ADMISSION DECISIONS FALL 2016 (CLASS OF 2020)

Colleges & Universities Tulane University
1161

Decision: Deferred
Objective:
ACT Breakdown: 33 Comp, 35E, 31M, 35R, 32S, 36W

Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.1
Currently on track to hit 3.85 UW 1st semester though, never really tried before lol

Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): N/A

AP (place score in parenthesis):
AP Human Geo (4)
AP US History (4)
AP Calculus AB (3)
AP French (4)
AP Euro (4)
AP Lit (3)
AP Lang(4)

IB (place score in parenthesis):

Senior Year Course Load:

AP Stats
Journalism 1
AP Micro
AP Macro
AP US Gov
AP Physics
Sports Marketing
Hybrid Health
Hybrid Fit for Life
Journalism 2
Modern Philosophy
Psych through Lit

Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): JA Company Upper Midwest Company of the Year (9, 11), NYSE Best Financial Performance Award (11), AP Scholar with Distinction (11)

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):

  • Founder of Film Club
  • Founder of Startup Tech Company, Rhidian Tech
  • JA Company Program VP (9, 11)
  • JA Company CEO (12)
  • Student Council (10,11)
  • Youth Impact Executive Board Member (10, 11, 12)
  • Shakespeare (11)
  • Diversity Council (10)
  • Coding Club Instructor (Swift)

Job/Work Experience: 2 Years at local pizza shop

Volunteer/Community service:

  • Youth Impact

Summer Activities: Couple of mission trips

Essays:

Common App: 9/10
Tulane Optional Essays: 7/10

Teacher Recommendation:
9/10
10/10

Counselor Rec:
8/10

Additional Rec:

Interview: None

Other:
State (if domestic applicant): MN

Country (if international applicant): USA

School Type: Public (Ranked in top 10 in state)

Race(s) (White, AA, AI/AN, Asian, NH/PI): Asian

Hispanic (Y/N): No

Gender: Male

Income Bracket: Decent
Hooks: None

Reflection: Don’t know what to make of my App
Strengths: ACT, Extracurriculars, & Essays

Weaknesses: optional essays were not my best work & GPA

Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/denied: GPA

Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/denied: Accepted: UIowa, Iowa State, Deferred: Tulane, Boston College, Reject: Northwestern

1162

very true. thanks! i dont want to bother them too much lol

1163

[size=4]Decision: DEFERRED TO REGULAR DECISION[/size=4]

Objective:
SAT I: single sitting 2220 (Math 750, Reading 750, writing 720), superscore 2290 (Math 750, Reading 760, Writing 770)
ACT: 35 composite (one sitting), Math 33, English 35, Reading 35, Science 35
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank: 1/roughly 600 (on track for valedictorian)
AP: World history (5), Language/Composition (5), Physics 1 (4), Comparative Government (5), US History (3)

Senior Year Course Load: (strong, 5 APs) AP Literature, AP French 4, AP Human Geography, Adv Choir, AP Calculus AB, AP Music Theory, Health/PE
Major Awards: NMSF, International DECA Top 10 Marketing (2x), National Judicial Competition 8th overall

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): I’m not listing everything (I’ve had over 30 throughout HS) but major highlights are:
Y Club (President, VP, Treasurer, Founder), KY Youth Assembly (Bill Author, Congressional Author, Judicial Advocate, public speaking awards), KY United Nations Assembly (statewide office as President of International Court of Justice, speaking awards), French Club (President), Beta Club (Reporter), NHS (Qualified Tutor), Drama Club (Secretary, Activities Coordinator), Dance (teacher/soloist), School Musicals & Plays (Lead, Choreographer) and others

Job/Work Experience: dance teacher (fairly minor, 3 hrs/week)
Volunteer/Community service: 500+ hours (tutoring, community gardening, food banks, theatre school apprentice)
Summer Activities: Governor’s School for the Arts in Musical Theatre (if TASP & an arts conservatory program had a child this is it on a state level), National Judicial Competition, West Point Summer Leaders Experience, Air Force Academy Summer Seminar, Vanderbilt Summer Academy, Governor’s School for Entrepreneurs

Essays: I feel like my common app essay is really strong and unique. I’m normally a pretty good writer, and I feel like this one has a lot of my voice in it. I wrote it about being a fish out of water in a military training camp and getting through that experience.
Teacher Recommendation: These should be strong. I had the teacher for three years and was consistently a top performer.
Counselor Rec: This should be decent. My counselor has 600+ kids to deal with, but I sent her a lot of personal info to write it.

Other:
State (if domestic applicant):KY
School Type: large public HS
Race(s) (White, AA, AI/AN, Asian, NH/PI): white
Gender: F
Hooks: maybe the fact that I’m from a rural/largely underrepresented geographic area?

Reflection:
Strengths: scores, GPA, ECs
Weaknesses: Optional writing was decent, but maybe not quite up to par. Also didn’t interview.
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/denied: I’m a bit surprised and disappointed, but I guess they just want to see me if I would fit in the context of the class as a whole. I didn’t apply for their major scholarship either. I also don’t really have a strong hook. I don’t live close enough to visit campus or interview there, and I’m not sure if that hurt me.

Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/denied:
Accepted: NKU (Honors & full ride), UIndy (Honors & almost full tuition), & Northeastern (Honors & half tuition)
Deferred: Tulane
Applied: Centre, American, Northwestern, Vandy, Yale, Boston U, NYU, Columbia, Transylvania

1164

Decision: Accepted

Merit Scholarship, if received: 32k A year

School/major: Economics

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): N/A
ACT (breakdown): 34 (35M, 35S, 33R, 32E)
SAT II: N/a
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.94 UW
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 10/268
AP (place score in parenthesis): Calc AB:5, Microeconomics:5, Macroeconomics:4, Physics C Mechanics:3
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Physics C E and M, Music Appreciation(Needed the art credit), AP Biology, Business Management Advanced Studies, Ap Literature and Composition, Student Council, AP Government, Student Aide, Ap Stats
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):
DECA State Finalist 2x
Business Student of the Year (My school)
Best Treasurer in my Region (BBYO)
Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
DECA (Procurement Manager, then Treasurer)
FBLA
JSU (Treasurer, Secretary)
BBYO ( CITY vp, treasurer, secretary, newsletter writer/editor, Regional Newsletter Writer/editor)
NCSY( City Vice President)
Lacrosse 1 year jv
Lacrosse 2 years varsity
National Honors Society
Varsity Quiz
Ambassadors (recruit kids to my school) (Long term fundraising chair)
Boys State Honors City Mayor
Job/Work Experience: Internship at a Small Investment Banking Firm
Volunteer/Community service: NHS, Ambassadors, Youth Groups
Summer Activities: Internship
Essays:
Common App: 9/10
Why Tulane: 7/10 (Kinda BSed it)
Teacher Recommendation:
8/10
9/10
Counselor Rec:10/10
Additional Rec: 9/10 from the guy i interned for

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: No
Intended Major: Economics
State (if domestic applicant): NV
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Magnet
Ethnicity: White
Gender: M
Income Bracket: 200,000+
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Legacy

Reflection:

Strengths: My well rounded business extracurriculars, my gpa, my essays, and my act score.
Weaknesses: My lack of international awards
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: My application was very business oriented and i was in the 75th percentile for ACT scores.
Where else were you accepted/deferred/rejected:
Accepted: Indiana-Bloomington, Northeastern, Arizona State University, San Diego State University
Deferred: Cornell
Rejected: N/A
General Comments :

1165

@shunterr my daughter had the same reaction - what did I do wrong. She was and continues to be very sad about this because it was one of the best fitting schools for her. Like you, We did NOT visit yet due to to the expense of the visit and the school. Why suffer making it more of a heartbreak and financial strain if we don’t even know if it’s possible until we see scholarship information? She too is a NMSF and needs to strongly consider schools that give good scholarships - UCF was one of her safety schools too! She wrote a heartfelt Why Tulane essay, communicated with admissions and other departments in earnest to find out more about specific programs. Maybe it didn’t come across as clearly to them. I think maybe it would have been better to use the Tulane app instead of the Common App in hindsight too. Who knows. It’s a holistic process and I guess they just want more information or time to decide. She still thinks, after yesterday getting into one of her reach schools, Michigan, that Tulane is a good fit for her. So she is holding out for that decision. There is always the option to withdraw your application. My daughter has no intention of doing that. She really loves Tulane and while the admission to Michigan bolstered her confidence that there was nothing “wrong”, she’s not giving up on waiting on Tulane for a possibly better fit. On the bright side, if they do get admitted after this, I think it will be an even sweeter reward! :slight_smile: Good luck to you!

1166

@fbhsmom @shunterr and of course to all others:

Here is Jeff’s latest posting on exactly this. Maybe it helps hearing it from admissions themselves, the new Director no less.

http://tuadmissionjeff.blogspot.com/2015/12/its-going-to-be-okay.html

Also @Sally_Rubenstone FYI. Not at all surprisingly it has much the same feel as your post, as would be expected from another admissions professional.

1167

@fallenchemist – aw, that is such a sweet, encouraging blog post. I like this Jeff guy.

1168

Printing up Jeff’s post for my family to read. So important to remain grounded throughout this journey called life.

1169

What other college admissions person has taken the time to write such an encouraging, hopeful, and thoughtful piece for all of us? Bravo @JeffSchiffman. All I’ve seen are the EA tables where they are almost proud that they admitted such a small percentage of really great kids. Other admissions ppl,take note.

1170

Sometimes admission folks actually “like” the applicants they turn away more than some of the ones they accept. As Jeff pointed out (and I said something similar earlier on this thread), admission officials are given priorities that they need to meet when creating a freshman class. There are times when the most appealing candidates are not the ones who get the good news because of these institutional needs. But I think it’s important for students to realize that, even if they are deferred or denied, there may have been someone in a committee meeting who was rooting hard for them.

For instance, I have a friend whose son wanted to attend Middlebury College. He went to campus for an interview and returned to report that he’d had a super one. He felt he’d really connected with the interviewer. He later he found out that he hadn’t been admitted. The denial made him question whether he’d really impressed his interviewer as much as he thought he had, and it undermined his confidence in his ability to judge his interactions with others.

Well, I happened to know the woman who had interviewed him and I saw her somewhere nearly a year later. We were talking about the crazy and often unpredictable admission process, and I mentioned this boy she’d interviewed the previous fall. Although many months had gone by, she recognized the name instantly. “What a great kid!” she effused. She told me how much she’d enjoyed talking to him (she even recalled a few of the topics they’d covered), how eagerly she had supported his candidacy, and how disappointed she was when Middlebury couldn’t find a place for him. I should also add that the boy ended up at Bowdoin, so he was clearly a strong student, and it seems almost capricious that Bowdoin took him while Middlebury didn’t. Of course I relayed all of this to my friend so she could reassure her son … albeit quite belatedly … that the interview had indeed gone as well as he thought it had.

So the point of this story is to confirm what Jeff said … that often the students who are denied have done nothing wrong. Few applicants who are turned away from a top-choice college will have access to the sort of after-the-fact positive feedback that I was able to share with my friend. But I do assure you that some of you who were deferred this fall by Tulane probably had allies in the admission office who were staunchly advocating for you.

1171

@fallenchemist funny you should mention that… we were just reading that this morning!! I loved that post and actually forwarded it to the guidance counselor at our high school to share with the students. Very helpful. Definitely it seems to carry more weight coming from someone other than your mom :wink:

1172

I think these last several posts might be as important as any that have been on CC, ever. I hope we remember to bring them back to the top every year. I would pin them as a separate thread, but I can only do that by splitting them from this one. That’s OK, I think it will have more impact if printed freshly every December 10 or so, and in several forums. Like the annual editorials that get repeated in some newspapers around this time of year.

1173

@fallenchemist I feel like Jeff’s post should be mandatory reading for members of the site.

1174

@Sally_Rubenstone

Do you want to take care of that? We can discuss privately if you want.

1175

Here is an interesting twist. The Elon applicants often feel they they get “dissed” by being deferred while getting accepted to more selective schools, like Tulane. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/elon-university/1842714-accepted-to-tulane-but-deferred-from-elon.html

Does that first response sound familiar?

1176

Can someone please chance me.
I’m an international senior from Vietnam

My stat:
GPA: We use a different grading system. But I think I’m around 3.7.
SAT: 630 CR - 800 Math - 710 Writing
SAT II: 780 Math 2 - 720 Chemistry
TOEFL: 104

Activities: English Club, Studying Abroad Club, Tutoring handicapped children. School Orientation Organizer.
If I apply RD, do I have a chance to get in with scholarships ? My family can contribute around $28k per year.

1177

@Fonixi

Yes, you definitely have a good chance of getting in with scholarships. In fact you should look into the Global Scholarship http://admission.tulane.edu/international/intlscholarships.php This is full tuition, so your cost of attending would be considerably lower than $28,000 if you get it. Probably closer to $15,000-$17,000 I would think. While you are a touch lower than the 650 suggested for the CR score, it does say OR 100+ on the TOEFL, which you have. So you actually have two strong factors there. And although they suggest applying EA, which of course it is too late for now, it isn’t a requirement. I would get your application in quickly though.

Also, and maybe this is one reason you are applying to Tulane or maybe it is a coincidence, New Orleans has a reasonably sized Vietnamese population.

1178

@Fonixi My guess is they’d also factor the pretty high writing score into it as well, even though it’s not mentioned specifically.

1179

Decision: Deferred

SAT I (breakdown): 2120; 750 CR 640 M 730 W
ACT (breakdown):
SAT II (place score in parentheses): Literature 690; US History 700
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.8
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): school doesn’t rank
AP (place score in parentheses): Biology 4, APUSH 4
IB (place score in parentheses):
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calculus AB, AP English Literature, AP Latin, Advanced Research Seminar, Honors Physics
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): William & Mary Leadership Award, Cum Laude on the National Latin Exam

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Varsity Soccer Captain, Varsity Volleyball, Cross Country, Feminist Club co-founder, Earth Committee, Friends Council, Vice President of Student Senate
Job/Work Experience: I manage a parking lot business
Volunteer/Community Service: not much
Summer Activities: 3-week intensive creative writing camp
Essays: my “why Tulane” essay was kinda crappy but the other ones were very good
Teacher Recommendations: very good
Counselor Rec: very good
Additional Rec:
Interview: didn’t have one

Other:

State (if domestic applicant): VA
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Small, private Quaker school
Ethnicity: white
Gender: female
Income Bracket: $80k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none

Reflection:

Strengths: ECs, rec letters, test scores
Weaknesses: “why Tulane” essay, GPA
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: honestly, I think its because they’re heavy on female applicants, but that’s just speculation, also my GPA is a little low in comparison to other people who were accepted
Where else you are applying or have already applied: UVA, Emory, JMU, College of Charleston, Vanderbilt, Wesleyan, Kenyon, University of Miami
General Comments/Advice/Hindsight: visit Tulane before you apply, my “why Tulane” essay had a bunch of lies in it because i never visited and I feel like it just wasn’t very good- although that’s probably not the only reason I was deferred

1180

It’s a relief to hear. I’m just so afraid that I have lost my chance with the scholarship when I decided not to apply Early Action.