my daughter in Michigan got her acceptance in early November
Doesn’t make sense to me either but I guess that’s the way it works. My daughter turned her SCEA application in as soon as she possibly could because she’s so excited about Tulane but has not heard back yet. And then others from her school who care about Tulane a whole lot less than she does, applied later and have already been accepted. And, their stats are about equal. The only difference is that she applied SCEA in late September and they applied EA in Late October or early November. Oh well, there is still three weeks left, right.
Here is the timeline for my DS. The common application was submitted for EA on November 1. According to the College Board’s website, they sent SAT and SAT Subject Test scores to Tulane on November 4. DS also sent in his ACT scores; however, ACT website does not reflect when those were actually sent to Tulane. Admission acceptance was updated in Gibson on November 17.
It seems that Tulane is delaying decisions or deferring a lot of high stat kids. My D (SAT 2290, 4.0 unweighted, rank first in class) applied early October and hasn’t received anything yet. I read earlier on this post that Tulane doesn’t like kids that pick Tulane as their safety. Well, this is sad because a lot of those kids like Tulane as their first pick and now after working so hard, they get deferred or rejected. Oh well, if they do that, then that is their loss. 
It’s been said before but worth repeating - it is still early - don’t read anything into the fact that you haven’t heard yet . as someone who went through the college application process with D1 two years ago - the whole thing is somewhat of a mystery to those of us on the outside and lots of factors go into the decision making, in addition to grades. Have to assume that the schools know somewhat what they are doing in this area by now.
That said, definitely make sure you or your child, as the case may be, have reached out to the school with an email or call to make sure they know who you are- may be that tiny little extra needed to tip the scales in your favor. This is something we learned after D1 and it seems to have made a difference with D2…
Not hearing yet does NOT equal deferral. If your student showed interest and put thought into why Tulane, then the “safety” reason will not be in play.
[color=green]Decision: Accepted[/color=green]
Merit Scholarship, if received: Got acceptance letter in the mail today. No merit money unfortunately but still very excited to be accepted.
Objective
- []ACT: 30
[]Weighted GPA : 97.8
[]Rank: top 10%
[]Senior Courses: all honors, 4 AP classes
Subjective:
- []Considerable volunteer work with mentally and physically handicapped children
[]NHS
[]Sports all 4 years
[]Teacher and counselor recs
Other
[list]
[]State: MA
[]School type: Small-Medium size public high school
[]Ethnicity: White
[]Gender: Female
[*]Hooks: D1 thinks her Why Tulane essay was good. Made connection with the admissions counselor for our area. Showed interest
Just got my letter in the mail, and received invitation to the honors college as well as the Presidential Scholarship for $32000 a year! See post 147 (page 10) for more information about me, but here are some quickies:
2350 SAT
4.0 UW GPA
Not many extracurriculars
Pretty good essays and awesome recommendations (I think)
Wrote the “Why Tulane” essay, but didn’t do anything else to express interest
Also, if anyone’s curious, I applied 11/8, got accepted 11/13, and got the letter in the mail 11/20
Also just received my letter (6 days after acceptance) with $32000 Presidential Scholarship and Honors Program Invite. My stats are elsewhere in this thread but I had 2320 SAT, 35 ACT, 4.0 GPA.
Data Columns:
- SAT score (if applicable)
- ACT score (if applicable)
- UW GPA
- post# in this thread
- CC name
- Amount awarded (for awards under $20k)
Presidential, $32k
2250, 35, 3.6, #39, WRoom15
33, 4.0, #63, equestrikt
34, 3.9, #69, collegemom27
34, 4.0, $89, booajo
2230, #239, loxiel
2350, 4.0, #147, mitochondrias
2320, 35, 4.0, #268, collegebobollege
Premier, $30k
32, 3.97, #9, student07151
33, 3.83, #41, mikhailbear
32, 4.0, #40, TheAtlantic
Distinguished $27k
?, ?, #24, ayfriday
2140, 31, 4.0, #13, sparks487
2130, 3.9, #38, NashvilleTNMom
2170, 32, 4.0, #$155, sammy014
31, 3.81, #169, AWASS23
34, 3.38, #206, superqd
31, 3.79, #127, Chopinspiano
Founders, $25k
2250, ?, 3.5, #133, nfhd11214367p0i
Academic, $20k
2080, 3.58, #60, helpimsoconfused
2000, 30, 3.78, #171, TXDad56
36, 3.0, #182, cheesiestpotato1
2010, #257, hankandahalf
Assorted, $10-$19,999k
Congratulation to everyone who’s heard so far!
Good luck to the rest of us 
(I applied 10/15, think I had a pretty nice Why Tulane? essay- my stats are wonky, though, 3.4 UW GPA, 2160 SAT)
[color=green]Decision: Accepted, EA[/color=green]
Merit Scholarship, if received: Founders Scholarship, $25,000/year
School/major: Undeclared
Objective:
- []SAT: 2190 (Writing- 770, Reading- 680, Math- 740)
[]SAT IIs: World History- 710 (sent AP Score in lieu of SAT IIs)
[]Weighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.23
[]AP Scores- World History (5), Lang (5), US. History (5), Chemistry (4), Physics 1 (4)
[]Senior Year Courses- AP Lit, AP Calc AB, AP US Gov, AP Bio, AP Spanish, Advanced Band, Economics
[]Honors: AP Scholar with Distinction, Commended National Merit Scholar, Raudenbush Spanish Award, Intensive Tap Scholar
Subjective:
[ul]
[]Sports: Marching Band (Section Leader), Dance Team (Manager and Co-Captain)
[]Honors Societies: National Honors Society, National English Honors Society, National Music Honors Society, National History Honors Society (VP)
[]Job/Work Experience: part-time day care
[]Volunteer/Community Service: Girl Scouts for 11 years (200+ hours of community service, Bronze, Silver, and Silver Trefoil Awards)
[]Summer Activities: VA Governor’s School for Agriculture, Sewanee Environmental Institute, Smithsonian Institute, Girl Scout Camp Counselor
[]Essays: Common App- Background story, wrote about being adopted; Why Tulane: talked about my experience at Governor’s School and about my grandmother who lived in NOLA for a while
[]Teacher Recommendations: 3 (AP US, AP Lang, AP Physics teachers)
[]Counselor Rec: My school counselor is amazing. She has been on maternity leave for most of the school year so she wrote a lot of her recs over the summer
[li]Interview: No[/li][/ul]
Other:
- []State: Virginia
[]School Type: Public
[]Ethnicity: Asian
[]Gender: Female
Reflection:
- []Strengths: Grades, Extracurriculars, Essays, Rec letters
[]Weaknesses: SAT scores
[]Where else you are applying or have already applied: UVA, William and Mary, Virginia Tech, Cornell, Sewanee, Washington and Lee, Davidson
[]General Comments/Advice/Hindsight: If your stuck on one part of you app, put it away for a couple of days, come back to it, make sure you’re happy with it, then just TURN IT IN! The admissions counselors read the apps in the order they come in, so send them in earlier than the deadline.
I would love to get Fallen Chemist’s take on my son’s situation. He attends a very competitive public school where he’s pursuing an IB Diploma. He works hard & has an unweighted GPA of 3.97 (top 8% of his class), is an AP Scholar (4 in APUSH, 4 in Human Geography, 3 in English), has been on debate team for 4 years (placed 3rd in state last year as a JV debater and is on varsity debate this year), JV baseball, tons of volunteer work including lobbying for youth voting registration legislation (testified twice at state legislature and received hand written note from Secretary of State for his work) and working with pre-schoolers at a church day care. He has a great personality and was hired by a well known local businessman to work the past 3 summers promoting this major local business. He’s in National Honor Society and an editor for the school newspaper. His weakness is his ACT score – 29. Is there any chance he might get merit aid? From the entries so far it appears that when there’ a discrepancy between the strength of a test score and the strength of a GPA, Tulane favors a higher test score when giving out merit money. My son loves Tulane and really wants to go, but I don’t think we can justify it without merit aid.
Hi @manylakes
That is a tough one, because I think your assessment is correct. While both stats are important and without getting into a debate about the validity of doing so, I think there is a bit of a lean towards the standardized test. Still. with his track record in challenging classes, I think he might get something in merit. A 30 would have almost certainly, I believe I saw a set of stats like that recently that got $20,000/year. So a very close call I suspect. Of course, we all hope for the best. He should apply for the Community Service Scholarship.
Thanks so much for the input, Fallen Chemist. He stalled out at a 29 on the ACT. The last time he took it he was only 1/4 point from a 30. We’ll just have to see what happens. He’s a great kid. Your advice on the Community Service Scholarship is appreciated – I didn’t realize those extra scholarships might not be as number based as the others, and I’ll encourage him to apply.
How has your son done with SATs? Some kids just do better on the one test versus the other SAT/ACT.
He did about the same on the SAT and we decided to just focus on the ACT for his retakes. He did really well on the practice tests (even in a simulated test environment) but when he got in the real test room, he would freeze up. I’m trying to remember that he’s a great student and will do well wherever he goes, but as his mom I really want him to be able to attend his first choice. Yesterday he was admitted with a scholarship to Barrett Honors College at ASU, so he won’t be without somewhere to go next year even if Tulane doesn’t work out.
I’m sure he’ll do great no matter wherever he attends and hopefully that’ll be Tulane. Your son has similar numbers as mine and he got the $20K merit scholarship. Good luck.
Following the timeline; appreciate that everyone shares their stories.
My S from PA with 30 ACT; good but not outstanding grades; 4 AP classes, 12+ honors classes; sports some community got in on Sat, yeah! He visited last week.
Just nervous about the scholarship.
Fallen Chemist, your thoughts?
I can’t comment on a non-specific unweighted GPA. But there is only about 3 weeks left anyway, so my guessing is even less useful than otherwise, if it ever is useful.