Tulane is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana with a tradition of pairing academic excellence with a commitment to service. They look for young people who push past the expected in pursuit of the common good, and students love the college for having a work/life balance that celebrates all that New Orleans has to offer.
The undergraduate program received 27,936 applications in the 2022-2023 admissions cycle, and they admitted 4,077 — or 14.6%. This makes Tulane a highly-selective college that is quite difficult to get into. If you are reading this, you probably already know that, as you probably received a waitlist decision.
We write a lot of these “what to do if you’re waitlisted” posts this time of year, as we’re trying to provide students with as many resources as possible as they face some of the most stressful decisions they’ve made so far in their life. But they don’t have to be. This process doesn’t have to be miserable or even mildly unpleasant…and then there is the Tulane waitlist.
The Tulane waitlist is a monster, to put it lightly, and we’ll explain why we refer to it as such. In the 2022-2023 application cycle, Tulane waitlisted nearly as many students as they accepted: 4,062. This is an absurd number given that the number of students Tulane can handle in a first-year class is just under 2,000. Of that over 4,000 students offered a place on the waitlist, 2,168 students accepted a spot. Now, some dropped off in the process of waiting so we can be sure that there weren’t 2,168 students on the waitlist still when Tulane finally got around to looking at it in May — but there were still many, many multiples of how many they could ever expect to let in.
And 43 were admitted. This is a less than 2% acceptance rate from the waitlist as it initially stood.
The way Tulane uses the waitlist has rubbed some people the wrong way. In 2021, a former Ivy League admissions officer and author wrote a piece for USA Today that tore into Tulane, along with other schools, for offering waitlist positions to so many more students than they could ever actually offer a spot to. She accuses schools of offering a “false sense of hope,” to thousands of students — and we have to agree. By offering over 4,000 students a spot on a waitlist when the freshman class needs to be less than 2,000, Tulane knows that most of those students will never even have a chance of admission off of the waitlist. They know, but they do it anyway.
Waitlists are the way a school ensures that they have a full first-year class. Tulane doesn’t need a waitlist 4,000 students deep for it to serve that purpose. And, the year before this piece was written, in 2020, Tulane offered nearly 13,000 students a spot on the waitlist. And then admitted zero. We can’t think of a defensible reason for why to do this.
For some schools, the waitlist is a useful tool they regularly turn to. For others, and we’d include Tulane in this bunch, the waitlist is treated as a gentle (but also not-so-gentle) “no.” The former Ivy League admissions officer calls this “carelessly stringing thousands of students along well into the summer months,” and labels it “unethical and irresponsible on the part of colleges.”
The odds of getting into Tulane from the waitlist are wildly low, but there are things you can do to try to be one of those select few. This will be your step-by-step guide on what to do next for Tulane if you’ve been on the receiving end of a waitlist decision.
If you’re confused about what a waitlist decision means — and what to do next — send us an email. We can help.
Get on the Waitlist
First, you need to let Tulane know that you want the spot. Waitlist is not ranked, and you aren’t given ‘bonus points,’ for responding super speedily, but you should respond as soon as you know you want the spot. Tulane expects about half of the students who were offered a place on the waitlist to either decline that spot or to remove themselves from the waitlist at some point in the process as their attention shifts to the university they lined up as a backup. Which leads us to the next step — you need a backup.
Line up a Backup
After you’ve accepted your spot on the Tulane waitlist, you need to accept a spot at a school you were accepted to that you would be happy to attend. This is extremely important for all waitlist situations, but especially for Tulane because the acceptance rate from the waitlist is so low. Some years, they accept no one off of the waitlist at all. Getting off the waitlist is hard — and it isn’t all in your control — so you need to have a plan for if that doesn’t happen.
Follow Instructions
For most schools, we don’t just advise sending a letter of continued interest, we say that if you don’t do it, you are basically saying that you don’t really want to go to the college at all. Tulane is a little different. They really don’t want to hear from you except for in two situations.
Situation One: If you have previous communication with an admissions counselor at Tulane, you can send “ONE” (their all-caps emphasis) email confirming your continued interest in Tulane with one or two updates to your application, such as an award or honor, if applicable. One email, and only if you emailed them previously.
Situation Two: The second situation in which Tulane wants to hear from you is if they email you. Whether it’s a personal email just to you, or a form email sent to everyone on the waitlist, you must respond as requested in the email. So, you need to be checking your emails regularly.
“For the most part,” Tulane says, “the ball is in our court.” They do not want you to call, or to email for a reason that doesn’t fit situation one or two. Do what they invite, and don’t do what they ask you not to.
Be Patient
If you’re frustrated that there isn’t much to do, we get it. But you’re going to have to wait, and likely well into summer, to hear back. “We will release decisions by July 1 at the latest,” Tulane says. So don’t expect to hear anything until after May 1, but keep checking your email, line up your back-up plan, and keep your head in the game.
The Tulane waitlist is frustrating and, for many students, misleading. If you’ve received a waitlist decision from Tulane, your chances of eventual admission are miniscule. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a chance, but you shouldn’t be betting on it.
If you’re feeling down about a waitlist decision from Tulane, send us an email. We’re experts at helping outstanding students find their perfect fit.