To all of you who were deferred by Tulane in the Early Action round …
I know it’s tough to feel that you’ve done everything “right” and then not receive the news you expected, especially if Tulane is a first-choice college or high on your list. And, let’s face it, it’s even more painful when you see students whose qualifications seem less impressive than your own who are proclaiming, “Accepted.”
So as you continue to navigate through the college admissions quagmire, here are a couple things to keep in mind:
- Being deferred via EA at Tulane is very common, even for students who seem to be firing on all cylinders, as we have seen from many of the posts on this thread. And a deferral is not in any way a rejection. Each year I know students who are deferred in the EA round at Tulane who are then not only admitted in the RD round but also offered generous merit grants.
Early Action is very different than Early DECISION. When you apply to a college via ED, you are saying, “I truly want to attend this school and will definitely enroll if you offer me a place.” BUT … when you apply via Early ACTION, you are saying something that sounds more like, “I am interested in this college but may or may not enroll. Save a space for me anyway.”
So it is usually easier to get into a college via Early Decision than it is via Regular Decision because the college wants to accept applicants whom they know will matriculate for sure (barring extenuating circumstances or financial-aid inadequacy). But, on the other hand, at many colleges it is actually HARDER to get in during the Early ACTION round than it is via RD. Admission officials don’t want to save spaces in the fall for students who are free to end up elsewhere (and who may, in fact, be awaiting ED verdicts), unless these students have indicated that they are extremely motivated to enroll or if these students meet some “institutional need.”
For those of us on the outside, institutional needs can be almost impossible to anticipate. For instance, during the years that I worked at Smith College, there was a period when Smith was especially interested in attracting Jewish students (Jewish enrollment had been dwindling) and there was also a time when Smith was hot for future German majors (again, probably due to declining numbers). But these needs certainly weren’t published or public. Similarly, the students whom Tulane has admitted EA might meet some demographic or academic or extracurricular or financial priority that is particularly important to the university during the current admission cycle. They also may have demonstrated significant commitment to enrolling. There is a lot that the stats and achievements posted on the CC forum will not reveal! (As noted above by @fallenchemist, a computer could determine admission outcomes if stats and EC’s alone were the determining factors.)
In addition, Tulane is very unusual–perhaps even unique—because students can choose between a standard Early Action option and a SINGLE CHOICE Early Action option. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any other institution that offers BOTH Early Action and Single Choice Early Action. Thus, students who want to signal that Tulane is their number-one choice can use SCEA to send that message. Conversely, those who choose the standard EA option are implying, “I’m also applying Early somewhere else.”
Last fall I worried that my own son, who had high grades and test scores and all that jazz and who was very interested in Tulane, might send a mixed message by not choosing SCEA. However, merit aid was critical for our family, and so he had to apply to another university that required an Early Action bid for all applicants who wanted to be considered for a full-ride merit award. My son certainly preferred Tulane over this second university, but we couldn’t afford to put all of our eggs in the SCEA basket in case he needed to follow the money to another college. So, instead of applying SCEA, he bent over backwards to show his love to Tulane by having several exchanges with his regional rep, attending “local” events that weren’t all that local, and writing a very specific “Why Tulane?” essay. His commitment was genuine (in fact, ultimately he picked Tulane over an Ivy) and maybe this shined through because he did get in via Early Action (and now he’s at Tulane and delighted to be there). But I bet that there are some of you who wanted a yes from Tulane as much as he did but didn’t sufficiently stress it in your application. (It can help to have a college counselor for a mother though I’m sure my son would tell you that, at times, it can be pretty awful, too.) 
I also bet that a few of you who were deferred wrote in your “Why Tulane?” essays that you consider Tulane unique among all your target colleges. At least that’s how my son felt when he was researching schools last year. And I do agree that there is a special quality at Tulane that sets it apart from many competitors. But this uniqueness that you praise means that Tulane admission folks don’t necessarily approach their EA decisions in quite the same way that other colleges do. They may save spaces in the EA round only for those students who stand out in some way and whom they suspect will not only choose Tulane but who also will add to the uncommon character of the school. If you think that this is you and that you were mistakenly deferred, I know it’s stressful, but hang in there. Your odds of a spring acceptance are excellent. See #2 below.
2. Be sure to show continued interest to your regional rep. Here’s a sample “Update Letter” from an old “Ask the Dean” column that was used by a student who had been deferred by her EA college (and she was eventually admitted). http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/how-do-i-send-resume-updates-to-colleges/
Granted, it can be tough to compile an “Update Letter” because not much time has passed since your initial application was submitted, and you’ve probably spent the lion’s share of that time laboring over other applications. 
So you may not have anything dazzling to report. Yet you can see from the sample that it’s fine to include small changes and even some quasi-humorous ones.
If Tulane is your first choice and you will definitely enroll if accepted (at least if the money part works out), you should clearly say so. You can even go one step further by coming up with a gimmicky extra that combines a stated passion or talent of yours with something that’s specific to Tulane … a musical composition, poem, short play, collection of photographs, even an invention for the science-minded (the Tulane cats, for instance, could benefit from a dispenser that doles out treats judiciously). While the cutesy stuff doesn’t always work and often requires a bit of luck (some admission officials will appreciate it more than others), it can never hurt, and it might even provide some entertainment (and distraction) for you while you create it.
Bottom line: If you assumed you’d be accepted by Tulane this fall and weren’t, you have been deferred, not rejected. So just remember that, even if you weren’t a first-round draft choice, it doesn’t mean you won’t end up with a Super Bowl ring. Tom Brady wasn’t picked for the NFL until the sixth round and now he’s got four of ’em. 
