Hi! I am only a Freshman in high school, but I was wondering so far in my high school career if I am on the right track to get into my dream school Tulane. My GPA is a 4.5, and I take three honors classes, and taking four next year. I play cross country and lacrosse, am part of two clubs, and go to a nursing home to play music twice a week. Is this good enough so far to get into Tulane? If not, what more can I do to better my chances of getting into this college when I’m a senior. Thanks!
I love your enthusiasm for sure, but it is a bit early to assess anyone’s chances, to whatever extent that is even useful anyway. Clearly you don’t have test scores yet so that is a big missing piece. But the fact that you are thinking ahead is a great sign. Like someone said on your What Are My Chances thread, you are on the right track. When you are eligible, take as many AP courses as you are comfortable with. All colleges like to see that you challenged yourself inside the classroom and outside of it. Show some leadership in your clubs and/or sports. I agree that you don’t need a million activities, just show as much passion for the ones you like as you can. To state the obvious, keep up the grades. I am assuming that 4.5 is on a 4.0 scale and the extra is the weighted credit for being in honors courses? If not, let us know what the scale is.
Finally, I would advise you to start following what goes on at Tulane even now. Get to really know the school. One way to do that is to check out the news features, called the New Wave, every day. http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/ I have it as my home page but you can have it sent to you via email. There is a subscription feature towards the upper right of the page. This way when it comes time to let Tulane know you are truly interested in their school, it will be quite easy to demonstrate that.
But along those lines, I would suggest that you identify several other schools similar to Tulane that might also be interesting to you. Of course I am hopeful that Tulane remains your #1 choice, but I think it is healthy at this stage or at least sometime by the beginning of junior year to check out a variety of schools. If after looking at a dozen or so others that come to your attention one way or another (and believe me you will get plenty of literature) Tulane remains #1, then you will be that much more solid in your belief that you are making the right choice. That, and of course the fact that you cannot count on getting into just one school. If at the beginning of junior year you want some suggestions, come on back with a new thread detailing where you are at that point in terms of grades, test scores, interests, likes and dislikes, etc. and the CC community will have some good suggestions for you to consider.
You can also use your social media to follow what’s going on at Tulane. Many departments have a twitter and facebook page, and instagram accounts. My son was in about 8th grade when Tulane became his dream school and he got to know all about the school and the programs. You didn’t say what area of the country you live, but maybe next year or the year after you can visit the school to get a real feel for it.
@fallenchemist Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. Yes, my GPA is weighted because I take Honors classes. Are there any specific colleges that you think are similar to Tulane that I should become familiar with too? I was thinking maybe University of Michigan. And @dolphnlvr6 I live on the East Coast in New Jersey, my parents were thinking maybe we could take a trip to NOLA the summer before my junior year to visit Tulane.
You’re welcome. So several things. Michigan is a very fine school, but it is not at all similar to Tulane in most non-academic ways. So I think it is important that you start to list (yes, I mean actually list) the things you are looking for in a school, both academically and outside the classroom. For starters, out of all the thousands of colleges in the USA, hundreds that are considered academically high level, Tulane was your first one to focus on. Why? Family reasons? Something you read and/or heard about Tulane? That would be very interesting to know. And please understand, when making such a list there is nothing wrong at all with considering factors such as the size of the school (one place where Michigan and Tulane differ greatly), the weather (another area). the sports scene (yet another), Greek life, commitment to community service, location as far as little town versus a city, accessibility to things that interest you such as skiing, fishing, going to the beach, whatever. I am not saying all these things have to be important to you in particular, but that some of them no doubt are and that there might be others factors the revolve around lifestyle that you would want to consider.
This might surprise you, that these should be considered along with academics. Actually, once you are comparing certain level schools, I would say these things should be considered more than the academics, because unless one school just doesn’t offer a major you want or something like that, the academics truly won’t vary that much. And this is someplace you will be living about 2/3 of the year for 4 years. Of course it should suit your lifestyle preferences to some extent.
So it is hard to suggest a lot of other schools that might be interesting to you without knowing a lot of those factors, plus we don’t know your test scores yet. But I will assume that you will get test scores that are very competitive. Generally people that consider Tulane that are top level students, as you appear to be, also consider Miami (FL, not Ohio), Washington University in St. Louis, Northwestern, University of Southern California, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, and oddly enough Delaware is a cross-application I see a lot. Of course there are many, many other possibilities, but that’s a starter list to look at to see what’s out there. Now most of those schools are more competitive than Tulane to get into, and they vary in terms of affordability. Their sticker prices will be similar to Tulane’s, but Tulane focuses a lot on merit scholarships coupled with need-based aid to make it affordable to most families, while many of the ones I mention are more need-based only in nature, with more limited or virtually no merit based aid. Like I said, it varies quite a lot and your family’s circumstances might play a role in deciding where to apply and where not to bother.
Finally, as far as the visit, summer is not a great time to check out Tulane, but of course if that is what is possible it is better than not visiting. But summer in NOLA is hot, hot, hot and most of the school year is not like that. More importantly, the school is not in typical session, with just the summer programs going on. When visiting during the regular school year, which I know is harder for you to do, you get to really see what it is like when classes are in normal session and actually sit in on a couple of classes. There is no perfect way to get a real feel for a school in a one or two day visit, but at least it does give you some idea of what it would be like to be one of those students in a year or two.
So I think we would all be interested to know why Tulane was your first school of focus out of the gate. Let us know about that, plus if you have any thoughts on those various factors I mentioned that would be helpful as well. And those factors might yet evolve. That’s OK, what you are thinking now is still useful for helping you get a few schools on your radar.
This is completely true, and very important. Many students do not understand that the weather at Tulane will generally not be hot while they are there, and thus they do not even apply. NOLA is actually quite pleasant most of the school year. Only miserable in the summer.
Yes, exactly the flip side of New England and the upper Midwest, where the summers are generally glorious (especially NE) but attending school there requires that you like or at least are willing to tolerate snow and sometimes bitter cold. Obviously thousands and thousands of students are quite willing to do that, but seeing Dartmouth or Bates or any of a few hundred other schools in the summer is certainly not representative of any but a couple of months of school there.
I would agree that summer is not the ideal time to visit Tulane, indeed, it is not the ideal time to visit any school. Preferably you want to visit a school when it is in session so you can feel the vibe of the school, interact with the students and see the campus in action. Visiting a school is much more than seeing its location and its buildings.
Maybe look at Emory University. Atlanta is nothing like NOLA, but Emory is about the same size as Tulane, and has a similarly national reputation.
Plus, although personally I do not think that it is similar to Tulane, for some reason many students seem prone to narrowing their choice down to Boston University and Tulane. BU has the size and feel of a state school. Huge! Perhaps people who like NOLA also happen to like the city of Boston.
I’ve sen some overlap with University of Miami, American, Emory, Vandy. You can also use the Super Match function on this website to give you an idea of colleges that fit your criteria.