An Early-Decision Student Backed Out of Tulane. Tulane Punished the High School

[momofboiler1]

I buy that at a large public school but not at a well resourced private.

[j_t_03]

@momofboiler1

Last cycle I heard of numerous kids who didn’t pull their other applications after they were accepted in binding ED just to “see”.

This happens where we are as well and it’s extremely irresponsible. It changes the course of somebody else’s future. Parents and advisors need to do much better to help stop this kind of behavior. There is also a lot of “advice” given out on the Internet that ED is not “really” binding. Kids are being told that it is OK to give their word, sign a pledge, but then break it later if they feel like it. Not a great way to start grown-up life.

[evergreen5]

@j_t_03

There is also a lot of “advice” given out on the Internet that ED is not “really” binding.

Feels like I saw more of this in the past year, maybe even an article on the topic.

[jym626]

Being discussed here: Lawsuit accuses 32 colleges of participating in an “early decision conspiracy” - Applying to College / College Headlines - College Confidential Forums

[Mashinations]

@evergreen5

One other thought, it is likely that CA counselors will, at some point, read this thread, and likely Tulane AOs as well. Message to Tulane: your overly-heavy use of ED is what got you here.

I fully hope - and expect - this to be true. CA, or someone within CA without their express consent, dropped a dime to the NYT with the intent of spinning the story into one of “poor us”. Tough to say what the general public reaction will be to the story or if Tulane will take bother to issue more of a public statement than what was quoted in the story. Feels to me like this is a big story within our little community but the broader population won’t even likely read it. We already know the game that Tulane (and some others) play with ED and anyone coming here for advice gets that information passed along to them.

[Bill_Marsh]

@momofboiler1

Yes, AND when a student is accepted in binding ED, they are required to withdraw all their other applications. If a student is still being considered in an RD round, most schools required mid term reports. If a GC is sending mid term reports to multiple schools after an ED acceptance, they are complicit in breaking the ED contract. Same if they send multiple final transcripts.

All of that being said, why are so many people here saying that the high school is complicit? If kids sent out a raft of applications in the fall and the high school did its part by sending out transcripts and transcripts before ED results were in, then what did they do wrong?

We don’t know if the offending cases were ED1 or ED2.

[jym626]

They would also have to send final transcripts too

[fiftyfifty1]

@jym626

Many private school counselors have relationships with the admissions people at the schools so my guess is there has been some back channel conversation between admissions and these counselors.

Yep. And it’s gross. The public is rightly put off by these sorts of back channel relationships. It’s not purely buying admissions the way Varsity Blues was, but it’s still a shady deal.

[jym626]

@momofboiler1

Yes, AND when a student is accepted in binding ED, they are required to withdraw all their other applications

This is beig challenged in that “ED conspiracy” lawsuit- that none of this is really a “legal” requirement and that it is therefore a violation of the Sherman Act. Not buying it.

[jym626]

But to be fair, the back channel conversations also probably included the HS counselors being warned (probably more than once) that violating the ethical agreement to honor the ED commitment, except under extenuating circumstances, is going to have consequences.

[momofboiler1]

My daughter went to a private HS with a similar ratio of students to a dedicated college counselor. The GC was HIGHLY involved in the process at every single step of the way. College counseling started in 9th grade. These kids aren’t applying to a slew of schools but to a highly curated list. If the GCs are dropping the ball at a well resourced private school like this one, at best they aren’t doing their job.

Reading between the lines, I’d expect there was a pattern of abuse at this school that caused this to publicly come out.

[JES_96]

They posted it to a CC mailing list which is how the story was sourced.

[jym626]

A CC mailing list?? Carbon copy? College counselor? What mailing list?

[Mashinations]

You’re absolutely correct that there can be some overlap in the deadlines and notifications.

Tulane: ED1 application date 11/1, notification date 12/15.
EA application date 11/10, notification date “by 1/10”
ED2 application date 1/15, notification date “by 2/15”

Many other schools have EA notification dates very similar to the ED1 date (mid-December). I don’t think anyone can reasonably find fault with a kid applying to as many EA schools as they want. Most RD application dates I can recall were 1/1 - after the ED1 notification date. and any of the RD applications would likely have a notification date after the ED2 notification date.
GC’s need to send out mid-term and final transcripts to schools still in play. If an applicant was accepted ED1, there should be no mid-term transcripts sent.

[Bill_Marsh]

@evergreen5

Message to Tulane: your overly-heavy use of ED is what got you here.

This is kind of the point, isn’t it?

Tulane has been gaming the system for a long time to their advantage. Now they’ve been burnt and they don’t like it. In a way, they really invite this by not charging an application fee.

Any set of rules is only as good as the enforcement mechanism. ED asks for a pledge, but there really is no way to enforce it. Yes, people should keep their word, but things don’t necessarily work that way in the real world.

Tulane has 2 acceptance rates: 60% if you apply early when they fill up 2/3 of the spots in their freshman class and 10% if you apply regular decision when they fill the remaining third.

Applicants are catching on in some corners of the high school universe. If you want a realistic chance of getting into Tulane, apply ED. Some are going to stiff Tulane and take a better deal if they get one. Tulane can penalize the next crop of kids from that school, but they’re playing whack-a-mole because some other school will do the same thing. Tulane could put a stop to this tomorrow. Stop accepting 60% of your ED applications. Accept only truly exceptional applicants + hooked applicants. That will cut their ED acceptance rate in half. If they stop gaming the system, so will the parents and schools. And they could charge an application fee to make applicants think twice about it in the first place.

Sorry, but I’m not joining the pity party for Tulane. Let them take the parents to court if they want to enforce the contract and show damages. No, they won’t do that because the negative PR will be worse for them. And because there are no damages to them. They should accept their losses as part of the process and move on. It’s all just posturing anyway in an imperfect system.

[jym626]

@Bill_Marsh

Let them take the parents to court if they want to enforce the contract and show damages.

But this is reverse is sorta what that lawsuit naming 32 colleges (Tulane is NOT one of them) is trying to do– complain that they were accepted ED but didn’t want to pay. Cry me a river

[Mashinations]

@Bill_Marsh

Tulane has 2 acceptance rates: 60% if you apply early when they fill up 2/3 of the spots in their freshman class and 10% if you apply regular decision when they fill the remaining third.

Just to clarify this statement for anyone in the future looking at the thread. Tulane does have an EA cohort. The combined EA/RD acceptance rate is the 10% you quote. They don’t break out acceptance rate for EA & RD on any of their reporting but it’s long suspected the RD acceptance rate is low single digits.

[jym626]

And filling over 50% of an incoming class with ED applicants is not limited to Tulane. Other highly selective schools (Penn, Brown, Dartmouth, Duke, Emory, Case, Bryn Mawr, Lehigh etc, IIRC) do as well. In past years Tulane had a very low yield. They needed to address it and they did.

[Bill_Marsh]

@jym626

They would also have to send final transcripts too

But many schools have rolling admissions. And many others send out acceptances before receiving first semester transcripts.

[ECCA2026]

@fiftyfifty1

Yep. And it’s gross. The public is rightly put off by these sorts of back channel relationships. It’s not purely buying admissions the way Varsity Blues was, but it’s still a shady deal.

While I agree it is not fair, I don’t think there is typically any nefariousness warranting a comparison to the Varsity Blues scandal in how most private school college counselors are engaging with Admissions Officers. That comparison feels like a dig at their professionalism and/or ethics, which I don’t think is warranted toward private school counselors as a whole. That said, I’m curious what specific change you think should be made to address your concern? The entire college admissions process advantages wealthy kids. None of it is fair. I struggle to think of how one devises a system that does not without completely restructuring admissions in the US. Can you help me understand what you would have done differently on the counselor relationship issue?