They went to the 3 year requirement starting with the class that started F23.
The only real “out” seems to be for students that go abroad Fall Junior year. They do not need to come back to campus in the Spring (in fact housing not guaranteed even if student did want to come back).
Adding to my response from last night…
Tulane is in a “highly residential” area. My understanding of the housing situation is what the school has put out there combined with talking to one or two local residents and the police blog.
There’s historically been some friction between the school and surrounding residents - as real estate developers have bought up some of the homes near the school and turned them into student housing and then come the noise/disturbance complaints. Until now it was pretty common for the landlords to require 2 year leases.
Many of Tulane’s dorms were looking pretty run down. They undertook a renewal program a few years back in which they’ve torn down several of them and rebuilt nicer/larger facilities to enable them to shift to the third year requirement. This will bring 1.5k-2k students back to campus. Opinions on this are very mixed on the Parents FB page. Some prefer the ease of just writing a check to the school and not worry about leases, others want their kids the experience & freedom of living off-campus which now gets restricted to one year. Once you factor in the cost of the lease for 12 months, living off-campus is likely the more expensive proposition but with increased inventory going into next Fall it’s not yet clear how that might change.
We are in the same situation, accepted EA without merit… We told our child up front, we can’t afford this unless they offer some money. They offered nothing and so we move on. A bummer but a good lesson. $95K/year is a killer
I actually agree with @Twinopoly here and think some of the comments directed at them are unfair.
Tulane has found a way to capitalize on the student satisfaction/quality of life to continue to entice high income/full pay families while misleading prospective families during tours, stating that they “meet need” and “nobody pays full price,” but that’s nonsense. Lots of middle class families pay full price and Tulane is extremely inflexible about it.
I love TU and am likely going to attend, but this is a fact. Its outrageously expensive and they’re dishonest about what they will contribute in the form of “aid” – families have a right to be upset about being egregiously misled.
If any kid has offers at other schools where the academics and student life are above decent, but where they will not have to stress their parents or go into debt, they absolutely should go there and forget Tulane. It’s nowhere near the only amazing school that offers all the things, many others do for tens of thousands of dollars less annually.
Again, I say this as someone who loves TU and is attending, but let’s be real – they are running a game.
Hoping you can/willing to provide more context to this (dishonest/misled). You’re 100% correct that the list price of private college is outrageously expensive (Tulane is in that pool but far from the only ones).
My experience - so a data point of 1 - was that running the NPC on their site was very close to the Federal EFC/SAI that was generated and the aid package came in very close to that NPC calculation. Still - it’s a TON of $$ - but in my S23’s case the cost for the first year ended up lower than it was going to be at some of the OOS State flagship schools he was admitted to (who don’t give much of anything in the way of aid grants).
Completely agree with you that if someone said during tours/admissions discussion that “nobody pays full price” it’s complete nonsense. Walk around the school for 20 minutes and you can see the kids/families that are paying full price. Participate in the parents FB page and you can see the families that are paying full price.
I’m not excusing Tulane here but many many Universities “run a game”… that game may be different from one school to the next and it’s a steep learning curve for applicants to realize what’s going on, and often too late. The number of postcards S23 got from UChicago asking him to apply became a running joke in the household - he had 0.0% chance of admissions to UChicago yet they kept marketing to him (In an effort to bolster their application numbers and make them look more selective). Some schools are worse than others on this front and Tulane plays the game hard.
“Nobody pays full price” and “We meet all need” are direct quotes and were both stated clearly not only during my tour, but the FB group for parents and students (one of them, it seems there are several) has a number of other people claiming they were told the same.
So, the first one is easy to debunk - but it’s still incredibly misleading and would lead people who are not super wealthy, but who are also not at the lower range of income but whom Tulane’s sticker price would still be crushing for their family, to believe, 'Hey, why wouldn’t I apply, they’re incredibly generous with aid?!" Which brings me to the second point: They do not meet “all need” - this “incredible endowment” that was mentioned by both our tour guide and admissions counselor that goes to “make Tulane affordable” is complete fiction for middle class families. It’s HIGHLY unaffordable for middle class families and Tulane needs to be much more honest about that. If your child is not offered significant merit, you’re out of luck and meanwhile your student has fallen in love with the school, and… we all know how this heartbreaking story ends.
Yes, the NP calculator is key, but it doesn’t account for merit or some of the other scholarships that we were also told were abundant, and, regardless, TU needs to do its part and be EXTREMELY transparent about how little aid they actually offer.
We are in the same boat. We also were told “Don’t get freaked out by published cost, almost nobody pays that. Tulane meets all need, just apply.”
Is that even legal? I am kind of surprised Tulane hasn’t been sued for pulling so many families down this path only to leave them hanging. Seems dishonest and very unkind.
It’s unfortunate that someone during the tour would make such a statement - actual numbers on the Common Data Set…
Full Time Undergrad Enrolled - 8,051
Number of Students who applied for need-based aid - 3,335
Number of students awarded financial aid - 2,252
Number of students whose need was fully met (this number excludes loans) - 1,419
Average % of need that was met (excluding loans) - 94%
Number of students who had no financial need and were awarded merit (includes athletic) - 2,183
So ~4,500 are getting some sort of discount off list price leaving ~3,500 that are paying full freight.
Making a statement that “no one pays list price” is a complete lie. I would disagree that they don’t meet need. At least the “need” as provisioned by the Federal Gov’t. Should we take exception to that number that FAFSA kicks out (?) absolutely - but that’s the number that the schools work with.
Merit is a way to get many students to their NP Calculation. It doesn’t stack with aid. There was another CC thread recently discussing how the College system in general has a ways to go around transparency. They bury the NPC tools and much other information when it should be front and center and very clear about what the numbers mean.
There’s nothing unique/different in the way Tulane handles merit/FA than any of the other privates. The statements made by them notwithstanding (and I wouldn’t be shocked to hear some of the other privates make such statements).
Adding to the thread not to debate opinions rather, to share our position on aid.
Single income household. I’m in the neighborhood of middle class. Perhaps not?
Less than 100k however more than 75k.
My daughter received 30k merit in Early Action round and 39k in aid. Net is about 22k/year and aligns with NPC calculations.
We heard the opposite via tours and virtual calls. I heard many do not pay full price.
Certainly we were not misled. All were forthright in our opinion and genuine.
This aligns with in state flagship cost. Grateful for the offer. She’s torn as a result. Tulane invited her to apply to Pathways to Medicine, as well (she did not apply).
Obviously we don’t bring much to the table, at least financially, is my point.
In my exploration of schools, Tulane is not unique on price tag. We focused on NPC all along and she distanced herself from those schools we knew were not economically viable options. University of Michigan, for example (out of state).
I’m glad that was your experience or, “position on aid,” but it in no way invalidates or changes the fact that I, and may others, had a very different experience.
If you’re looking to simply add another perspective to the conversation, ok, cool. But that you did not have the experience of being misled (regardless, to the previous commenters comment, of whether other privates do it) has no bearing whatsoever on the validity of experiences of people who did hear something different and had a very different outcome. Apples and oranges, frankly.
We have officially withdrawn, hopefully opening up a spot for someone on the waitlist. This was almost exclusively financially motivated. $95K per year was too much, even for an upper middle class family. Good luck to those continuing on! Roll Wave!
Withdrawn by C25, sending positive vibes for waitlist movement!
Questions for parents experienced with freshmen moving as we are out of state and have to make flight and hotel reservations. According to the Hullaboo Hello schedule, Residential students will be randomly assigned a Move-In date and time slot for either August 10, 11, or 12, but the housing application has a start date of Sat, Aug 16, 2025 and the classes start on Mon, Aug 18th.
Freshmen need to move in on their assigned day and then have orientation activities for the rest of the week (only freshmen and athletes will be on campus that week). The Aug. 16 date is likely the move in date for the returning students.
I think the first payment is due mid August, but check your student’s Gibson account. Is your daughter in contact with her roommate(s)? Mine coordinated with her roommates who would bring what. But she was in a triple Freshmen year, which was very small, so they couldn’t bring much
Orientation week is packed with activities for the students. So don’t plan on seeing too much of them if you stay in town after move in 
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Adding to what @trops put in their post -
The school is super communicative. Just make sure they have all your email addresses. She’ll get more information about move-in when she gets her time slot.
I wouldn’t expect to see them AT ALL after you move them in. Get her moved in and set up then find a nice restaurant for you and the spouse to have dinner - you deserve it!
Billing charges are added to the account the first 10 days or so of July and then they’ll send out an email - and depending on how your daughters account is set up with them it could just go to her or might include you as well so be aware (do they have your address as a contact?).
Health Insurance. Unless you intend to buy insurance for your daughter through the school program make sure you fill out the waiver ahead of time or you will automatically be charged on the bill. You need to do this every year.
Book Bundle. The book store does a fixed price book bundle, last year $375/semester. This will automatically be put on the students bill. It can be waived but needs action by you or your daughter. Paying/Waiving is personal decision but whether it’s worth it or not depends on the program and the semester, etc. On the parents FB page you’ll find people it worked out well for and other it makes no sense. You need to do this every semester if you intend to waive it.
Something to know prior to moving in is ask yourself “how is she moving this out/storing it over summers”. Students get headboards and night stands and coffee tables and all other manner of furniture that then when it comes time to move out they don’t know what to do with it. Trash to Treasure is a local company that comes on campus and will take donations - and re-sell much of the stuff in the Fall. Especially coming from OOS, unless you’re going to go down the next 4 years and move everything out/back to home it needs to be stored. The school contracts with USS where they supply boxes and it’s super convenient but also fairly expensive ($64/box for the summer). There are also local dry cleaners that will store linens over the summer.
Does anyone with kids already at Tulane know how hard it is/what the process is to try to get a class that is “full”? My son signed up for one of the very last advisor sessions and discovered that he had very few choices for TIDES classes - none that interest him. I’m wondering if there’s any hope of switching into a TIDES class he wants (there were a lot, but all are full). Not the end of the world, of course… maybe he’ll discover a new passion for Arab cinema! But I also get cranky thinking about how much we are paying for a class he doesn’t want to take.
TIDES classes don’t have waitlists, but some will definitely open up over the summer. My daughter was in a similar situation and checked the classes at least once a day to see if anything became available, and by the end of July/early August, a few had opened up and she picked a topic she had more interest in. Persistence will hopefully pay off for your son!
If you’re on Facebook you may want to join the Tulane Parents group. There’s a lot of what I’ll call “junk threads” (people looking for off-campus leases, dorm room information, etc). But there’s often class/course discussions as well.
The Tides course is a single credit and is more about having the incoming Freshman be in a small class setting of 12-15 students and meeting some new faces/orientation more than it is about the actual topic attached to the name of the class. That said, students shift around all the time but it will be up to your student to keep an eye on the registration portal and switch if they see something they would prefer more.
FWIW, your son is likely going to have to take several classes in their time there that they he doesn’t want to take - there’s general education requirements. Nothing unique to Tulane. Students in the humanities don’t want to take Math classes and vice versa (painting with a broad brush).
I think I’m the last person on the planet that isn’t on Facebook 
@BDJ1125 After keeping an eye on openings, he was already able to switch into a TIDE class that interested him more, so all good. Appreciate the advice!
I’m not on FB either (so with you!) - but my wife is - so I get a sense of the dialogue/topics that are happening there.