The college counselor at my son’s school was frank that Tulane wants to be wanted. They frequently reject Ivy quality applicants who don’t visit/contact AO or bomb the Why Tulane essay. If they smell safety application/applied to a million schools, they will WL.
He also mentioned they had a rough year over all with Tulane due to the over enrollment issue.
We just returned from Destination Tulane, where the Director of Admissions stated that they received 41,000 apps this year and offered admission to 7,000 applicants (I am guessing both numbers were rounded up/down for purposes of the presentation).
Also, my husband and I both got the distinct impression Tulane accepts students who will be very involved in activities at both the school and, especially, in the community. Community service and engagement is a big deal and real at Tulane. No doubt Tulane loves those who love them - and NOLA, which is truly a unique and incredible place to go to college. Seems like if they sense that a student will not take advantage of the opportunities offered by the school and the city, they will say no, even if scores and grades are stellar. They love that they are rated at the very top of Princeton Review’s “happiest students,” “most engaged students,” etc. Huge selling point and so something they are not going to mess around with by admitting high stats kids who don’t actually want to be there.
We absolutely loved Tulane, so grateful our son took the chance on ED2. Best decision. Roll Wave!
If we could go back and have had ONE piece of additional info, it would have been this. Knowing the reality of ED vs EA at the few schools that are ACTIVELY managing yield (Northeastern, Tulane, Santa Clara), might have pushed DS to choose ED for one of them, most likely resulting in acceptance. (He chose EA and was waitlisted at all 3.)
Then again, I’m a big believer in things working out exactly as they are supposed to, and we are even more happy with the way things worked out. So there’s that too. 
Who knows why some students accepted to more selective schools, turned down at a given school? My son’s school has a lot of Tulane kids. It’s a popular destination for grads from that school. With good merit money too.
The year my son graduated, a number of them who got into Tulane early were deferred from UMich. Yet there were a few, not as many, but a few in the area who were the other way around. It was puzzling to all who knew about it. No rhyme or reason at all I heard a lot of murmurings about the games Michigan was playing because a few of those kids were way up there in probabilities of getting accepted to highly selective schools (which they were). I have no clue if it’s true that either school, Michigan or Tulane were trying to get out of position of being the early back up school to more selective choices. I don’t understand, if so, how either school picked who to defer.
I’d imagine that’s where “demonstrated interest”, campus visits, college fair contacts, compelling “why Tulane?” essays, legacy and ED commitments come in. Well regarded, well-marketed, extremely “popular” schools like Tulane can fill its acceptance spots with highly qualified kids who would rather go there than other “more prestigious” schools. It’s a win/win.
Personally, I love it and think more schools should adopt the attitude - sniffing out and rewarding legitimate interest and deferring “application spam/acceptance hoarders” who mostly waste everyone’s time, effort and money. It’s not like the quality of the student body would suffer measurably. Most likely it would improve - a good attitude can mean a lot! And rewarding kids who passionately commit with greater acceptance chances and bigger FA is a great way to come full circle.
Do we have any indication of acceptance rates by ED/EA/RA?
Seems like they have hit the winning formula of “Collect Mass Applications/Increase conversion rate to ED/Factor yield into EA/RA admission by heavily weighting demonstrated interest”.
Somewhere in their strategy must be a prioritized FA commitment for ED, since ED families simply can’t attend if EFC isn’t met. Certainly explains the general move away from merit offers. They are up to their eyeballs in that demographic anyway, so why “give” away money? Use it to “guarantee” EFC and pump up those ED apps!
Sounds like the winning strategy. For now, anyway!