Located in the heart of New Orleans, Tulane University is a private research university that was originally founded as a medical school. It’s regularly listed as one of the happiest colleges in the US, and has become an increasingly popular school over the last few years. Last cycle, Tulane had a 15% first-year acceptance rate. But, you’re here because you’re interested in transferring to Tulane, so let’s give you all the information you need.
Tulane is very transfer-friendly. They had a 51% transfer acceptance rate last cycle, offer priority deadlines for transfer apps, and even encourage you to submit your course descriptions to help you allocate credit easier. Now, just because they’re opening their arms to transfers doesn’t mean this is just a slam dunk for you. That 51% translates to approximately 350 students, not exactly an open floodgate. If you want to be a competitive applicant to Tulane, we have a lot of tips and advice to help you through the process.
Requirements
Tulane does not have their base requirements listed on their website, but we can safely assume as long as you’ve done some college, you can apply to transfer. Tulane also wants you to submit course descriptions along with your application, which generally means they’re eager to help you figure out your transfer credits.
Here’s everything you need to prepare to submit to Tulane:
The Common App (or Coalition App)
An essay
Official College transcript
Official High School transcript
The “optional” things Tulane asks for:
Standardized test scores (optional but encouraged by us)
Course catalog descriptions
Resume
Any published work
Up to 10 letters of rec (wild)
While we don’t think you should submit the 10 rec letters (stick to two academic and maybe one professional), you should strongly consider submitting your test scores and a resume.
Another thing to note in the logistics department is that Tulane offers a priority transfer application that is due on February 1st. If we were to know only one thing about Tulane, it’s that they love students who love them. If you are serious about Tulane, their priority transfer deadline is not binding, so why not apply. This is a school that accepts the vast majority of their student body from ED, EA, and ED2 apps, and it’s safe to assume the same for their transfer applications.
Keep Your Academics on Track
We hope this goes without saying, but you should get really good grades. You might be thinking “duh, TKG,” and we get that, but getting and maintaining the best grades possible is what’s going to give you the best shot at getting accepted. Speaking of grades…
You also need to be taking the right classes. That does not mean loading up on all the easy A classes at your school – it means taking classes that fit into your academic interest area. If you are applying to Tulane as a pre-med major, taking goof around psychology or history classes won’t help you. You need to make sure you’re taking challenging course, in your major of choice, and you need to be getting excellent grades in those classes.
You also want to be building towards a “niche,” or a specialization within your major of choice. Especially now that you’ve done some college, you should have a better idea of what you want to do. And if you don’t, it’s time to figure that out. If you entered college undecided, it’s time to decide – you can always change your mind once you get to Tulane, but right now you’re trying to optimize for a transfer application. A niche looks like someone who started out a history major and is finding themselves hyperfocused on medieval history, or an English major who wants to spend their time on the works of Mark Twain. Your niche should take you a level deeper, and the classes you take should reflect that.
Writing
Tulane’s essay is optional, but not for you! We know Tulane has a high transfer acceptance rate, but that doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to get in, even if your grades and scores are perfect. Writing this essay is the one part of your application where you get to stand out. So take advantage of it.
Describe why you are interested in joining the Tulane community. Consider your experiences, talents, and values to illustrate what you would contribute to the Tulane community if admitted.
This statement should be 250 words at most; however, it is neither necessary nor expected that you reach this maximum length. We strongly encourage you to focus on content and efficiency rather than word count. While submitting this prompt is optional, we recommend that all applicants do so.
This is the same question Tulane asks of their first-year applicants, and we have a detailed guide on how to write it here. This is an extremely standard “Why This College” question, and as someone who is currently in college, you will remember answering a lot of these when you first applied to college. But, unlike the first time around, you have more experience to draw from and probably more interesting things to say.
Something interesting to note is that Tulane isn’t asking the more standard “why do you want to transfer here” essay, which is what we usually see in these prompts. This means you probably do not want to mention your current school or its shortcomings in this essay. Instead, focus on what Tulane is going to offer you and how you and Tulane are besties and the perfect fit for each other.
If you did what we told you to do above (the whole niche building thing), then your origin story should reflect this. Tell Tulane how you’ve progressed down the funnel of your interests, and then match that up with specific offerings at Tulane. Talk about extra special classes and professors and labs that only they have, and how that’s the only place you can achieve your goal of (insert here).
This prompt also allows for you to get into the extracurriculars and community of Tulane. We know you don’t have a lot of space, but mentioning some clubs, or even just hwo excited you are about New Orleans, is very important.
Now… wait
If you apply to the Feb 1st priority deadline, you should hear back by March 15th. If you apply regular (April 15) you’ll hear back before June 15th on a rolling basis. We, again, strongly encourage you to apply to the priority deadline, especially for Tulane.
Now sit back, take a few deep breaths, and wait for them to get back to you. Best of luck!
If you need help with your transfer applications, reach out to us today.