Tulane Supplemental Essays 2025-26 – Prompts & Advice

August 14, 2025

If you blinked at some point during the 2010s, you may have missed Tulane’s meteoric rise in selectivity that resulted in a 13% acceptance rate for the Class of 2028. However, today, this mid-size private research university in New Orleans is among the most selective schools in the country. The average incoming freshman possesses 99th percentile standardized test scores and a strong academic transcript. This brings us to the topic of this blog — the Tulane supplemental essays for 2025-26.

Want to learn more about how to create a strong application to Tulane? In addition to our blog entitled: How to Get Into Tulane University: Admissions Data and Strategies, head to College Transitions Gateway for all our best free tools and resources, including an admissions calculator for 170+ institutions, college planning guides & templates, and example essays from accepted students.

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When applying to an institution like Tulane that rejects nine of every ten applicants, you’ll need to put maximum effort into every area of the application, including the supplemental essay. Below is Tulane University’s supplemental prompt for the 2025-26 admissions cycle along with our advice for composing a winning essay.

Tulane Supplemental Essay 2025-26

The following supplemental essay prompt is optional but highly recommended for all applicants:

Describe why you are interested in joining the Tulane community. Consider your experiences, talents, and values to illustrate what you would contribute to the Tulane community if admitted.

This statement should be 250 words at most; however, it is neither necessary nor expected that you reach this maximum length. We strongly encourage you to focus on content and efficiency rather than word count. While submitting this prompt is optional, we recommend that all applicants do so.

Tulane is inviting you to share more about your experiences, talents, and/or values through the lens of how that will impact your experience at the university. Take note of the wide-open nature of this prompt. You are essentially invited to talk about any of the following topics:

A perspective/value you hold
An experience/challenge you had
A community you belong to
Your cultural background
Your religious background
Your family background
Your sexual orientation or gender identity
A particular talent/skill

Although this prompt’s open floor plan may feel daunting, a good tactic is to first consider what has already been communicated within your Common App personal statement and activities list. What important aspect(s) of yourself have not been shared (or sufficiently discussed)?

You’ll then need to discuss how your experiences, talents, and/or values will influence your distinct contributions to Tulane’s community. Further, you’ll need to explain why you’re interested in joining that community in particular. We’d recommend being as specific as possible.

For example, given your visual arts background, perhaps you’re excited about contributing to and learning within Tulane’s thriving arts scene, including the NOLA Through Visual Culture interdisciplinary experience course and Tulane Art Club. Or, perhaps your experience fighting food insecurity in your community has made you interested in Tulane’s Food Recovery Network, and you hope to contribute to Tulane’s community service-centric culture and values.

To that end, be sure you address how you will take advantage of Tulane’s immense resources both inside and/or outside of the classroom by citing specific academic programs, professors, research opportunities, service learning, study abroad programs, student-run organizations, etc.

How important are the Tulane supplemental essays?

Tulane lists five factors as being “very important” to the admissions committee: the rigor of your secondary school record, academic GPA, class rank, extracurricular activities, and volunteer work. The Common App and supplemental essays are “important.”

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College Admissions

Dave Bergman

Dave has over a decade of professional experience that includes work as a teacher, high school administrator, college professor, and independent educational consultant. He is a co-author of the books The Enlightened College Applicant (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016) and Colleges Worth Your Money (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020).