<p>Hi, I'm a high school senior applying Early Action to Tulane. Besides a run-of-the-mill chances thread, I'd also like to use this thread as a spot to chance me for merit aid and also to invite those very familiar with Tulane to explain some miscellany about the Dean's Honor and Paul Tulane scholarship processes.</p>
<p>GPA: 3.96 UW
ACT: 34 (36 English, 34 Math, 34 Reading, 33 Science; 34 combined English/Writing)
SAT I: 2150 (760 CR, 650 M, 740 W)
SAT II: Lit and U.S. History in about a week - will update then.
EDIT: Forgot to mention - National Merit Semifinalist</p>
<p>Senior Schedule:
AP Physics
AP Stats
AP English Lit. and Comp.
AP U.S. Gov./Pol.
Ceramics I
Forensics II</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
*Forensics - 4th place in state in Varsity Foreign Extemporaneous my novice year, Novice Debater of the Year, Co-Captain of Policy Debate
*8-16 hr/wk part-time job
*National Honor Society
*Key Club for two years</p>
<p>Random question - Will having not taken Pre-Calculus or Calculus during my high school years affect my admission prospects? I have taken math classes all four years, but repeated lack of counselor guidance has left me without these having been taken. Just so that college Gen Ed math is doable, I plan to take Pre-Calc over the summer for those concerned about that aspect.</p>
<p>EDIT: And one more RQ - does Tulane aid "stack" (i.e., if I qualify for $20,000 need based and $25,000 merit based I get $45,000 aid)?</p>
<p>As for the miscellany on scholarships, is there a way to submit them online? If not, do the recommendations really have to be on the backside of the application, or just attached to the back? Since it's snail mail, do I have to submit them a few weeks early to ensure that all my materials arrive by December 15?</p>
Probably not, but don’t blame it on your guidance counselor. That just sounds like an excuse, no matter how poor they might have been. But I am sure there are any number of students that are strong in areas other than math (not saying you are not good at it, just making a point) that choose not to take the higher level math courses in high school. It actually wasn’t all that long ago that taking Calc in high school was fairly unusual. But especially if you are planning a liberal arts major or business, not having taken Calc is not as big a deal. If you want to be an engineer, it would be more unusual but still not a disqualifier by any means. Also, AP Stats still shows math aptitude, as does your high ACT score in that subject. Speaking of which, I would only send your ACT if I were you. 2150 is a great score, but a 34 on the ACT is better.</p>
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<p>There are a couple of ways to interpret what you are asking, so let’s put it this way. If your family’s Expected Financial Contribution (EFC) is A) $15,000 or B) $5,000 (just making up a numbers for demonstration purposes), they/you will be expected to pay that no matter what scholarship you get, unless of course the remainder after the scholarship is less than that. And Tulane doesn’t give merit aid above the tuition rate, so if you qualify the rest would have to come from Federal aid, which is grants and/or loans, and possibly some work-study. So let’s assume the following for discussion purposes. Tuition: $42,000 Fees: $4,000 Room and Board: $10,000. I will leave off books, travel, misc. for this example. So that is a total of $56,000 total Cost of Attendance (COA).</p>
<p>Now let’s say you win a full tuition scholarship. That still leaves $14,000 that you will be expected to pay in Case A. For Case B you would be eligible for $9,000 in aid. If instead you “only” received the Presidential Scholarship worth $27,000, then for A you would add the $15,000 to that making $42,000 leaving $14,000 to be gotten via need-based aid. For B, that naturally rises to $24,000. It is hard to predict what portion of an aid package like that would be grants and work/study versus loans. It is my understanding, but I am not sure, that for a small package like $4,000 it is usually a grant. The larger the amount, the more likely it is that some will be loans.</p>
<p>So I guess the answer is that yes, they do stack, but only up to a certain ceiling based on the tuition level that year. The nice thing about the DHS and PTA is that they cover tuition no matter how much they rise. The other merit awards are at a fixed level.</p>
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<p>I am fairly certain these all have to be submitted on paper, although they can be sent by FedEx or UPS, you don’t have to use snail mail. Also the Dec. 15 date is a postmark deadline, not a receipt deadline, although I strongly recommend that if you send it in on Dec. 13-15 you use a 2 day service, minimum. Not sure why, it really shouldn’t matter because I doubt they start reviewing them seriously until after the holiday break. It just feels wrong to have it come in too much later, even if that isn’t particularly rational. Besides, I would think you would want delivery confirmation for something that important.</p>
<p>As far as the recommendation, it does say they should at least start it on the back, and attach more pages as needed. Since the teacher has to then seal it in an envelope and sign it across the seal, I don’t know why that would be a problem for them, but at the same time they certainly are not going to penalize you if the teacher doesn’t do it that way. After all, you are not supposed to see it; by the time it gets back to you it should already be sealed.</p>
<p>That did a good job of answering all the questions I had. Just one more - is it important to get two separate teachers for both Scholarship Recommendations?</p>
<p>No, I don’t think so. If you have two that you think can give you equally in-depth, excellent recs then by all means go ahead, but I can’t think of any reason not to use the same one for the DHS and the PTA. Except that I don’t see where the PTA asks for an extra recommendation. Am I missing it somewhere? What I was saying above about the sealed envelope and all was for the DHS. I should have been clearer about that.</p>