True!
I think more of the story hereā¦Iād bet the kids pulled out and didnāt even bother to claim it was for financial or legitimate reasons, and flaunted the rulesā and/or (probably both) that this was happening multiple times at these schools over a period of time. If Tulane sniffed out that college counselors at this school was telling parents ED wasnāt āreallyā binding or helping them get out of ED sneakily, I can see this. I also suspect they will actually look at kids applying RD (due to this) in light of the punishment and not truly harm them.
Also, IME, the relationships between these independent/prep schools and universities are not nearly so tight as they were 20 years ago+, but it is still different than between public and universities. It is a small admissions world, and many CC at prep schools used to be AOs.
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For Colorado Academy, it sure is. But they might think that bad publicity is better than no publicity.
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Given 99% of applicants have never heard of NACAC, I suspect NACAC has no real power here. I guess maybe they could kick out individual AOs or CCs? It is primarily a professional association, as I understand it.
I guess they could kick Tulane from attending fairs, but that seems like not a very big deal to me.
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Is agree there isnāt teeth to the NACAC guidelines. Regardless, I canāt support Tulane limiting options of students who have done nothing wrong simply because of the HS they attend. IMO, I doubt many in the industry would support that.
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I donāt really like what they did eitherā¦I would be ticked off if I was a kid at CA and wanted to ED (though I also suspect Tulane will consider RD application in light of punishment).
That said, I dislike Tulaneās policies more for going to bonkers on filling classes by ED and making kids feel like they truly have to do it. That is also bad policy IMO.
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I agree. Another non-student centered practice.
With that said, filling 60%+ of the class in ED isnāt against any guidelines, nor is Tulane the only school that does that.
Tulane has EA, so students from these HSs should definitely apply in that round. Not many spots left in RD each year.
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Tulane also has EA. Students from our school have been exactly as successful EA as ED. (Perhaps slightly more, as one of the ED data points implies a hooked applicant.)
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Right. Whether ED is a viable practice or whether universities are right in taking half of their class ED is a separate question. Particularly since this helps the university more than the applicant.
But letās be real. Tulaneās response is not unique; the blackballing has been whispered about since I was in HS ā and likely before. Now we know for certain it happens.
As I said at the outset, Iām sure thereās more to this story. I highly doubt that this is the first time these high schools had a Tulane ED accepted student reneg for an invalid reason. For sure, the student and parents are at fault, but theyāre not attending Tulane, so they donāt give a fig what Tulane does to the high school. But the high school is at fault. Those GC recs, transcripts, and midyear reports didnāt send themselves to RD schools. And itās not a case of an overworked GC with 1000 kids. Colorado Academy has 4 college counselors serving a graduating class of 106. Yeah it sucks if youāre a junior there and wanted to go to Tulane. But those those parents should go full Karen on the HS.
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Wow! That sure is different from our public HSā¦
IMO this is too harsh even for a private school w/ low number of students per counselor. The counselors still have little control over where a student applies or whether students withdraw apps after an ED acceptance, etc, and even less control where a student matriculates. If a student wants to back out of an ED acceptance there is nothing a counselor can do (aside from communicating to the student and parents about the ethical issue.)
I agree there is more to this story. But, even if counselors were guilty of bad behavior (for example publicly stating you can back out of ED for any reason, no worries), I still wouldnāt support restricting options to following yearsā classes.
ETA: Iām not sure why Tulane has their panties in a bunch over this. Would they rather ED admitted students who donāt want to be there just enroll and transfer out after first semester (or first year or whenever), where there would be no ethical issue at all? What would be the point of that? Seems like lose/lose.
I am not surprised.
Tulane encourages ED and takes the majority of kids that way (āprettyā strong applicants who are āmostlyā full-pay). Interested families feel pressure to apply ED, and many make the choice to apply that way. Students who do not apply ED know they need to have a stronger than average profile - or they will not get in. It is basically an ED++ strategy.
While I am not a fan of Tulaneās strategy, it is widely known, somewhat clearly articulated, and effective for them.
For Tulane to take these drastic measures, I am sure their draconian practices are becoming an issue. Wonder if changes are coming soon - for Tulane and other extremists.
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Right and the other consideration, that Tulane does make clear, is that applying ED means on average less merit aid. Meaning a student gives up their chance to maximize merit aid if they apply ED at Tulane.
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Nope. Not harsh. The HS does control the HS documents. They shouldnāt be sending them to an RD school when the student is accepted ED. Even if a student submitted RD applications well before the deadline, the midyear report isnāt sent until 6-8 weeks after the ED notification date. Without the midyear, the application would be considered incomplete.
And they also made the conscious decision to send the final transcripts to the matriculated school
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This is not entirely true, especially at a private school. Our high school will actually only send your final transcript to your ED school if you are accepted there. You have to sign something agreeing to this before they will sign off on your ED. It is there way of enforcing your ED. They also make you sign something saying you have run the NPC and can afford it and you must take a screenshot because the only way to back out is if the aid then doesnāt match the NPC.
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This is actually a great and interesting point. The implication is that families are reneging out of ED2. ED1, the school can control not sending anything. ED2 and the docs have all been sent to RD schools by the time the decision rolls around.
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Exactly. This is what our high school does. If you are accepted ED they will not send any documents to any other schools.
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I almost agree on the high school being at fault, but some students are sending ED, EA, and rolling around the same time - and hearing from schools before or after mid-year sendsā¦ but, again, at about the same time.
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IMO this is the real benefit of independent/prep schools in terms of admissions - CCs are dedicated to college counseling (other people do other roles of a guidance counselor) and are usually former AOs from top schools (at least near me). And yes, case load is probably 1/25 Srs. Their recommendations are perfectly framed and beautifully written, they know how to play the game from both sides of the table, and have TIME. They also help with course selection strategy (at least at some schools).
Yup, my Dās counselor has a caseload of about 450 seniors, plus he is also a guidance counselor for students in all the other gradesā¦ 
Heās very kind, has always managed to make time for her when she needs him, and already has her counselor LOR and everything else submitted to common app for her. I truly donāt know how he does it!
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