<p>I had insomnia last night and went back to read this message board from the beginning. First off, just reading the posts from the days leading up to and the months following Katrian were so eerie. We were in New Orleans on vacation that week and there was a family staying at the hotel that we got friendly with. They were there to bring their son to Orientation at Tulane. We left the city on Thursday and by Saturday the evacuations were started. I am comforted in knowing that we have many friends in New Orleans, Mandeville and Baton Rouge that have all offered to evacuate or take our Son in if ever needed. </p>
<p>Second, wow had the tone and information presented here changed since then! Go back and read some threads from 2004. So much focus on drinking and where the best parties are and how do people dress and image and ...wow. Then you start to see it change after Katrina...</p>
<p>It seems there are more parents on here and less students with a huge focus now on academics and scholarships Had anyone here been around since that time (multiple kids)...was Tulane easier to get into before Katrina? </p>
<p>No real point to this, just an interesting read. If you have a few hours to kill,lol!</p>
<p>There is no question that Tulane took full advantage of Katrina to change the tenor and direction of the university. Tulane was definitely easier to get into before Katrina. The entire approach was different. Read this article from 2004, kind of funny when you consider that now the admission rate is around 25%. <a href=“https://tulane.edu/news/releases/archive/2004/when_less_is_more.cfm[/url]”>https://tulane.edu/news/releases/archive/2004/when_less_is_more.cfm</a> I remember seeing some data from the mid to late 1990’s, and I think admission rates then even ran as high as 60-70%, but I cannot remember for sure. Just a totally different marketing strategy, class levels, etc.</p>
<p>If you go back even further, Tulane was harder to get into some decades and a little easier in others. I think the ascendancy of schools like Vandy, Duke, WUSTL, etc. throughout the 1900’s affected Tulane in various ways. For a variety of reasons, I don’t think Tulane kept up with them completely, but now is back on the rise. To be sure and to be clear, it was always an excellent school. I am not saying it became a second-rate school, far from it. It just couldn’t keep up with some of those others in prestige.</p>
<p>Tulane may never quite be thought of the same way as many of those schools, because it is difficult for Tulane to match the level of graduate programs those schools have, with their bigger endowments (in which big local corporations really help, New Orleans doesn’t have that) and more space to build on. And that’s OK. I think Tulane’s niche is quite wonderful, and provides undergrads with great opportunities that might not be quite so plentiful otherwise.</p>