Once upon a time, Tulane was considered a safety school for some. That time is over. For context, ǰԱ’s acceptance rate for the class of 2023 was 10.6%. Tulane’s acceptance for the class of 2020 was 26%, which means that in three years their acceptance rate was cut in half.
We wanted to find out exactly what caused this drastic shift. As is the case with most colleges, it’s not easy to get to the bottom of these kinds of things and even harder (impossible) to get questions answered by someone who works at the school. So, we did some digging online and found a few things that are worth mentioning.
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In this article posted in 2018, Tulane’s Dean of Undergraduate Admission said that the amount of need-based financial aid awarded to students has increased significantly since 2016. During the 2017-18 academic year, 100 percent of students with financial need requirements received need-based aid, and this need was fully met for 69.4 percent of these recipients.
The Office of Undergraduate Admission launched the initiative to increase need-based aid as part of Tulane’s efforts to increase diversity and inclusion on campus.
Tulane’s office of admission increased their efforts of reaching out to prospective students to meet larger proportions of their financial need.
What does all of this mean? It means Tulane is making itself more accessible with increased financial aid, which drives up the number of applications.
Tulane’s supplement is technically optional, but Tulane’s admissions blog tells a slightly different story.
We have long said that there is no such thing as an optional supplement. Not completing a supplement tells the college that you don’t care and that attending X school isn’t a priority. But when supplements are optional, a lot of students don’t do them because applying is so easy. It only takes a few minutes, and the theory of “throwing your hat in the ring” comes into play. This hugely drives up the number of applicants.
We did some digging on Tulane’s admissions blog, where the director of admissions doles out advice. There is a blog post called “.” It takes the reader through a hypothetical scenario during which he is choosing between two applicants: one student completed the supplement, and the other didn’t. Not shockingly, he said that he would admit the student that wrote the essay. He then provides tips on how to write “any” college supplement.
What does this mean? Well, we think that if the admissions team is urging applicants to do the supplement, and even suggesting that it can make or break your application, then it should no longer be listed as optional.
After speaking about Tulane internally, we believe that there is a third reason as to why so many people are applying to Tulane. That reason is status. We have been conditioned to believe that the Ivy League and schools with low acceptance rates are the best schools in the world. When acceptance rates go down, more people apply. A lower acceptance rate indicates value and prestige to some.
As always, we advise our clients and readers to look beyond rankings and acceptance rates when creating their college lists.
Our goal with this blog post is not to suggest that you shouldn’t apply to Tulane if you meet their requirements and the school offers what you’re looking for. We are trying to shed light on how the application process works, and that means further looking to why these trends occur.
If the application process is overwhelming you, contact us here.