Admissions Blog

Tulane University has shared news about its Class of 2024 applicants who applied Early Decision and Early Action.

Tulane received 27% more Early Decision applicants this cycle compared to last cycle, according to Jeff Schiffman, Tulane’s Director of Admission.

“For an estimated freshman class of around 1,875 students, we admitted 631 students under our Early Decision I plan, for slightly over one-third of the incoming class. Of our ED group 30% were students of color or international.” added Schiffman. That latter statistic is a thirty percent increase since 2016.

Meanwhile, Tulane also admitted 3,725 students under its non-binding Early Action round of admission.

To put the most recent numbers in greater context, Schiffman shared that in, “2017, the percentage of students who accepted Tulane’s offer of admission (the yield rate) was 25.4%. Because this percentage increased to 34.0% by 2019, we have not been able to offer admission to as many students as we have in the past. Over these same years, the admission rate decreased from 21.2% to 12.87%. The average number of enrolled students in the freshman class over the past five years was 1,875, and we are planning for a class of a similar size this year.”

When sharing information about Tulane’s Early Decision stats for the latest admissions cycle Schiffman did not differentiate between Tulane’s Early Decision I (EDI) and Early Decision II (EDII) numbers. While Tulane has offered EDII of late, it doesn’t regularly publicize EDII as an application option until late in any given calendar year.

Slow and steady wins the race?

Once upon a time, refined Early Decision and Early Action etiquette dictated that by December 15 colleges would inform such applicants of their admission, deferral, or rejection. My how times have changed!

While the likes of Penn, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Wash U., and Yale got on with it last week, some big names are keeping their powder dry to seemingly the last moment. University of Michigan and Boston College are notorious in recent years for December 18 or later admissions notifications to their Early Action applicants; yet, this year, two more colleges seem to believe the maxim that they should, “save the best for last.”

The two notable stragglers this December are Case Western Reserve University and Tulane University.

In Case’s case, Robert R. McCullough, the university’s Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, announced Monday, “We expect to send applicants an email providing a link to the secure webpage with their admission status on Wednesday, Dec. 19. We will begin sending these email notifications around 8 p.m. EST. Students who have applied for financial aid will also be able to see their financial aid package online at that time.” Just two years ago Case’s Early Action notifications came out a whole week earlier in December. That was before Case Western introduced Early Decision I and II into the mix and with it gone are the days of earlier Early notifications.

UPDATE 12/19/18 @ 7:20 EST: McCullough needs more time! On December 19 in the evening he announced, “Unfortunately, we find that we need a little more time to be absolutely sure applicants’ decisions, scholarships and financial aid packages are correct. We are therefore rescheduling decision release for Early Action and Early Decision admission until 8 p.m. Eastern Thursday, December 20.” He also expressed “regret” for holding students in suspense for another day but wanted to ensure the decisions they receive are accurate.”

Tulane will let Early Action applicants to the New Orleans university know of their admissions decisions on Thursday, December 20, 2018 at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Jeff Schiffman, Tulane’s Director of Admission shared, “I think it is also worth mentioning that Tulane saw a 14% increase in applications this year. Bottom line, we could fill up multiple freshman classes with students who are academically qualified to attend Tulane. We could fill up multiple freshman classes just with students who would be great fits here and genuinely want to be at Tulane. The problem is we can’t admit all of them.”

To Shiffman’s credit – and Tulane’s – the university notified its Early Decision applicants regarding their admissions decisions refreshingly fast. Tulane’s ED admission letters left Tulane’s Office of Admission on November 16 and were made available online at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on November 19. Talk about a nice Thanksgiving present! More universities should try to turn around admissions decisions in fewer than three weeks (Tulane’s Early Decision application deadline was November 1)!

Tulane, back in the day, released its Early Action notifications in November, but that was before they got into the ED I and ED II business recently.

So, seniors dreaming of a Case Western or Tulane acceptance letter this Christmas, hold on just a bit longer.