Tulane bans HS from ED for 1 year after student backs out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can hold two thoughts in my head at once. I can recognize that people should honor their ED commitments, and I can recognize that colleges are the ones who gain the most by filling a significant % of the class through ED. The vast majority of students do not benefit from this system.

My student benefited. Like many she had an application appropriate for a top 10-20 school but none of the hooks, not a legacy. She applied ED to a school that isn’t known for valuing legacy, got in, and got almost exactly as much financial aid (a lot) as the estimate suggested. The system worked for her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can hold two thoughts in my head at once. I can recognize that people should honor their ED commitments, and I can recognize that colleges are the ones who gain the most by filling a significant % of the class through ED. The vast majority of students do not benefit from this system.

Ok. Breaking the rules of the ED application has consequences. Live with the consequences of your behavior.

+1 It's terrible the way so many people today try to rationalize dishonesty.

[Anonymous]

- at our competitive private nyc high school, if you're admitted to HYP in SCEA round, it's considered bad form to apply elsewhere. there's a gentleman's agreement that you could be taking someone else's seat and for what? is it allowed, yes. will the network you've built over 4 or 12 years remember? yes.

- at the same time, I think college admissions is bullshit in about a hundred different ways and punishing the school is the least effective way to do this. what's I'd do, if I were Tulane, stop all school visits for like 10 years. and in the portal, post a note stating something like, Tulane University is aware of the times a Colorado Academy Early Decision Admit backed out of the agreement signed with Tulane. As this wasn't a single incident, Tulane can only assume the seriousness is not being communicated .. etc etc". That would make Colorado parents take this up within their own community. Because it sure sounds like Tulane doesn't like this school.

[Anonymous]

How funny this made the news. Tulane must be embarrassed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Colleges that used to get 8,000 applications max in the days I was applying are now getting well over 50,000. ED is one way to mitigate this randomness for those who know what they want and are not just blanketing all selective schools with applications just for the heck of it. I can’t imagine how even more random college admissions will become if they eliminate ED, or if everyone fails to honor ED commitments. At the very least if ED is eliminated we need some restriction on how many colleges students can apply to.

100 percent correct

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can hold two thoughts in my head at once. I can recognize that people should honor their ED commitments, and I can recognize that colleges are the ones who gain the most by filling a significant % of the class through ED. The vast majority of students do not benefit from this system.

Ok. Breaking the rules of the ED application has consequences. Live with the consequences of your behavior.

+1 It's terrible the way so many people today try to rationalize dishonesty.

This. NPC can help you determine which school to apply to ED. There is no excuse for withdrawing, barring change in financial circumstances. Which was clearly not the case.

[Anonymous]

since they're getting these apps via a portal, I'd love to see that portal have a count box at the bottom showing how many other apps have been submitted by the student. It can update in real time.

if I were a reader, an application that had a box that said 6 in it would read very different than one that had 22 in it.

[Anonymous]

The end of the article asks readers for stories about their experiences with ED. I guess NYT editors don’t like it for some reason and they want to expose and dismantle it. Likely because it favors the wealthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t soft/unstated bans happen all the time, and wouldn’t they be almost as effective? At my kid’s private school, “everyone” knows that certain top 20 schools love our students, some like select students (= admit fewer overall, but an extremely qualified candidate has a reasonable chance of admission), but one hasn’t admitted a single student from our school in years, since a last-minute ED acceptee withdrew. The soft ban effectively still keeps kids from applying to that univ from our school. I don’t know the family and we did not discuss with the college counselor since the school didn’t interest my child. Are others aware of rumored soft bans at their schools?

Agree, this isn’t new, just formalized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are independent college counselors actively advising kids not to pull EA applications if accepted ED. They specifically tell the families that your school college counselor will not be able to see whether you pull the apps. If you get into a better school in EA, claim you had a change in circumstances (divorce, loss of job, ill parent need to be closer to home) and pull out of ED. This is 100% happening. IYKYK

Why would college counselors send transcripts and other documents from the HS to any other college then the ED choice?

Because November 1 is also the EA deadline and it’s perfectly acceptable to apply ED to one schools and EA (or early rolling) to a bunch of others. Counselors sending transcripts to EA/rolling schools is the system working as intended.

You can also apply RD in November/December before your ED decision comes out. The college counselors send everything when you apply. This isn’t that hard to figure out.

Yes of course this is true but don’t the colleges need to see you graduated and get an official end of year transcript too? The school could decline to send that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can hold two thoughts in my head at once. I can recognize that people should honor their ED commitments, and I can recognize that colleges are the ones who gain the most by filling a significant % of the class through ED. The vast majority of students do not benefit from this system.

Ok. Breaking the rules of the ED application has consequences. Live with the consequences of your behavior.

+1 It's terrible the way so many people today try to rationalize dishonesty.

This. NPC can help you determine which school to apply to ED. There is no excuse for withdrawing, barring change in financial circumstances. Which was clearly not the case.

+1 so true!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can hold two thoughts in my head at once. I can recognize that people should honor their ED commitments, and I can recognize that colleges are the ones who gain the most by filling a significant % of the class through ED. The vast majority of students do not benefit from this system.

Majority of students also don't benefit from financial aid and don't benefit from having hooks. Should schools eliminate all these? ED is fine, just like giving needy families financial aid is fine. No system is fair to everyone. I cannot afford a Maserati or Porsche and am totally at peace with my inability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/26/business/tulane-early-decision-colorado-academy.html?unlocked_article_code=1.wU8.1dV-.na_H6egmYJU8&smid=url-share

And I thought this was an urban legend. Really not fair to the seniors at that high school.

Who cares? So a year of kids will ED to better schools. As the article indicated in the very first line, Tulane's entire brand is based on locking in insecure kids through ED and not letting them shop around for better options. That is how it rose up the ranking from mediocre.

Colorado Academy is better off. And who knows what the individual circumstances were for the kid in question. There are zero details or context given on that.

[Anonymous]

The primary breadwinner of the student’s family could have lost their job and they decided to go to CU Boulder instead. I don’t think Colorado Academy is encouraging ED applicants to keep other applications. I live near it and that just doesn’t seem like something their college office would do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The primary breadwinner of the student’s family could have lost their job and they decided to go to CU Boulder instead. I don’t think Colorado Academy is encouraging ED applicants to keep other applications. I live near it and that just doesn’t seem like something their college office would do.

There was no explanation from the student. They simply withdrew their ED acceptance. I will bet my paycheck that there would be nothing done by Tulane if the student had a change in financial circumstances.