<p>As some of you probably know already from posts on Facebook or from personal experience, Tulane is struggling to make dorm assignments. This is because the incoming class, combined with the previous larger than anticipated classes, has simply maxed out the dorms. This year's class was about 1750 on May 1, and they were hoping that about 100-150 would (to put it crudely) not show up in August because they got off wait lists at other schools, decided on a gap year, or just changed their minds. I can only assume that didn't happen at anywhere near the level they hoped. Typically Tulane would like to have an incoming class of 1500-1550, I think. They are contacting all incoming freshmen to see if some want to study abroad right away!</p>
<p>Anyway, the details of what they are attempting in order to take care of the situation isn't what I was really opening this discussion for, just the needed prelude. Given these circumstances, I am really interested to see what adjustments they will make in the overall admissions process and selection criteria. We will see, but I think some of the former paradigms might not be valid going forward.</p>
<p>Having said that, there is no question that the usual advice of applying early and marking the application SCEA or EA, attending local events, visiting campus, and doing the "Why Tulane" question and any other "optional" essays is still the best way to go. In fact, I would think this is more critical than ever.</p>
<p>On the plus side freshmen classes haven’t been hard to get into (at least for me- and I changed my classes a lot) so it seems like they’ve prepared for that.</p>
<p>From what I have read/heard, it was ~1750 accepting and they thought it would drop to 1650. Certainly I could be off some, but it would explain why they are having so much trouble with dorm assignments and offering some programs to freshmen. I really don’t have details, though. Hoping someone else might be able to fill in some info.</p>
<p>I can only imagine the housing dept. is tearing their hair out. They said in the email that the dorms would be completely full, and they won’t be able to grant first or even second dorm choice to everyone. Hoping I get lucky on Tuesday!</p>
<p>About the admissions, I think Tulane has learned a little lesson. I’m sure they will scale back the free application mailings. And who knows, maybe a common app in the future?</p>
<p>They had the common app, then changed to something called the universal app. Right? Either way, how does that help with predicting admission acceptances?</p>
<p>I do agree, though, that given Tulane’s recent ascension in “hotness” and the time that has now passed since Katrina, it may be appropriate to reinstate an application fee. It doesn’t eliminate people applying that are not really all that interested, since for many the money is not much of an issue, but it would attenuate it some.</p>
<p>FYI, my freshman year (dark ages) was also a bit oversubscribed and we had to triple up in some rooms (Phelps for me) for a while until they determined who just did not show up without even informing the university. After a couple of weeks I was roomed with a second year architecture student in Monroe.</p>
<p>Yeah, they’re on the universal app now. I don’t know a single person ever who’s used the universal app though. You’re right, it doesn’t have anything to do with next years admissions but I’m interested to see how they handle next year knowing what happened this year. Maybe an ED or a removal of EA or SCEA would help? I can see how two rounds of early action in addition to the regular decision could leave Tulane with too many kids. An ED round or just one EA round might give the admission dept. more power to control the incoming class sizes. Just speculating.</p>
<p>Yeah, I know. Complicated stuff. The only schools that have it “easy” are Harvard, Yale and a few others that have such high and steady yields they can essentially control the class size from the start. If, for some reason, on May 1 they get fewer than they expected then they have plenty on the wait list that are more than anxious to enroll. Everyone else is essentially playing craps every year. Of course, the more esteemed the institution, the more conservative they can afford to be since they can go to their wait list. So WUSTL or Duke, for example, can be a bit stingy with initial acceptances and then control the size of the incoming class easily without sacrificing overall quality. Maybe Tulane is getting there now. An interesting job for the next few years, trying to sort this all out.</p>
<p>northwesty - I forget, is your kid an incoming freshman? Also, I wonder how they are handling the local students. I wonder if they are asking them to live at home initially, maybe giving them free parking?</p>
<p>northwesty–I’m assuming your kid is an incoming freshman? For some weird reason not all freshman received the housing dept. email about them changing room assignment day from last thursday to tomorrow. They also had some stuff about not being able to meet everyones needs so be flexible and stuff like that. I can PM you the email if you’d like.</p>
<p>way back in 2009, I suggested (here, maybe?) that it made no sense to me why Tulane DID NOT have ED…</p>
<p>Then, they started a SCEA (Why??)…in light of the last two years, me thinkin I was 100% correct…</p>
<p>FC: are they not sending out the priority free app this year? I guess that’s why one of my students said that nobody has seen it…(tippy top kid)</p>
<p>I don’t know if they are or are not. I think a bit early in either case. As best I recall, they try to wait until about Sept 1 to have people start applying.</p>
<p>I remember when you suggested that ED made more sense than SCEA. I wasn’t sold on it at the time, but I think it is pretty persuasive now. Of course, it would be ludicrous to imagine they have not talked about it internally at some length, so it would be really interesting to know what their reasoning was at the time (I think I know, but I cannot be 100% sure) and how that may be evolving.</p>
<p>I think it would be a big mistake for Tulane to discontinue EA. When my son was a high school senior, he had two favorite schools, one of which was Tulane. The other school had a slight edge in his mind going into senior year. He would not have applied ED to Tulane, or anywhere else, because he wasn’t ready to commit. He applied early and had his answer when he went down for a Campus Preview Day in the fall. Knowing he was accepted made him look at the school through new eyes. He came home from that visit with Tulane as his first choice. Having an early answer gave Tulane an edge over the other school. I don’t know if he had to wait for that answer if he would have ended up there. His enthusiasm for Tulane grew over the course of his senior year and I think it was in part because they said “yes” early and that yes came with the merit offer which made him feel really good about it. Before he even heard from School #2, he practically had his bags packed for New Orleans. If adding ED means giving up EA, then I think that would be a mistake. I have a rising high school senior at the moment and Tulane is currently his first choice; however, he would not apply ED for the simple reason that he is a very academically qualified applicant for almost any university and we want him to have the opportunity to weigh his options. He will apply either SCEA or EA because Tulane is his first choice and he will want to maximize his chances obviously. </p>
<p>I honestly feel that ED is a way for some schools to lock in a group of students who are willing to pay the maximum to attend. I know that at some schools with ED, the ED applicant pool is statistically below the RD pool in terms of academic qualifications. EA, on the other hand, gives Tulane a chance to get those kids in the upper tiers excited about Tulane, and obviously it is working! I really think they just need to do a better job of using their waitlist. Their yield is on the rise because they are doing such a great job and they need to believe in it.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t get rid of EA either. ED replacing SCEA just means that you know those that apply ED are totally committed to Tulane, and that seems to be what admissions is wanting to know via other means such as SCEA, the Why Tulane question, etc. But none of these “bind” the student to Tulane like ED does, which is the positive and negative of it, depending on what your point of view is regarding asking students to commit like that.</p>
<p>As far as an ED pool being statistically below an RD pool, I am not disputing that may be true in some cases because I really don’t know. But in the schools where I have read the admissions office reports, ED applicants have always been higher than RD in average stats.</p>
<p>In any case, your suggestion that they have even more selective admission thresholds going into April 1 and have faith in getting students from the wait list if need be is also intriguing. Certainly a few years ago that wouldn’t have been an option, but it would definitely be an interesting experiment!</p>
According to Jeff Schiffman’s blog (TulaneJeff), Apps go live in late August. I don’t know if they are sending the free priority app this year, but I expect so, since its been very successful. That said, I’ve been a proponent of charging something for the admissions application for a long time.</p>
<p>While I don’t really understand SCEA, I don’t think Tulane’s current MO is all that consistent with the operating model for the big binding ED schools. As kkat notes above, binding ED is a way for schools like Duke and Cornell and high-end LACs to lock up full payors by giving them significantly better admission odds. At some of those schools the ED admission rate is double the RD percentage. A good way to lock up a base of solid students who’ll pay full freight, leaving admissions free to take a lot of needy kids with outstanding qualifications in RD.</p>
<p>Tulane, I think, is still in the mode of trying to find and sell itself to strong applicants who may not know Tulane very well.</p>