@elodyCOH @Goose15 Was the title of your email “Your Tulane Application Status”, or something else? (Still waiting for my D to check her portal but curious what it might be). Thx!
@collegemom111111 I think it just said he had a status update. The update was in his regular EA application saying that he was not selected for the PTA, but reiterated what he got for merit. Good luck to your daughter. If she is accepted, does she need PTA to attend, or can you send her with our without merit?
I’m honestly on the fence about which of the bad things feels worse. Not getting in, or getting in and not being able to go. Right now I’m leaning toward not getting in and not being able to go. It is stinging a bit more than the rejection at the moment. Not for him, really, but for us in not being able to give this to him.
D got an update also. She was EA deferred, and did not get the PTA scholarship. No big surprise. They did also say she was “still being considered for admission”. Was pretty generic, so i’m sure the same exact text was in all of those that have not been admitted, and are still waiting on a decision. Hopefully someone that was deferred got better news!
Good luck!
@elodyCOH same. It’s heartbreaking.
@elodyCOH Thanks for your reply - really appreciate it. I understand how you feel. It sounds like very, very few will get the PTA. We haven’t really decided yet how much merit will influence our final decision. We will weigh all options and then go from there. Good luck to you and yours, and I’m sure wherever your S ends up I’m sure it will be great. 
@elodyCOH @TXdad1425 D finally checked her portal, and she did not get PTA. She is still in deferred status. Same as what TXdad1425 got. Oh well, we’ll keep on waiting…
@collegemom111111 I am sorry to hear that. I do believe that all of our wonderful children will find their places. Best wishes in the quest!
My parents are having the hardest time trying to reach the financial aid office. 5 unanswered emails, 3 voicemail messages without a return call. One time there were on hold for 45 minutes and they gave up. They even tried to go through our assigned admission officer but no response. Is anybody experiencing the same?
@Goose15 Yeah, the wait on the phone line can be pretty long at times. Have you tried emailing your financial aid counselor directly, I have been able to get a reply within a day or two through that method.
PTA and DHS results are in for my D and she didn’t receive either. We are still waiting on her FA package, but things are not looking good for her right now, which is devastating for me. I feel so bad that we can’t afford to help her, because on paper we should be able to. We just can’t in reality. She did get a $1,000 boost to her merit scholarship, which is good.
@superfreaked Hopefully the FA package comes through for your D. Did you just find out today about DHS and PTA? My D received a portal update (but no email telling her to check) on Tuesday indicating she did not receive DHS, but she has not specifically heard back about PTA. Not sure if she should expect to receive anything specific for PTA at this point.
@obfromjersey The PTA notification comes as an email saying there’s an update to your application and then when you log in to your portal there is a new letter attached that says you did not get the PTA and are still being considered for admissions. Being a deferred applicant we became hopeful when we saw the email titled “your Tulane application status” as we were thinking maybe it was notice of an acceptance, but no. Just notification of not receiving the PTA.
Just my opinion, but watching this year’s changes in Tulane’s admissions strategy, I don’t think it will last. I think it will not increase applications- I think it will be a turn-off.
They have cut back on merit aid while increasing the overall COA of incoming freshmen, expected to be around $75K (HOLY COW!!) https://admission.tulane.edu/tuition-aid/cost And smaller, if not in some cases almost token merit awards (relative to COA) given to strong, qualified students who love Tulane and want to attend will cause them to simply walk away. If the yield improves, it will be only because of the larger % of the class accepted ED I and II (last year they accepted 26% of the class ED, this year I predict it will be more like 35-40%).
I continue to think (not that anyone there cares…) that they should discontinue the free application (make it free for low income and to entice highly desired, cherry picked, superior students). If they charge $70 per application, even if they only charge for 2/3 of the applications, they could still yield almost $2million in application fees that could go towards scholarships. Yes, the number of applications will drop if they charge, but interested, qualified candidates are more likely to be willing to spend $70 on an application than $60-65K/year (I am adjusting for some hopeful scholarship $$) to attend, and the return of the bigger, better merit scholarships that will entice/allow more students to pull the trigger and say “yes” to Tulane. I predict that if they charge for the application (with the waivers I mentioned) they will only see a modest drop in application numbers, and will still have plenty, PLENTY of qualified applicants and can keep their acceptance rate low (continue to take a lot ED I and II) while increasing yield and offering the larger merit awards that were such magnets for many students, and made the school affordable or a reasonably good value.
My younger son LOVED Tulane. He met his wife there. But to be perfectly honest, if he had not won the scholarships that he did, would we have paid top dollar for him to attend? Probably not. But at $12K/year for all out of pocket expenses, it was cheaper than our flagship State U (which he didn’t want to attend anyway).
This post is somewhat tangential to the admission discussion here. I might also copy/paste it as a new thread of posters think it will derail the discussion.
Addendum to above: The predicted COA next year is $75K PLUS transportation!!
Has anyone who applied RD been accepted? Curious to see when they will start rolling out the decisions.
Does anyone know to what extent acceptances of deferred EA applicants is rolling? I believe I’ve read two posters in this threat say they were deferred EA but have since been accepted. So clearly some people are getting accepted prior to the release of RD decisions. But is it just a few? Or will they keep rolling out acceptances between now and the end of March?
I’m wondering the same thing. There were a couple recently who were accepted. There was the question of the fund and term column meaning something…sadly not
@jym626 Maybe this should be a different thread…but how do you know how much they cut down on merit scholarships this year? Is that just anecdotal based on CC or did they come out with stats? I remember hearing chatter about that, but don’t know what the reality is. At our high school I know of 2 (of the 4 I am aware of who got in EA) who got merit based money of 27K or above. Thanks for clarifying!
@pacnwfromne -Have been reading posts from accepted students . Tulane has reported the quantitative shift from Merit to need based aid. https://tulanehullabaloo.com/44695/news/money-matters-tulane-reduces-merit-aid-budget-increases-need-based-financial-aid-spending/ Less awards likely given, and some awards reported sound smaller than in previous years, when automatic awards ranged from $5,000-$32,000/yr.
No $ from PTA so the this school is not an option. I have a hard time understanding how, when they have just about every piece of private financial information we own, that they could expect us to pay what they are asking. It would amount to half of our take home income. The other half goes to mortgage and taxes. I guess we could all stop eating Anyway, good luck to all - onward and upward!