Not sure why rolling matters. The final transcripts are sent after graduation. The schools we are talking about are not rolling admission schools, and its highly unlikely the CA student declined Tulane for a rolling admission school. Counselors at small private schools should have their hands on the pulse of all this.
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And the method theyâve used to address it has its own set of problems. Life in the fast lane. They should stop whining.
BTW, their current yield rate is 20%, which is quite normal.
I should add that yield rates have been decreasing everywhere as a result of the common app making it easy t apply to a large number of colleges. Tulane contributes to the problem by not charging an application fee. That drives up their number of applications, which is great for marketing purposes, but it comes with a price.
Iâm not recommending that families enter the ED process under false pretenses. Iâm just saying that some colleges have set up a flawed process to meet their own needs at the expense of kids and families, not to benefit those kids and families.
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I agree that the free application is not wise. Causes too many applications to review that are a waste of time, and if they charged an application fee of, say $75 or so, like many selective colleges, even if this cut their applications in half (it wouldnât drop that much, but hypothetically), they would have an extra $1,125,000 in their coffer. And probably less stressed Admissions staff.
And many hundreds of colleges offer free applications. Not sure why Tulane is getting a black eye for this (Iâve given my reasons)
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I also mentioned other acceptances that go out early.
The point is that the guidance counselors and the high schools donât work for Tulane or any other college. Their bills are paid by the parents and thatâs who they work for. If the parents tell the school that theyâve had a conversation with Tulane and have withdrawn from ED due to special circumstances which are private and confidential, then then high school has no choice if they want to stay in business. They send out transcripts as requeste.
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I havenât really seen a pity party for Tulane on this thread at all. Even many of us that have no issue with Tulane banning certain private schools from ED for a year, are not pitying Tulane. We seem to be saying we have no qualms with Tulane using the means it has to try to get private schools to honor the system. I am no fan of Tulaneâs ED or bust admissions. I have not seen anyone here feel bad for Tulane here. What pity party are you referring to?
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Also, as a general matter, I donât know that I am onboard with the notion being floated that no application fee is a bad thing. Application fees can be a big barrier to middle class families who may qualify for some aid, but may not get (or be comfortable asking for) fee waivers. They can artificially limit the number of schools those kids apply to compared to more wealthy and very low income kids. There are a lot of issues I have with admissions. But wealthy schools not charging application fees is not one of them. If they want to tamp down on applications, make the supplementals more work. That is more equal opportunity to me.
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Where is Tulane whining? The article said they âquietlyâ notified the 4 schools of the 1 year ED pause. They arenât the ones sending this to the media.
As for yield, its typically considered by schools that a yield below 20% makes it hard to finalize financial plans, and in the past that had been a challenge for Tulane. While I may not completely agree with their strategy, I applaud them for successfully addressing the issue.
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Some super quick calculations, please lmk if there are errors:
Overall yield per 24-25 CDS was 40%. Assuming 100% ED yield, RD yield was around 20%. ED admitted applicants were 63% of the class.
Overall yield per 2017-2018 CDS, was 25%. Assuming 100% ED yield, RD yield was 20%. ED admitted applicants were 26% of the class.
Per 2009-10 CDS, overall yield was 14%, no ED data presented.
| '24-'25 | '23-'24 | '22-'23 | '21-'22 | '20-'21 | '19-'20 | '18-'19 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Applicants | 32,603 | 27,936 | 31,615 | 45,525 | 43,892 | 42,185 | 38,816 |
| Admitted | 4,558 | 4,077 | 3,621 | 4,385 | 4,877 | 5,431 | 6,724 |
| Enrolled | 1,838 | 1,867 | 1,843 | 2,027 | 1,801 | 1,821 | 1,909 |
| ED Applied | 1,946 | 1,752 | 1,853 | 3,853 | 3,976 | 2,163 | 1,659 |
| ED Accepted | 1,156 | 1,193 | 1,258 | 1,209 | 922 | 720 | 535 |
| ED % Admitted | 59% | 68% | 68% | 31% | 23% | 33% | 32% |
| EA/RD Applications | 30,657 | 26,184 | 29,762 | 41,672 | 39,916 | 40,022 | 37,157 |
| EA/RD Accepted | 3,402 | 2,884 | 2,363 | 3,176 | 3,955 | 4,711 | 6,189 |
| EA/RD Acceptance | 11% | 11% | 8% | 8% | 10% | 12% | 17% |
| EA/RD Enrolled | 682 | 674 | 585 | 818 | 879 | 1,101 | 1,374 |
| Enroll % of Admitted | 20% | 23% | 25% | 26% | 22% | 23% | 22% |
Iâve posted this table in other locations but for anyone wondering what the numbers are over the last 7 cycles. There was definitely a change in admissions approach.
Should also note that the decrease in total applicants seen from â21-â22 forward was largely due to a change in reporting that removed incomplete applications from the data set.
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Rather than look at selective years for yield, it might be interesting to look at the change in leadership in the admissions/enrollment management position. It had been held by Earl Retif back in the days of the âunofficial rollingâ admissions, then from 2016-2022 by Satyajit Dattagupta (who then went to Northeastern) and from 2022 to present by Shawn Abbott (who came from Temple). Both of these men had been in enrollment management offices at several other colleges as well. Perhaps someone wants to do a deeper dive into the history of the admissions practices at those schools (not me!) These leaders make decisions about enrollment management strategies.
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Just to clarify, this line refers to EA/RD yield only, not overall yield, correct?
Based on your table (thank you!) it looks like the big shift to increasing ED admissions happened with the start of Shawn Abbottâs taking the reins in the admissions/ enrollment management office.
Correct, I will update that note on the excel sheet to avoid confusion in the future.
I would say that it started to ramp up before him.
535 to 720 to 922 # ED accepted in those earlier years. The ED application numbers were larger in those days so the % less.
There was much speculation that when Shawn started he was going to shift the dynamic back towards less reliance on ED. That clearly has not played out in the numbers.
No Pity Party for Tulane here. Not suggesting I necessarily like their ED strategy either. But Higher Education is a business and the schools should be able to set what strategies work for them (within the boundaries of the law). I have no issues with the action Tulane took and think the whole thing makes CA look bad. Publicly I can see how it might make Tulane look petty but theyâll take that PR hit at the same time sending notice to other GCâs that they take ED seriously.
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It looks like the percent accepted through early decision virtually doubled starting in 2022, coinciding with the new Dean of enrollment management.
My kids attend/have attended a small public charter school in AZ (âhave attendedâ because eldest kid graduated in '24). Small counselor-to-student ratio compared to local public schools. LOTS of counselor support when applying to collegeâŠto the point where 1 of the classes that all seniors take is called âCollege Counseling.â
Counselors at our school are VERY CLEAR on what the requirements are when applying ED. Theyâre very up front about it with the students AND all the parents. Counselors have told all students and parents that if YOU (student + parent(s)) CHOOSE to not abide by the ED agreement that you & the counselor sign, you knowingly WILL be negatively affecting future yearsâ students from being able to be admitted to that college.
Counselors also tell the students & parents that if you KNOW from the NPC that the ED college is not affordable, then you should NOT APPLY ED THERE. Period.
Counselors ALSO told students & parents that if the counselors hear that you (student) are planning on skipping out of your ED agreement, they will pull their support of your application even after itâs been submitted.
Just this past week, D26 said that the counselors gave all the seniors a stern warning about 1 of the current seniors (counselors did not name names) apparently applied to other EA colleges in addition to the 1 REA college the student already applied to. Student went ahead and did this right on Common App, counselors found out about it via SCOIR. Counselors told entire senior class basically, âDo NOT do this. We will not support your apps to other EA schools if you choose to violate the terms of applying Restrictive Early Action.â
so that student basically (Iâm assuming here) that somehow theyâd magically get away with it and the counselors wouldnât find out, despite the fact that the student needs the counselors to submit the school report, counselor LOR, and itâs the counselors who herd the teachers & remind them to submit their LORs to the colleges.
I have NO problem with how Tulane handled this.
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What is your theory as to why the ED application numbers were so high in 20-22? (oops replied to myself! meant to reply to @Mashinations )
Thanks for pointing that out (though the total accepted has been higher since â21-22)
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If I had to guess - and yes, itâs just a guess - Iâd say that in those days there was a higher % of applicants that were getting merit aid through the ED channel. Tulane has been shifting more of itâs aid over the years to need based. So while they were getting more ED applicants the chances of getting in ED were a bit less.
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Ooh good point about the merit aid vs need. Hadnât thought of that.
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I guess we see Iâd differently. Happens all the time. Okay by me. 