How to Get Into Tulane: Admissions Stats + Tips
Looking to attend a great college in a world-class city? Tulane University might be the school for you. Tulane’s campus offers easy access to everything New Orleans is known for—a vibrant culture, rich history, and unique spirit—while also delivering the high-quality education you expect from a top-tier university. But life at Tulane is more than great restaurants and amazing music—the university attracts top students from across the country, which makes gaining admissions a challenge. Curious what it takes to get accepted to this great school? Keep reading to find out! Getting into Tulane is hard. The university received 45,517 applications for admission to its Class of 2025 and offered admission to 9.7%—just 4,428 applicants. While Tulane’s acceptance rate is incredibly low, your chances of acceptance are determined by the strength of your profile. CollegeVine’s free admissions calculator can help you better understand your odds of admission. It uses personalized data like your GPA, test scores, and extracurricular activities to estimate your likelihood of acceptance and offer tips to improve your profile. The average high school GPA of Tulane’s Class of 2025 is 3.55 and roughly a third of the class had a high school GPA 3.75 or higher. The middle 50% range for Tulane’s Class of 2025 is a 1360-1470 SAT and a 30-33 ACT. 63.44% of Tulane’s Class of 2025 graduated in the top tenth of their high school class and 87.63% graduated in the top quarter of their class. Tulane reviews applicants holistically and considers a variety of factors—including test scores, GPA, course selection, extracurriculars, essays, and letters of recommendation—to get a well-rounded picture of who you are both inside and outside of the classroom. Tulane values applicants who engage with the university. A visit to Tulane’s campus and a tour are awesome ways to interact with the school and get a feel for what life is like there. Tulane will also often come to you; their admission counselors host a number of in-person information sessions across the country. Another option is to check out the MET Tour, a series of events promoting five of the top research institutions in the country located in five of America’s best college cities. Tulane is also interested in attracting students from Louisiana and guarantees admissions for applicants that meet certain criteria through its Focus Louisiana program. Those criteria are: According to their 2020-2021 Common Data Set, Tulane University considers the following factors “very important”: These factors are “important”: These are “considered”: And these are “not considered”:
GPA, class rank, and course rigor are three of the four factors that Tulane deems “very important” to admissions. The average high school GPA of Tulane’s Class of 2025 is 3.55 and 33.2% had a 3.75 GPA or higher. Competitive schools like Tulane use a tool known as the Academic Index to filter out candidates they consider academically unqualified. The Academic Index is a distillation of your entire academic performance into a single number. If your Academic Index doesn’t meet Tulane’s cutoff, you risk your application not receiving serious consideration. If your GPA is lower than Tulane’s Class of 2025’s 3.55 average and you’re early in your high school career, check out our tips for increasing your GPA. If you’re a junior or senior, it’s difficult to increase your GPA, which makes earning higher test scores the easiest way to increase your Academic Index. Test scores are the only factor outside of the classroom that Tulane views as “very important” to admissions decisions. The middle 50% range of Tulane’s Class of 2025 is 1360-1470 SAT and a 30-33 ACT. Any score within the middle 50% is good, but the higher in the range your score lands, the better your odds of admissions are. Tulane super scores both the SAT and ACT, considering the highest section scores and ACT score reports from all test dates. Given this, it behooves you to maximize your SAT/ACT score by taking the test two to three times. To improve your SAT/ACT score, check out these free CollegeVine resources: Tulane transitioned to test-optional admissions for the 2020-2021 admissions cycle due to COVID-19 and will continue that policy in the 2021-2022 admissions cycle. If you can take the SAT/ACT safely, however, CollegeVine recommends doing so. Applicants who submit test scores are accepted at higher rates than those who don’t. Generally, it’s wise to submit any score at the 25th percentile or above for accepted applicants. You can get recommendations on whether or not you should apply test-optional using our free chancing engine. Once you clear Tulane’s academic thresholds and meet its testing standards, essays are the best way to set yourself apart from other applicants. Tulane’s application includes an optional essay supplement, although it’s worth noting that the university believes that “it’s always a good idea to submit the optional essay that challenges you to tell us Why Tulane?” A compelling college essay is written in your unique voice and shares the parts of your personality, interests, and character traits (which Tulane considers “important”) that aren’t reflected in other parts of the application. It’s also a good idea to highlight how you’ll fit in on campus and how the college will benefit from you being there. For Tulane-specific essay advice, check out our article, “How to Write the Tulane University Essays 2021-2022.” Tulane considers letters of recommendation “important” to admissions. You’re only required to submit a letter of recommendation from your high school counselor, although Tulane will review additional recommendations if you send them. If you’re going to submit an additional recommendation from a teacher, follow the nine rules for requesting letters of recommendation from teachers and make sure that the recommendation adds something otherwise uncovered on your application. Your extracurricular activities are “considered” by Tulane when making admission decisions. A highly developed interest known as a “spike” and one or two impressive extracurricular activities supporting it is a great way to wow admissions officers. How can you tell how impressive an activity is? The four tiers of extracurriculars provide a good guideline: Tulane has three admissions processes you can apply through: early decision (ED), early action (EA), and regular decision (RD). Typically, the acceptance rate is higher for applicants who apply ED or EA and half of the students in Tulane’s Class of 2025 are Early Decision applicants. Applying early decision is ideal for students who are certain that Tulane is their first choice and are sure they can afford it. Early decision admission is binding and by applying ED you agree to attend Tulane if accepted. Early action is less restrictive and a good choice for students who want to keep their options open, gain an acceptance advantage, and wrap up the admissions process early in their senior year. Check out this article to learn more about whether ED or EA is right for you. Application Timeline Deadline Decision Notification Early Decision November 1 December 15 Early Action November 15 January 15 Regular Decision January 15 April 1 Tulane University accepts the Common Application and the Tulane application. Other requirements include: Other optional materials include: Interested in learning more about Tulane? Check out these other informative resources: Want to know your chances at Tulane? Calculate your chances for free right now.
What’s Covered:
How Hard Is It to Get Into Tulane University?
Average Academic Profile of Accepted Tulane Students
GPA
SAT/ACT
Class Rank
What is Tulane Looking For?
How Tulane University Evaluates Applications
How to Improve Your Chances of Getting into Tulane
1. Achieve at least a 3.55 GPA while taking the most challenging classes available.
2. Aim for a 1470 SAT and 33 ACT.
3. Write engaging essays.
4. Request great letters of recommendation.
5. Cultivate one or two Tier 1-2 extracurriculars (find your “spike”).
6. Apply Early Action/Early Decision
How to Apply to Tulane University
Deadlines
Application Requirements
Learn more about Tulane University
