The AI Era Is Rewriting College Admissions

The College Essay Is Dying. Tulane Just Said the Quiet Part Out Loud

Date: 5/22/26
By: Brian Eufinger, Edison Prep Co-Founder

Things are evolving. And quickly.

Last month, WashU dropped its supplemental essay.
Yesterday, UGA did.
Today, Tulane did.

Tulane also announced that students seeking merit scholarship consideration — or applying to their BS/MD program — must submit SAT/ACT scores and AP scores. And Tulane now explicitly tells students that if they have a 28+ ACT or 1300+ SAT, they should submit it. Love that transparency!

Tulane noted in their counselor newsletter that one reason they are dropping the essay is that it had already become a relatively minor factor in admissions — and in the AI era, essays increasingly do not not represent a student’s authentic work.

WashU and Tulane have both doubled down on “demonstrated interest” while backing away from essays. Auburn, Colby, Colgate, and others dropped theirs years ago. UVA dropped theirs last cycle.

In a world where students have ChatGPT and other tools/people capable of generating polished essays, this trend makes sense. Ironically, the only truly verifiable proctored writing sample in the admissions process used to be the now-defunct SAT/ACT essay.

It’s refreshing to see this level of transparency at more schools, and we hope this momentum continues. And honestly, Tulane was not the school many would have expected to lead this conversation! After all, just a few years ago, Tulane was widely ridiculed in the media for its enrollment strategy that mostly cared about students applying via binding Early Decision and being full pay ($$$). Indeed, they famously admitted 69% of Early Decision applicants in 2022 while admitting about 0.35% of Regular Decision applicants (just 106 students worldwide).

GPA, rigor, and test scores are verifiable. In an age of AI and severely overburdened admissions staff without time to verify activities or anything else (thanks, Common App!), nothing else on the application is. Valuing authenticity and demonstrated interest is great. Big data > holistic admissions.

From a business standpoint, colleges dropping essays will also likely increase application volume and lower admit rates — which enrollment management offices certainly won’t hate.

More thoughts soon, but wanted to get this posted while the news is fresh!

Links:
1) https://admission.tulane.edu/apply/instructions/standardized-tests
2) https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2022/06/27/tulane-admitted-two-thirds-its-class-early-year?v2

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