This isn’t meant to be a negative post, but after reading through some of the threads and seeing people wonder why they got deferred I thought I’d answer the question. Tulane, in my opinion, is a good school even if it may not be as prestigious as an ivy league, however many students view it as a safety. The issue with that is Tulane realizes this, and thus even if you are qualified or over qualified you may have gotten deferred. The school is big on demonstrated interest- wether it be through emails or even a campus visit. So if you’re wondering why you got deferred but a friend with similar stats got accepted chances are they displayed more demonstrated interest. In my case this is what lead to me being accepted. It was the only reach school I applied to, with my stats being a 3.4 gpa with no AP classes and a 32 on the ACT, so I was ready to get deferred. I flew out to visit the campus from CA and attended as many local events as I could. This along side with my ec is what i believe boosted my chances. To summarize Tulane wants students who genuinely want to go there and take people who are more than their academics.As for those who are dissapointed about their acceptance results PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE call admissions and email the person in charge for admission in your area expressing how Tulane really was the school you wanted to attend. People have managed to be reconsidered or accepted this way after being deferred originally.
Thanks for this. I think you may be absolutely correct. My daughter got accepted and even received a merit scholarship. We were baffled because her scores are below the mean for Tulane, and she is from NYS, which is heavily represented on campus. We were even suspicious - do they want her because she wants to major in something they don’t have many students in? (Sounds weird, but my husband is in academia, so is aware of how schools game things.) However, we visited the campus, and, if I do say so, daughter wrote an awesome essay on why she wanted to attend Tulane that referenced many of the idiosyncracies of the school that she saw during the visit. I’m sure it didn’t hurt that we have family in New Orleans, so she could also talk a lot about what she loves about New Orleans culture. (hint: not the partying, at least in the traditional sense).
A colleague of mine who has worked at Tulane for many years said that before Katrina the campus was full of disgruntled people who spent their 4 years upset that they weren’t at an Ivy League school. According to him, the storm changed that and started attracted more students interested in public service, but the school may be conscious of not returning to that. Especially since happier students mean more donations once they graduate!