To the kids with high stats, being deferred

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tulane University
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<p>I think I'll try to explain what's going on. Some here won't agree with me, but I've experienced this at one university, and would like to share what I learned.</p>

<p>Schools know the general ranges of SAT, ACT, and GPA scores of people who "accept" their offer. Not the people who are admitted, necessarily. One of Tulane's goals, if they admit it or not, is to be ranked higher, and one way to either inflate your ranking, or look like a darn desirable school, is to have a number ratio, as close as possible (without overfill) of students accepted to students actually accepting the offer. </p>

<p>Like this:</p>

<p>If you accept all students with 34, 35, ACTS, for example, it's very likely most won't come to Tulane. They'll accept an offer from Duke, Yale, or Harvard, etc. While (apparently this year) many people with these scores already know how awesome New Orleans is, and that Tulane is the perfect match for them, this is not the case will all students. It's a fact of life. </p>

<p>If you accept a blend of students, but mostly students with lower ACTS, it's likely MOST will come to Tulane. </p>

<p>In short, Tulane doesn't want to be a safe school. It doesn't help their rankings. I feel like most of the people complaining about deferral (indeed, some admitted it) only applied to Tulane because "it was a free application" or "no essay" or "I was told I would get a big scholarship" or "my mom told me to." </p>

<p>I’m sorry if this upsets some people, but if it makes you feel better, schools on the top 20-30 ranked list play this “game” religiously.</p>

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<p>^^would totally agree with you, tulane child if it wasn’t for the timing issue; they didn’t defer anyone with high stats back in November, only the last couple of weeks…</p>

<p>heck, they barely deferred anyone at all in the beginning of releasing decisions…</p>

3

<p>rodney: it is quite possible that applications that arrived to Tulane in the last week before 11/15 were read at a point when the target number of EA admits was already being reached. Might be a case of first in, first out, and a higher % of acceptees than anticipated early in the round.</p>

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<p>^^exactly…but that would not necessarily be a “yield protection” policy as tulanechild has inferred…</p>

<p>and btw, I do not know (my daughter did not apply) but is it somewhere stated that Tulane EA is a rolling process and that students should apply as early as possible before the deadline? just wondering so I know for future years</p>

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<p>When they began releasing decisions they released the ones who got accepted right away. From what I’ve read on Tulane Jeff’s blog about how the applications go, the easy accept ones go in one pile while the other ones get reviewed by a committee. Most likely they come out now because they went threw a more extensive review process, almost a double or triple check system, to decide whether or not to accept the student.</p>

<p>[Tulane</a> University Admission Blog - Jeff: What Goes on Around Here, Anyways?](<a href=“http://tuadmissionjeff.blogspot.com/2009/11/what-goes-on-around-here-anyways.html]Tulane”>Tulane University Admission Blog - Jeff Schiffman: What Goes on Around Here, Anyways?)</p>

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<p>I think the college admissions office works from a very sophisticated model that assigns a probability that a given student will accept an offer of admission - it will be based upon history and includes things like scores, region of the country, maybe even history from that high school, etc. Last year the model was off by 10% - the admissions office probably did a lot of analysis to figure out why - for example scholarships were more attractive for top students in a poor economy, or whatever, and had to decide how to adjust it.</p>

<p>My guess is that they keep a running total of the percent of their estimate of the percent of the new class that has been filled and it deviated enough from their plan that they slowed down a bit … they probably have to worry about the scholarship budget as well as the class size…</p>

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<p>This could be resolved by doing away with EA and having ED. But then the number of apps goes way down - it’s a good news, bad news kind of thing.</p>

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<p>If Tulanechild’s hypothesis is correct, it would represent a radical departure from what Tulane has been doing the last few years. Clearly they have not worried about yield as the 16% stat would indicate. I have posted my analysis of their strategy in other threads, but it has been awhile and it is probably lost to history now. In short, Tulane’s goal has been to try and snag as many of these high stat students as possible, knowing that many if not most are applying to Tulane as a safety or never actually intended to apply. So the steps have been:</p>

<p>1) Send the free and easy app to these students that are applying to Ivies, Duke, WUSTL, Vandy, etc. Many do send it in.</p>

<p>2) Accept these students quickly and give them the generous merit scholarships and Honors Program invite.</p>

<p>3) Now these students have their interest piqued and actually look into Tulane in a serious way. Many come to visit.</p>

<p>4) They love the campus, they love New Orleans and Tulane moves way up on their list from not a remote consideration to top 3-5, sometimes first choice.</p>

<p>5) Most of these students still end up at the higher ranked schools, but enough of them pick Tulane that it results in Tulane having some of the finest classes in their history over the past 3 years.</p>

<p>This scenario has been confirmed in anecdote after anecdote on here and elsewhere. I feel pretty confident it is correct.</p>

<p>The “side” results of this strategy is that Tulane has gotten a huge increase in applications, an artificially low acceptance rate, and an artificially low yield, along with the outstanding class quality. Personally I think they have not changed course so much (after all, why change something that was working so well) as they have had to simply be more careful because of the number of students they can house. If Tulane is going to stick to having freshmen and sophomores live on campus, and I think they are pretty committed to this, then the number of students in these two years added together is what counts. Hence the need to dial back on their strategy to some degree, since what Parent9 says is undoubtedly true.</p>

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<p>I don’t have a lot of experience, as I am just in high school now, but there are lots of things – other than just the stats – that go into a college decision. I would assume that this includes the probability that you will go there but also your essays, interests, and the sense of you that they get from your application as a whole.</p>

<p>Now, I’m not saying that you guys didn’t have good essays, recs, or that your interests were not right for Tulane, but I do think that it’s probably more than just SAT scores and extra-curriculars.</p>

<p>I was accepted EA and I know that I don’t have as good of tests scores or as much community service or extra-curricular stuff as some of the people who are writing on here that they were deferred, but I did get accepted, so that would lead me to believe that there is more to it. or that they just assume that i will go there…either is a possibility. </p>

<p>I hope that people don’t take this as a braggy thing – it’s not – it’s just the way that I like to think about the college process, be it idealistic or not, I’d hope that I’m more than just my stats to the school that I chose to attend.</p>

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<p>3bysmom: that was my suggestion last year actually; they wouldn’t have to get rid of EA, just add an ED notification that is binding…</p>

<p>there are other schools that have both ED and EA; it might not completely alleviate the “weirdness”, but at least would help Tulane’s yield managment…</p>

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<p>neonangel - You are not being rude in the least, and of course there is a holistic aspect to admissions. Congrats on your acceptance, btw!! But the reality is that the very heavy weight of the admissions decisions, at Tulane at least, have traditionally been on academics and community service. It has been fairly rare that high stat students did not get admitted. I can only tell you as someone that has been following this for some time that this year’s cycle is different. These kinds of deferments did not happen before, at least not in this quantity.</p>

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<p>I got deferred w/ a 33 ACT, 2190 SAT, 4.0 UW GPA 1/78 rank and great leadership positions that include founding my own debate team and Tulane was the most selective school I applied to so I’m extremely upset</p>

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<p>meg - I would definitely call your admissions counselor and let them know that Tulane is your #1 choice. You didn’t say it was, I am just extrapolating from your upset. I think it could really help. I may be wrong of course, but I think it is worth a try.</p>

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<p>Thank you, that might relieve some stress.</p>

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<p>meg322:</p>

<p>I agree with fc that indicating a strong interest in Tulane will help you in the RD pool. That said, I just wonder why - with your very, very excellent record - you didn’t consider applying to an even more selective school than Tulane. I don’t want anyone to misunderstand: Tulane is very selective with an acceptance rate down around 25%, I believe. But I would think you would have a good shot at some of the finest LACs and universities in the country. It’s not too late to try for some of those, during RD.</p>

<p>Hope everything works out well for you, perhaps still at Tulane.</p>

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<p>meg,
I agree with fc-- if Tulane is your top choice, you should show them the love. They have been pretty consistent in their comments that demonstrated interest and campus visits mean a lot to them</p>

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<p>LOL I’m glad they weren’t doing that three years ago. I was one of those kids snagged by the nice scholarship/ “I can go to school in NEW ORLEANS?” complex. </p>

<p>My essay was a reused one from another school–something about, “If you go could back in time, where/when would you go?”</p>