<p>this is the incoming class of 2010 from the admissions staff. looks encouraging. please discuss</p>
<p>"I hope that you are all enjoying your summer so far. With only a few weeks left till school starts up again, I wanted to provide you with some updates on how things are going and what weve been up to around here.</p>
<p>First of all, I would like to talk to you about the incoming class. To summarize, we received 22,359 applications and admitted 8348 for an acceptance rate of 37% (making us one of the most selective schools in the country, by the way). This fall we will welcome just over 1085 freshmen. This is obviously lower than the target of 1400, but, given the circumstances, we are quite happy with this number. We could have easily hit the target of 1400, but it would have meant sacrificing our quality
measures, and that is something we were unwilling to do. Additionally, the smaller freshman class is balanced by a very large number of incoming transfer students, complemented by a record low number of students transferring out of Tulane. So all things considered, we are in pretty good shape.</p>
<p>Above all, I would like to highlight what these numbers actually mean. Personally, I am extraordinarily proud of this years incoming class. While some may look at the number 1085 and consider it as 315 students who did NOT come, I look at the number and think of it as 1085 students who ARE coming. These are students who are coming to Tulane despite all of the sensationalized news reports, misinformation, rumors, and even the realities of the city. More specifically, these are students who decided to come to Tulane, because when they visited, you introduced them to YOUR Tulane. GWA, this is YOUR class. You should be very proud of your hard work, and I hope that you are as excited as I am to welcome them to campus.</p>
<p>As we plan for this years recruitment efforts, I would like to inform you of some new initiatives that we will be undertaking. Over the course of the summer, we conducted quite a bit of research on college decision behavior relative to Katrina and other issues. We surveyed students and parents and also conducted focus groups with parents and high school guidance
counselors. The major findings of this research are as follows:</p>
<li>Parents remain very concerned about New Orleans; students are not as concerned</li>
<li>Parents and students realize that media reports are sensationalized, but it is the only information they have available to them</li>
<li>Parents and students are very interested in receiving accurate information and are receptive to receiving information from Tulane.</li>
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<p>With this information, in addition to our standard recruitment programs, we plan to undertake two major new initiatives:</p>
<li>Recruit parents. Create videos, publications, etc to be sent directly to parents</li>
<li>Invite high school guidance counselors from major geo-markets to campus. Every year we host one counselor fly-in, where we invite guidance counselors from high schools in a particular area to visit campus. Over the course of the 2006-07 academic year, we will host 12 such events.</li>
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<p>…"</p>