Is it a rolling acceptance kinda thing or do they release all of their decisions on a certain day?
If it’s a certain day, when is it?
The DHS has always been announced by UPS 2 day packages, and they have usually gone out on or near the Friday after Presidents Day, or in other word near the end of February.
The PTA is only in its 3rd year, and last year was not quite the same as the first. The first year the early winners seemed to hear about the same time as the DHS people, and then there was a bit of quiet, and then the later winners heard about a week later, maybe 2 weeks. Last year I think it was more around the same time as the DHS, maybe a few days later, with perhaps a few “stragglers” shortly thereafter. It is hard to tell if some of it is just delays in delivery, or in receipt because the family was out of town. But the bottom line is that for both, the latter part of February is magic time. Clearly they have to coordinate because a number of people apply for both, and they don’t let anyone win both. That might be why there are “stragglers” for the PTA, I imagine the DHS gets priority.
I think they should rewrite that part about “rolling” notifications. It is misleading, at least as I understand the term rolling when it comes to admissions, and that is who chooses PTA winners. Obviously they cannot award someone the PTA just because they submitted their application earlier than someone else and therefore got it read sooner. In true rolling admissions, that is what happens, they decide yes, no or maybe in the order they receive the applications, pretty much. No one would think they would award any PTA’s without having read all submissions first, or at least those submissions from people that meet the stats standards. So I think what they meant in this case was just that they might not all be announced at once, as I have explained. I believe that the PTA notification is also a 2 day package, although I cannot remember if it was also UPS or if it was USPS. Not that it really matters. Tulane has gotten better in the last couple of years of sending emails to those who submitted but did not win. Before that they were spotty about it and it was not pleasant for a lot of people to be left hanging. Hopefully that has been straightened out for good.
Bringing this point up so there are no surprises, and correct me if I am remembering incorrectly- but last year weren’t there students who were contacted about the Stamps award, and assumed they must be in the running for DHS, but when all was said and done did not get the DHS? (or Stamps). I remember some shocked families. Just stressing to never assume anything about this process!
Pretty close I think. Last year they made about 200 phone calls to a subset of people that had applied for the DHS. Some people thought, either because it wasn’t clear or because they inferred something that wasn’t there, that they were interviews connected to the Stamps finalist awards. Clearly, since there are only 75 DHS winners, that could not have been true. I believe those calls were actually made to narrow down the DHS field somewhat. I am not sure they had anything to do with Stamps, although they might have been used to help arrive at who the 10 finalists were as well. And that may be where the confusion came from. Just because they were (perhaps) used as input for that eventually, it did not mean, and should not have even implied, that they had at least won a DHS. They did not do those early telephone interviews until last year.
Now it is true that the 10 Stamps finalists are selected from the 75 DHS winners, and 5 of them win the Stamps. I am 99.9% sure that the 5 that did not win the Stamps did get the DHS. I would also imagine that whatever Tulane does this year, they will make it clearer as to exactly what it means.
Thanks for the clarification. I knew there was something but couldn’t remember the details.
Today, D received an email about setting up an optional phone interview. The email made it very clear that the interview does not mean that D is a finalist for either award. It’s just an opportunity for admissions to get to know her better.
Thanks much for that info. Clearly they learned from last year’s kerfuffle!
Did people win either award without the phone call last year?
@ Booajo
Yes, most definitely. I know what the next question obviously is, and my answer is I have no idea. But they certainly have reasons, and they likely cannot share them without mitigating the effectiveness of whatever those reasons are.
Ok, we will just wait it out. I know D got a letter from a dean today (regular mail), and of course I feel she is awesome :)) But no interview offer I’ve heard of.
Ok, dork parent here. She tells me she in fact DID get interview invite. I read the letter. It certainly sounded encouraging, although no guarantee of course.
Dork parent because your kid didn’t tell you something? Then we all be dorks!! @Booajo