Felt awful after deferral last night, but got accepted to UM today and all is well. Wondering if I should pull my app … honestly quite disappointed with Tulane. While grades are definitely not everything, I felt like the first thing they looked for in a a candidate was interests and everything else (grades, test scores, ECs) where tossed aside as minor details. Being deferred EA was pretty much a rejection, as there is no way I can pay $67k a year.
Accepted and invited to Honors EA w/ $30,000 merit
ACT: 34
SAT II: 730 US, 730 Bio E, 640 Spanish, 700 Math II
GPA: around 3.68 unweighted/ 4.16 weighted
AP Classes at time of submission: 10, I signed up for a spring one as well.
State: Georgia
Class rank: not reported
Showed a ton of demonstrated interest, overall extremely happy.
If you have strong stats, you probably get deferred based on my research.
(Tulane probably thought those applicants who have ACT 35 / 36 or SAT 1560 / 1570 / 1580 / 1590 / 1600 with strong GPAs + great ECs will NOT matriculate Tulane.
Tulane seems NOT have a confidence in itself.)
Here are EA/ED results from this thread
ACT 36 Deferred: livv13,
ACT 35 Deferred: slhogan, ironfacemask, Cre8tive1234, Cre8tive1234, Sean7876, saraheliza862, imtalkinbout, bsmdegree
ACT 35 Accepted: uptohere, pantha33m (visited), Momof3ga, anthophoros
SAT 1570 Deferred: mom checking in, mthgirl
If you have strong stats and get accepted, congratulations; if you get deferred, congratulations, too.
Does Tulane process applications for EA/ED in the order that they were received?
Did anybody receive merit aid with a 30 ACT your lower?
@bsmdegree It’s not that Tulane doesn’t have confidence in themselves. They just don’t want to accept those with high ACT/SAT scores that simply take advantage of a free application to Tulane because of its prestige and probably wouldn’t go there. Because let’s be honest, for those individuals Tulane is still a great and stupendous school but not as great of course as your Georgetown, Vanderbilt, etc. They want to fill their classes with those actually interested in the school, which means that those with lower stats that still show interest will have an edge over those with more stellar scores.I wouldn’t call it being “not confident” but rather realistic and practical.
@KDot19 and @edw611
Tulane seems to do a good job of offering merit to students with a mid range 31 to 34 ACT or high 1400 to low 1500 SAT, but many 35 ACT students likely do not end up at Tulane without a larger award than the $30,000 or $27,000. On the other hand, strong students in that mid range even with 34 ACT who might get a $20,000 scholarship at a higher ranked school such as USC, might end up choosing the lower cost of Tulane which has a smaller student population. In the end, it’s likely a numbers game. I agree that at $67,000 a year, even though $30,000 sounds generous, it’s still close to $40,000 a year which is a lot to pay for many families. No doubt it’s frustrating to be deferred, but it’s likely not personal, just a function of some formula that Tulane has figured out about which applicants are likely to attend. One big factor is visiting the school, or at least attending a meeting when they visit your city, not just writing the “why Tulane” essay.
is it likely that an EA deferred applicant will still be considered for a lot of financial aid (strong student, probably deferred because Tulane didn’t seem like their top choice) for regular decision? is regular decision competitive too?
D deferred… her stats if you want to add to your count,
SAT: 1520
ACT: 35
SAT II:
Math 2: 750
US History 750
World History 780
Spanish 800
Unweighted GPA 4.17 (school does not say whats the max)
Weighted GPA: 4.68
AP Human Geography (5)
AP US History (5)
AP Calc AB (5)
AP Leng and comp (5)
AP Comp Sci (4).
AP world (5)
AP Physics (4)
@samanthayang,
I have no facts, only anecdotal reports online, that when a student contacts Admin to express strong interest, visits the school, corresponds with professors in an area of interest, even after a deferral… all these things can let Tulane know that you are seriously considering Tulane as one of your top choices and may lead to some merit. There may also be some financial aid if need is demonstrated. Again, not an expert in the process, but my sense is that a student has the reigns and can exert some influence both before applying and afterward. Good luck!
Just genuinely curious @NFMOM , but how does someone have an unweighted GPA>4.0?
No idea how or what the schools has as max gpa. But that what I have from report cards.
@NFMOM Yeah, with all your daughter’s stats Tulane probably did not think they were high on your daughter’s list
@Abe Froman: “Just genuinely curious @NFMOM , but how does someone have an unweighted GPA>4.0?”
to answer your question,
some HS, if you get A, your unweighted GPA is 4.0; if you get A+ then your unweighted GPA is 4.33
(colleges will recalculate unweighted GPA based on their ways)
that is why @NFMOM D has 4.17 unweighted GPA
(my DS has ACT 35.25 with unweighted GPA 4.15, Tulane thought he is too good to be deferred.)
unweighted GPA calculation for some HS
A+ 4.33
A 4.00
A– 3.67
B+ 3.33
B 3.00
B– 2.67
C+ 2.33
C 2.00
C– 1.67
D 1.00
F 0
Gotcha. I’m constantly amazed at all the different ways schools calculated weighted GPA’s. I hadn’t even considered there might be differences in how they calculate unweighted ones.
I applied EA and I still haven’t heard back. Does anyone else have this problem too?
Anybody know about when need based aid decisions are made?
They have updated her file and it is complete as far as required documentation.
Deferred… Tufts Syndrome I guess.
SAT: 1540
PSAT: 1490 (Semi-finalist)
ACT: 35
SAT II:
Math 2: 800
US History 790
Chemistry: 800
Unweighted GPA: 3.98
Weighted GPA: 4.75
Rank: 9/700
AP Spanish Language: 5
AP World History: 4
AP Physics 1: 5
AP Psychology: 5
AP US History: 5
AP Calc BC: 5 (AB subscore: 5)
AP Lang and Comp: 5
AP Comp Sci: 5
AP Chem: 5
AP Stats: 5
@bughead18,
Great stats, but did you show much interest, visit Tulane, spend much time on the Why Tulane essay? On paper, one would see that you are a fine student, but schools are sensitive to being used as a back up safety, not saying it’s right or that it isn’t disappointing to get deferred!
@Nomorelurker I mentioned on my Why Tulane essay that I visited and toured the campus and really like their community service commitment. I don’t really send emails for “demonstrated interest.” I’ve heard from a lot of universities they just reply thanks and delete the emails because it’s just a lot of butt-kissing and by applying to the school and writing all the essays, they understand you want to attend. And I see the demonstrated interest emails similarly. I mean, it’s telling the university things they already know about themselves and wasting both mine and their times.