application numbers either. I cannot even guess how many top level students, even some accepted to Ivies and similar schools, had no intention of applying to Tulane, did so because of the priority app, got accepted early with the big scholarship, come visit, and end up enroling. That is a fairly significant part of why Tulane’s stats have steadily increased since Katrina, IMO.</p>