Early decision–two words that run through every high school student’s head while thinking about applying to college. It is an advantage to apply early, increasing a student’s chance of admission to very selective schools by as much as 60%, according to collegevine.com. However, there is one caveat- early decision is binding, meaning that a student must commit to enrolling in the school if accepted.
On Oct. 27, the New York Times published an article headlined, “An Early-Decision Student Backed Out of Tulane. Tulane Punished the High School.” It explained how a student at Colorado Academy, an independent school in Denver, backed out of an early decision agreement. As a result, Tulane prevented the following year’s senior class at Colorado Academy from applying early there.
“It is very unusual for this to be happening… early decision is a binding decision,” Staples College and Career Center Coordinator Sandra Zeigler said.
At a school like Tulane, the benefits of applying early are extremely beneficial, as only 106 students were admitted in regular decision for the class of 2026. At a school like Staples, a hypothetical ban would be detrimental, as Tulane was the second most attended school among its 2025 graduates, with 11 students enrolling.
When contacted for a statement about the reasoning behind its decision, Tulane declined to respond.
Students shouldn’t fear that this could happen at Staples as the school has an excellent relationship with Tulane.
“I honestly don’t think that would ever happen,” Zeigler said. “We have a lot of students who go to Tulane. Whenever there’s a question or a problem, our counselors pick up the phone and talk to someone, and vice versa.”
Zeigler also thinks that the fact that Colorado Academy is a small private school versus a large public school like Staples is a differentiating factor.
Still, Tulane’s decision should serve as a warning that the decision to apply early to a school should not be taken lightly, and the commitment should be expected to be honored.
“I don’t understand why one person’s actions should affect the whole school,” Rian Connolly ’26 said. “If I were in that situation, I would feel frustrated and feel like the university could have handled things more reasonably and effectively.”
