Do you know approximately the percentage of deferrals that eventually get accepted?
@wwh12210 I have to laugh because you just proved why Tulane’s method works! You are a perfect example of them knowing what they are doing.
Daughter was also deferred just an hour or so ago. She is disappointed and we were more than a little frustrated with the way Tulane releases decisions, but for her Tulane is her top choice and she will go if she gets in regular decision. She said she just going to hunker down and do everything she can to achieve that. Her stats are at the top of the sweet spot for Tulane, not quite Ivy high, so it wasn’t a safety or a reach for her. She already has a full ride to her safety, which is also a pretty competitive school. Even though I, like most parents, think they are crazy to not have admitted her EA, I have to side with fallenchemist’s “rant.” You are only proving Tulane’s point, by blaming them. Have a good cry or rant in your own home and move on.
Decision: Accepted
Merit Scholarship: have not received the letter yet to notify me how much
School/major: Neuroscience or biomedical engineering (I can’t decide yet, but I applied with neuroscience)
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): n/a
ACT (breakdown): 32
SAT II (place score in parentheses): n/a
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.73
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): n/a
AP (place score in parentheses):
IB (place score in parentheses):
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc AB, AP Physics C, English, AP Music Theory, Band, Jazz Band, AP Psych
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Illinois State Scholar, Outstanding Achievement Award
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Band everything (a lot of bands) (section leader), NHS, Tri-M, Spanish National Honor Society, Relay for Life Committee
Job/Work Experience: part-time sales associate
Volunteer/Community Service: 20 hours
Summer Activities: job
Essays: good
Teacher Recommendations: good
Counselor Rec: good
Additional Rec:
Interview: no
Other
State (if domestic applicant): IL
Country (if international applicant): USA
School Type: public
Ethnicity: white
Gender: female
I will also repeat what I have said earlier at least once. Tulane knows they don’t get it perfectly right. That would be impossible until they perfect fMRI or PET scans or whatever technique it would be that allows them to read minds to see when people are telling the truth. Obviously I am exaggerating to make a point. But that is one reason Tulane doesn’t deny admissions at this time, but defers.
Yes, I understand it is deflating to get deferred when you know what your intentions are. But I am sure it isn’t your first lesson into the fact that it isn’t a perfect world. Tulane is trying to balance about 20 variables. Class size, overall balance of types of students, academic standards, factors Tulane considers crucial to its mission as a university beyond academics, diversity issues, and on and on, including high desire to attend Tulane as opposed to “settling” because Tulane is not in the top 10 or 15 or 20. From your end it is far more straightforward. Not easy, that isn’t the same thing.
If being deferred is so demoralizing that you are soured on Tulane, then it probably really wasn’t the right school to begin with, because you have some odd notion of the omnipotence of the administration. They are giving you another chance to demonstrate that you want to be there, to prove that they made a misjudgement. I can promise you one thing. They certainly want students that pick themselves up and rise to the challenge a lot more than students that whine and complain and feel so entitled that they just say “Screw you, Tulane” because of one bump in the road.
Also, NO ONE should ever consider Tulane a safety, no matter what your stats. They do not have a “self confidence issue”, but you do not have a clear understanding of the admissions process. I wish you the best at Rice.
@fallenchemist Georgetown and Tulane do share the same “no denial” policy.
Thanks, good to have confirmation on that. Just out of curiosity, do you know what Georgetown’s thinking is about that? It’s a bit unusual for an ED school.
@fallenchemist Georgetown is Restrictive Early Action, and the EA rate is lower than RD (13% to 16% if I remember correctly). The requirement is that you apply nowhere Early Decision (so you can do as many EAs as you want). I think the incentive for them is that they don’t have to compete with selective schools offering ED, while still giving good incentive to apply to Georgetown (despite the insanely low EA rate)
Decision: Deferred
Merit Scholarship, if received:
School/major: Cell and Molecular Biology
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): NA
ACT (breakdown): 33
SAT II (place score in parentheses):
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.8
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): n/a (homeschooled)
AP (place score in parentheses): APUSH (3), AP English and Comp: (4)
IB (place score in parentheses): n/a
Senior Year Course Load: (all taking dual enrollment at state University)
First semester:
Chemical Principles II, Precalculus 2, Spanish, Medical Terminology, Intro to Mass COmmunicaitons
Second Semester:
Calculus I, Spanish, Globalization and Social Justice
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): n/a
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Classical Ballet 9-10th grade, Pre med group 11-12
Job/Work Experience: Host/Server’s Assistant at a restaurant, CNA
Volunteer/Community Service: volunteer at hospital, volunteer with disability ministry at church
Summer Activities: two service trips to other countries with my church
Teacher Recommendations: NA
Counselor Rec: should’ve been great
Additional Rec: NA
Interview: n/a
Other:
State (if domestic applicant): MN
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: home school (although I have been full-time at my state University for 11-12th grade)
Ethnicity: Asian/white
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: 100k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):
Reflection:
Strengths: Essays, challenging courses
Weaknesses: extracurriculars are pretty weak considering I am home schooled.
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: I honestly feel like there are so many flaws in my application that I can’t really do anything about…
Where else you are applying or have already applied: Waiting to hear from: UMN, WashU
General Comments/Advice/Hindsight: I kind of have a unique experience in that I went to a performing arts school for the first year of high school, went to my public high school my sophomore year, and then have been home schooled but full-time post secondary at my state’s main university. Hoping that finals will go well next week, and that my transcript will show improvement from my first semester of post secondary that was not as great as it could’ve been!
Oh, OK. I was so sure they were an ED school I didn’t look it up. My mistake, obviously. Makes more sense for an EA school, even an SCEA (REA) one.
Geez, now as I type that I do remember looking at their policy a couple years ago about applying to other schools if you apply REA and it is one of the most restrictive. I would have to go back and look at the details, but there was one policy in particular I remember thinking was unfair, and that even the most elite schools with REA/SCEA didn’t have that restriction. Oh well, that is for another thread.
Decision: Deferred
Objective:
SAT breakdown: 2250
ACT: 34
GPA Unweighted: 4.0
Rank: Top 1%
APs: I am currently taking 5, I have taken four in the past
Extracurriculars: I attended a Japanese language immersion Concordia Language Villages, have been in 4H since I was 9 and am currently president of my club, have been a Key Club member since my freshman year, am a three season athlete and have been a team captain of two of my sports teams for the past two years, volunteered at my local hospital and nursing home, and currently have over 180 hours of community service
I am black and transgender from a fairly large family of 7. My dads told my essays were great as did my college advisor, but now I am second guessing myself. What could I have done wrong? Tulane was my top choice. If you have any advice on what I did wrong, please tell me. It would be much appreciated.
@LifeofPie25 You are such an awesome candidate they probably worried that you were going to be snatched up by an Ivy. If you really love Tulane let them know and they likely won’t let you get away!
I imagine it must be incredibly difficult for them to sort through and pick only 1/4 to accept right away – who knows if there’s some offbeat sparkle to an essay that makes it stand out, or if there’s something out of the ordinary in a letter of recommendation. So many outstanding candidates you can’t take it personally when they have to go with gut feelings.
Guess I came across wrong. Don’t get me wrong, Tulane is a great school. I loved everything about it and it’s the reason I applied. It’s just that I’ve been raised my whole life to believe that hard work pays off. But with Tulane, it didn’t.
Also, just because I got into Rice doesn’t mean that I am an example for what Tulane is trying to do. Rice was my reach school, Tulane was what I thought was the perfect fit for me. I’m sure there are plenty of other people who had Tulane as their first or second choice and got deferred. I was wrong to say it was my back up school. It was my second choice out of LOTS of schools. I thought I demonstrated that in the essay, but apparently Tulane just didn’t believe me. I believe what they are doing is just plain wrong. You’re supposed to be rewarded for hard work through admittance and scholarships and education. But I guess it’s wrong for me to think anything is “supposed” to happen. Oh well. Honestly I lost my respect for Tulane. In my opinion, Tulane should be honored such good kids want to go to their school.
Good luck to everyone! To those accepted: Congratulations!
@LifeofPie25 I don’t think you did anything wrong. The admissions process can be a bit of a crapshoot and random. What other schools are on your list?
My daughter was deferred this evening too. I have seen some deferred students on this blog with unbelievable stats, and some with comparatively lower ACT scores and lower GPA’s who were admitted. It is a little baffling. My daughter’s ACT scores were good: English 36, Reading 35, Science 35, and Math 31. 3 great recommendations. Pretty good grades, 3.8 UW, 4.14 W. She has Asperger’s syndrome, recently diagnosed, which explains the discrepancy between her ACT scores and her grades. If she does not like a class, she will not put a lot of effort into it, but if she finds it interesting, there is no end to the research she will do regarding the subject. She can be hyper focused in an area of interest. It is something to behold. I think this discrepancy may have contributed to the deferral. Their are lots of kids out there with better GPA’s that have much lower ACT scores, so I am sure they are wondering why my daughter’s GPA was not higher given her ACT scores. We knew this might be a problem from the get go. She did not want her Asperger’s to factor into the application process so chose not to mention it. And she is not required to do so. We had to leave that decision up to her. She has a couple of other nice scholarship offers on the table from smaller liberal arts colleges, but Tulane would have been nice. She too has been inundated with e-mails and/or brochures from many schools, including most of the Ivy League schools. She thought she would take a shot! And we shall see what the future holds! Good luck to all of you!
@SnapApp Thank you for your kind words. I have applied to UNC, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, NYU, UVA, Georgetown University, and Virginia Tech. I am aiming a little high, and this recent admissions decision has made me uneasy. Crossing my fingers I get in regular decision at Tulane or any of my other schools!
You sound like an unbelievable candidate! You will find your place and make your mark on this world, at Tulane, or at some other wonderful place. You are very bright, and like my daughter, will do well at the college you ultimately decide to attend. And they will be lucky to have you! I think we all need to remember in this super competitive application process that a 34 ACT puts you in the top 1% of ACT scores nationally. That is quite a feat in itself! Good luck to you!
[color=green]Decision: Accepted[/color=green]
Merit Scholarship, if received: $32,000 per year
School/major: Legal Studies in Business
Objective:
[ul]
[]SAT I (breakdown): 800 CR, 740 M, 800 W, 2340 C
[]ACT (breakdown): 35 (35 English, 35 Math, 36 Reading, 34 Science)
[]SAT II (place score in parentheses): Math II (800) Chem (790) US History (760) World History (760)
[]Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.92
[]Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): n/a
[]AP (place score in parentheses): APUSH (5) English Language (5) Physics 1 (5)
[]IB (place score in parentheses): n/a
[]Senior Year Course Load: AP English Lit, AP Spanish Language, AP Calc BC, AP Euro, Film Studies, Journalism Honors
[li]Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): NMSF, national awards for newspaper design[/li][/ul]
Subjective:
[ul]
[]Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Newspaper (Features Editor 12, Projects Editor 11), Political Discussion group (Founder, President 11, 12), International Affairs group (VP 11, President 12), Track and Field (Letterman 10, 11), National Spanish Honor Society, French Club, Student Alumni relations group
[]Job/Work Experience: Development intern for a non-profit, self-employed babysitting, house sitting, and tutoring
[]Volunteer/Community Service: Worked as a docent at a Presidential Library
[]Summer Activities: Volunteering, working
[]Essays: 9/10, writing is one of my strong suits but I procrastinated quite a bit
[]Teacher Recommendations: 10/10, 2 year history teacher and 1 year english teacher who know me super well
[]Counselor Rec: 9/10, I know him pretty well, I go to a small school, and I’m sure he put some effort into it, so I’m sure it was fine, if not a little generic
[]Additional Rec: n/a
[li]Interview: n/a[/li][/ul]
Other:
[ul]
[]State (if domestic applicant): Texas, y’all
[]Country (if international applicant):
[]School Type: Small private all-boys
[]Ethnicity: White
[]Gender: Male
[]Income Bracket: 200k+
[li]Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): nah[/li][/ul]
Reflection:
[ul]
[]Strengths: Test scores, GPA, ECs, recs
[]Weaknesses: Probably not my most polished essays, my resume is a little one-sided
[]Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: I think my application was really genuine and I think I really conveyed why I love Tulane.
[]Where else you are applying or have already applied: Georgetown (Accepted!), UT Austin (Accepted), Boston College, Dartmouth, Stanford, UVA, UNC, Vandy, W&L, USC
[li]General Comments/Advice/Hindsight: Roll wave!![/li][/ul]
@wwh12210, Congratulations on your admission to Rice University. Rice! That’s just awesome. You should be shouting that from the rooftops. This whole admissions frenzy is just so stressful and in many ways nonsensical that it makes some people crazy. The good news is it is now done. Enjoy the rest of your senior year and start thinking about the adventure that Rice is going to be. Now is the time to start becoming more centered and more confident and not so dependent on external factors (e.g., admission to Tulane) to influence your feelings so much. The last thing you should be doing is putting Tulane down. Tulane does what it needs to do to ensure that it has the best class in terms of its needs at the moment. Deferring well qualified candidates – far from indicating a lack of self-confidence - shows the utmost self confidence that if can afford to defer such candidates and still wind up with an enthusiastic class comprised of students who are happy to be there. Tulane is behind you. I guarantee you it will not be on your mind come next August. (Though you may root just a bit harder for Rice at the annual football game against Tulane!). Wishing you all the best!