From Business Insider
By James Murphy
October 2, 2022
What’s the hardest college in America to get into? You’re probably thinking it’s Harvard, which admitted just 3% of applicants this year, but you’re wrong. The hardest college to get into — assuming you submitted your application by the “regular decision” deadline on January 15 — is Tulane. Of the 14,000 or so high-school students who applied to Tulane on the RD schedule, just 106 got in. That makes Tulane’s official acceptance rate a mind-blowing 0.7%.
How did Tulane do it? Through the power of “early decision,” which it first started offering for the freshman class of 2017. ED programs require students to submit their application by November 1, to agree not to apply early decision anywhere else, and to enroll if admitted, before they receive any offer of financial aid. In exchange, applicants gain a significant advantage in the admissions process and learn whether they get in before Christmas.
Colleges, however, get even more out of ED. The process enables them to nail down a significant portion of their freshman class — and hence, their annual revenue — before they even look at RD applications. That, in turn, makes it easier for them to reject more RD applications and drive down their acceptance rates into Harvard territory. The only way Tulane can afford to reject 99% of its applicants in the regular round is if it’s confident it has already locked down most of its class through early decision. ED also enables colleges to rope in standout athletes, foreign applicants, and students from wealthy families, all of whom are more likely to apply for early decision than students with fewer resources. For a school like Tulane, ED is Christmas before Christmas.
Read the full story here.