<p>When I first got into Tulane, I was a bit disappointed about the merit scholarship I got ($7500), but was thrilled to have gotten into my first school, and one that I ranked highly on my list at that.</p>
<p>But after hearing of everyone else in my school's acceptance, according to Naviance around 70%, I got a bit down on the level of prestige of the school. I was still excited to go, but I was hoping I would have some higher tier schools to choose from later on.</p>
<p>Things didn't quite go as planned. I've been rejected from BC and GW; waitlisted by BU and Brandeis, and expecting to be turned down, but still waiting on Rochester, Vandy and Michigan. So at this point, it's looking like Tulane is going to be my best option (also got into Miami U, U Miami and U Mass). </p>
<p>At this point, however, after being rejected from these schools which are generally seen as mid-tier at my school, I'm beginning to question how graduate schools and employers see Tulane, and how strong the opportunities for research/hiring will be there.</p>
<p>Can someone here convince me that Tulane will be the right place for me? I hope to join a fraternity when I get there, which is definitely a strong point at Tulane. How is the premed program there? What are the strongest/weakest programs?</p>
<p>Also, with only a $7500 merit scholarship, it's going to be tough to pay for my education without a loan. Do you guys think it would be worth writing a letter to hopefully get some more money?</p>
<p>FallenChemist persuaded me to come to Tulane, turning down Duke. Read my thread about “Tulane or some other big name schools like Duke” And There’s many people on the Tulane Forum will be very happy to get you going on the excitement of going to Tulane.</p>
<p>The schools I’ve got into are like GA Tech, Duke, Miami U, UIUC, waitlisted Wash U, UVA…
So you def. shouldn’t feel Tulane has crapy students, there’s many people like me turning down Top 10-20 schools for Tulane for Various reasons. In my case, the program offered.
I’ll leave everything else to FallenChemist</p>
<p>Come On Down! Friends’ sons & daughters graduated from Tulane w/in 5 yrs, all have successful careers and many options. Research is priority at Tulane & its alumni/corp connections open doors. You won’t get lost in large student body either. Fraternity? one friend’s son was in a frat & had great time. Wouldn’t call Tulane a “Greek” school like some in South. It’s a beautiful campus, accessible President - offered email - and responsive staff. The students from all over US & world impressed my son on his visit. Listen to those who chose Tulane over bigger, supposedly better reputation schools & visit soon…nothing like St Charles Avenue & Audubon Park @ your front door. If you come to Tulane, like the song goes, you’ll “know what it means to miss New Orleans.” Special, very special place.</p>
<p>headingsouth, I feel/felt very similarly to you. At my pretty well regarded public school, a lot of students got into Tulane. I was one of them and got in in mid-january with a $20,000 scholarship. I was pretty happy. Though after seeing how many kids from my school actually got in, I questioned Tulane’s prestige (not to pass judgement on anyone but a lot of these students fell below the mid 50% SAT). So, I didn’t expect it to really be in the running. Then, like you, things didn’t really go well either: Rejected from Duke ED1, Vandy ED2, WashU and waitlisted at Lehigh and GW. So I did some research on Tulane through these threads and the Tulane website and found that Tulane is a pretty special place. I’m still not sure where I’m attending just yet (waiting on 2 more), but I’ve realized if I do end up attending Tulane, I will be happy there and not bitter about not getting into the “more prestigious” colleges. </p>
<p>—Also as prospective pre-med, I found out on Tulane’s website that they have a 73% med school acceptance rate, which is pretty high.</p>
<p>If you look through the thread you will find that many on cc have chosen Tulane over other more prestigious schools, including me. I was accepted to Vandy, Emory and UNC Chapel Hill along with others but chose Tulane. I knew Tulane was the place I wanted to be after my first visit, but applied to a few others out of curiosity. I am pre-med double majoring in Chemistry and Public Health, and have found both the professors (most of them) and advisors very helpful. I was able to get involved in a research project, very rare at most schools for a freshman. </p>
<p>Although only a small percentage (about 30%) are greek, I find that they do play a major role on campus. Between the philanthropic endeavors and, of course, parties, they are very visible on campus. I pledged this semester and am very happy with the greek life here.</p>
<p>You didn’t say whether you’ve visited campus but, if you haven’t, I strongly suggest you do. As I’ve said in other posts, before visiting I knew very little about Tulane and New Orleans. After visiting, I was sold on both Tulane and New Orleans.</p>
<p>You didn’t state your stats, so I don’t know what your chances are for reconsideration. You have nothing to lose by sending an email asking for more merit money. I would, however, give reasons as to why you deserve more. i.e. strong second semester, improved standardized test scores, strong desire…</p>
<p>Good luck and if you have any questions, feel free to send me a pm</p>
Most of what needs to be said has been. Well, I think guhengshuo gives me too much credit, he did most of the reasoning and “heavy lifting” himself.</p>
<p>You would be doing yourself a great favor by doing a reboot on your mindset when it comes to colleges and what picking the right one is all about. BC or GW a mid-tier? These are very fine schools. I suppose it depends on how closely together you space the tiers; I am not even sure what “mid-tier” means. My argument would be that all of that kind of thing is fairly meaningless. Are there differences between the academic accomplishments of the students entering HYPMS vs. Tulane, BC and GW? Sure. Does that mean that the students, or more precisely any given student at the latter group is less intelligent or less desirable to employers than students from the former? Not at all. You would be amazed at how little most employers in most professions care or even know about different schools and USNWR rankings.</p>
<p>I could recite you the stats and accomplishments of some of Tulane’s students from the last class, some of which beat many of the much higher ranked schools, but that would still be missing the point. Tulane has a different mindset and mission in some ways than other schools since Katrina. It is on a path that I personally think is very exciting and very real-world, while still capturing and embracing everything that is best about intellectual curiosity and inquiry. Try not to get caught up in the high school prestige trap. You will find out soon enough that it is far less meaningful than you think now.</p>
<p>Tulane will go up in the rankings in the future, once the Katrina stuff is fully wrung out of the stats that USNWR (to their disgrace) uses. That will make some people feel better, but it won’t make any difference in your job opportunities or the quality of the school itself. It is natural to enjoy that outside affirmation of your choices, marketers know this all too well. They even have a name for it, and often undertake marketing programs which are designed to do nothing but make you feel good about that car (or whatever) you just bought. What is hard is to realize you shouldn’t need it. Once you do realize that, it doesn’t mean a thing.</p>
<p>I think if I go to Tulane, I’d start a organization/program, helping Tulane to get the spot it truely deserves in the ranking system. Not that it’s important, but it would bring better students and the administration/admissions should like that too. And it would be a good “community service” project to do! Haha!</p>
<p>Haha that is a solid point, fallenchemist. It was a pledge as much as a screen name.</p>
<p>Btw, my stats are 2100 SAT (740 math, 690 writing, 670 reading) and 3.51 GPA unweighted, if that helps anyone figure out my chances for a better scholarship.</p>
<p>Guhenshuo: I like your thinking! Even thought most would say rankings should not matter, for most aspiring students, they absolutely do. Everyone wants to be proud of what they have chosen and many students and parents reference the US News & World Report rankings. I am very proud that my son will be attending Tulane in the fall. It is a great school and is the perfect fit in many ways for my son. However, I believe a marketing/branding campaign is a good thing, provided it is substantive. In one post, I believe Fallen Chemist indicated that if not for the tragedy of Katrina (and the fact that US News and World Report did not adjust their rankings for this tragedy), then Tulane would have placed 15-20 spots higher. I personally believe that by the time my son graduates, that Tulane will be in the top 25 schools. It is up to all of us to espouse the positive aspects of Tulane. Fallen Chemist is probably the best ambassador for the University and has done a great deal to provide the facts to enable my son to come to the conclusion that Tulane is his best academic choice, even though other schools would have cost less and he would have been able to play a sport at a very good D-III school. Onward and upward in the rankings for Tulane!</p>
<p>Tyler - I am humbled and thank you for your kind words. I wish your son a fantastic 4 years at Tulane. I have to say, nothing makes me feel better (other than how much my own D is enjoying it of course) than people coming back after a semester, a year, whatever and saying that picking Tulane was the best choice ever, or just relating all the things they are involved with. I am stunned sometimes at all the amazing things people are accomplishing while enjoying themselves immensely at the same time, and doing well in classes to boot! (Not at The Boot, that’s something else).</p>
<p>Top 25 might be stretching things a bit, lol. Putting aside my disdain for the entire concept of trying to rank something as complex as a university and given only the kind of criteria that USNWR uses, I think low 30’s is a reasonable expectation in the medium-short term. Longer term of course is anyone’s guess, many things can happen although in Tulane’s case if they keep on doing the kinds of things they are doing, it is hard for me to see anything but upside.</p>
<p>But you are exactly right, the reason to pay attention to the rankings is that no matter how some of us feel about them, people do pay attention to them and they do have an impact. So it is foolish to only say that they shouldn’t be paid attention to, although I will always say it because it is true, IMHO. There are situations where one can rail about the unfairness or illogical nature of a system, but still have to acknowledge that system and function within it. From that point of view, I would love to see Tulane in the top 25 or so just so we could stop talking about it. I can promise you one thing, if Tulane were to move into the top 25 next year or the year after or anytime, I would still tell everyone the rankings are meaningless. People should pick Tulane because it is right for them (or not pick it when it isn’t), just like any school. Tulane just happens to be one of the more unique schools out there, which makes the equation that much more interesting.</p>
<p>I also agree that marketing/branding for a university is a perfectly acceptable thing to do, but of course it is a tricky thing sometimes. It can be hard to find the right tone and frequency to get the message across. But to the extent everyone goes back and tells their high school counselors and others how great Tulane is, it can only help the school.</p>
<p>At least starting something to get peer assessment up is really possible and could be fairly easy. Also getting students give their councilor feedback should be useful and easy to do. With the acceptance rate, site of class, and program offered, Tulane does deserve to get ranked higher. I think another thing is, Tulane isn’t participating in many ranking surveys like other schools do. For example, many undergrad major rankings and Med School ranking. If the administration could provide some information, it could definitely get the school name out better.</p>
<p>Agreed, getting people to realize that Tulane today is very different than Tulane 5 years ago is important, and not just for the rankings. Misinformation is never a good thing, and some of what people think is still going on in New Orleans is ridiculous. Ah well, I will leave this one to you, guhengshuo. Lead the charge!</p>
<p>No, I am an alumnus (Chemistry, obviously) and the parent of a 2nd year (China Studies and English/Creative Writing). I loved my time at Tulane, my D is loving hers, and I enjoy following what is going on at the school and letting others know. Call it a passionate hobby that has grown more than I could have imagined.</p>
<p>So far she has taken Mandarin (she is in her 4th semester now), 2 semesters of Chinese history and a semester of (Mandarin?) linguistics. She will spend her entire junior year in China, probably Beijing but not sure yet.</p>
<p>Here are some things they offer. I am sure I am missing a few. For example, I know there is a History of China Before 1600 course, but it didn’t show up on the list for some reason. Also they are expanding the department and adding new courses, so this list will be out of date.</p>
<pre><code>• ANTH 3070 - Contemporary Chinese Society
• ASTA 3000 - Chinese Literature in Translation
• ASTA 3050 - Advanced Chinese Language I
• ASTA 3060 - Advanced Chinese Language II
• ASTA 6210 - The PRC: China under Communism
• ASTC 1010 - Beginning Chinese I
• ASTC 1020 - Beginning Chinese II
• ASTC 2030 - Intermediate Chinese I
• ASTC 2040 - Intermediate Chinese II
• ASTC 3010 - Chinese Conversation and Composition I
• ASTC 3020 - Chinese Conversation and Composition II
• ASTC 3050 - Advanced Chinese Language I
• ASTC 3060 - Advanced Chinese Language II
• ASTC 3510 - Introduction to Chinese Linguistics
• COMM 2400 - Topics in International Film Movements and National Cinemas
• HISC 3020 - History of China, 1600 to the Present
• HISC 6120 - History of Women in China and Japan
</code></pre>
<p>If you have heard Pres Cowen speak, you will have a good feel for what makes Tulane and NOLA special-- its own food, holidays, language and accent. It is an experience you can and will have nowhere else. YOu want to see people have a “Stella” yelling contest? Come to NOLA. You want to watch a funeral parade? Come to NOLA. You want the best food/restaurants, music/jazz and good times, Come to NOLA. We are going for a long weekend in 2 weeks just for fun. We get to eat our way through the city and take our DS and his roommates along to feed them as well. Oh… and Tulane is wonderful too :)</p>