Is Early Decision Worth the Risk? What Tulane's Unusual Move Reveals About ED Policies
A recent New York Times story cracked open a conversation that college counselors have been having quietly for years: Is Early Decision fair — and what happens when it goes wrong?
The piece, published October 26, 2025, reported that a student broke an Early Decision agreement with Tulane University and that Tulane responded by penalizing the student's high school. It's a jarring story — and it's worth unpacking carefully before your student signs anything.
What Is Early Decision, Exactly?
Early Decision (ED) is the only binding admissions plan in the college application process. When a student applies ED, they sign a formal agreement — along with their parent and school counselor — committing to enroll if admitted. All other application plans (Early Action, Regular Decision, rolling admission) are non-binding; students remain free to compare offers and choose the best academic, social, and financial fit.
That binding nature is both ED's appeal and its risk.
Why Families Choose Early Decision
The primary reason students apply Early Decision is straightforward: it significantly improves admission odds.
According to a December 2024 Instagram post from The College Navigator, Tulane's ED acceptance rate was approximately 57%, compared to a 13% regular decision rate. Crimson Education notes that ED acceptance rates are commonly two to three times higher than regular decision rates — a meaningful advantage at selective schools.
For students who have a clear first choice and strong financial footing, ED can be a smart strategic move.
The Financial Risk Most Families Underestimate
Here's where Early Decision gets complicated — especially for families who aren't full-pay.
When a student applies Early Decision, they commit before seeing their financial aid package. If the aid offer doesn't make the school affordable, families face a difficult choice: stretch financially, take on private loans, or attempt to withdraw from a binding agreement.
At Tulane specifically, the numbers raise flags:
Cost of attendance: Over $92,000 per year
Financial need met: Tulane does not meet 100% of demonstrated financial need
Median family income of enrolled students (2017): $180,700 — nearly three times the U.S. median at the time
These figures aren't incidental. They reflect a structural reality: Early Decision, as practiced at many selective universities, tends to favor students whose families can pay — or are willing to borrow heavily — without waiting to compare aid packages.
What Actually Happened at Tulane?
The Tulane case is unusual because the university's response was public and punitive toward an institution — the student's high school — rather than the student alone.
In practice, Early Decision withdrawals do happen. In my experience working with college-bound students, the one or two times I've seen a student withdraw from an ED commitment — typically due to insufficient aid or a sudden change in family finances — colleges have responded by either offering additional aid or quietly releasing the student from the agreement. These situations are usually handled privately.
Documented cases of schools penalizing high schools over individual ED withdrawals are rare. This case may be one of the first publicly confirmed instances of that kind of institutional response.
The financial impact on Tulane from a single withdrawn ED applicant is likely minimal. The university could readily fill that spot from its Early Action pool, regular decision applicants, or waitlist — particularly given its demonstrated preference for full-pay enrollment.
What Early Decision Agreements Are — and Aren't
It's worth being precise here: Early Decision agreements are not legally enforceable contracts. Courts have consistently declined to treat them as binding legal instruments. The New York Times covered this in a 2021 piece examining an NYU case that reinforced that point.
What ED agreements are is a matter of professional ethics and institutional relationships — agreements between students, families, and schools that carry real reputational and practical weight, even without legal force. That distinction matters when families are weighing their options.
Is Early Decision Right for Your Student?
Early Decision can be a genuinely good strategy — for the right student, at the right school, with the right financial picture. It's worth considering when:
Your student has a clear, researched first choice (not just a dream school based on name recognition)
Your family has reviewed the school's net price calculator and can absorb the likely cost
Your student's academic profile is competitive for that school's ED pool
You've discussed the financial commitment openly, including the risk of an aid package that doesn't meet your needs
It's worth reconsidering — or at minimum proceeding very carefully — when:
Financial aid will significantly determine where your student can realistically attend
Your student hasn't visited or thoroughly researched the school
The decision is being driven primarily by the statistical boost rather than genuine fit
Your family hasn't modeled what enrollment would actually cost after aid
The Bigger Picture
The Tulane story is a useful reminder that Early Decision isn't a neutral tool. Like many admissions policies, it operates within a system that doesn't treat all applicants equally. Understanding those dynamics — calmly and clearly — puts families in a better position to make decisions that serve their student's actual interests.
If you're weighing whether Early Decision makes sense for your student, it's worth having that conversation before applications open — not after.
Want to think through your student's college list and application strategy together? Schedule a consultation to explore what timing, school selection, and financial planning look like for your family.