Preliminary 2009 Acceptance Rate

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tulane University
81

<p>We can all parse these numbers any way we want but that fact is that the US NEWS stats are the ones everyone pays attention to, and Tulane application/yield quality won’t go up significantly until the stats do. I believe Tulane is often a student’s second choice despite the merit scholarships. Meaning it seems that most who get into a higher ranked school choose to go there, despite all the wonderful opportunities Tulane has to offer. This will only be made worse with its recent ascent into the top 20 party schools, according to Princeton Review.</p>

<p>So the question is : what is the university doing to enhance its status vis a vis other universities it competes with? I am offering my advice with the best intentions as my son will be attending in the fall with significant merit aid, and I was hoping the ranking would have gone up this year.</p>

<p>Retention rate: many of the higher ranked universities such as Duke and Emory and all the Ivies are reaching out to freshman to keep them happy, successful and intellectually engaged the first year with creative new programs. Living/learning dorms, new dorm compounds which bring all freshman together in one community, freshman seminars and small dinner groups with professors. (Tulane is doing some of this but could be much better promoted in the admissions process)</p>

<p>Research: if Tulane is a great research university, it needs to let the world know. Most highly ranked universities provide “talking heads” to all the major news networks and wire services, offering expert opinions (often based on the university’s own research) on everything from politics to medical advances. Press releases are sent out with every book published, study completed or scientific fact discovered. Where are Tulane’s spokespeople? Where is Tulane’s NY public relations agency? (This might have an impact on the peer review aspect as well public opinion)</p>

<p>Website: the website is often a family’s first experience with a university. Tulane’s website is thorough, but just doesn’t feel “elite”. It feels like it has all the personal attention of a private school, but not all the status, it feels academically strong, but not “exceptional”. If Tulane wants to be elite, it has to act elite. Just look at Duke</p>

<p>Reputation: get off the party school list and get off now. Or at least get on some other lists that provide status and value to parents and students. In other words, if i’m sending my son to a party school, it might as well be my state school which costs about $4000 per year. (free after scholarships)</p>

<p>Demographics: there are two weaknesses that I see. An increase in international students would bring an increase in revenue (they are always full paying), and needed diversity to campus. Particularly in Business and Sciences, a diverse international representation would enhance the academic and cultural experience for all. </p>

<p>The second weakness is the male/female ratio. A 50/50 split is desired by most students and parents. Other universities go to great lengths to keep it even. Tulane needs to do the same. Here are some ideas: accept more men upfront in admissions; really promote the Tulane Basketball experience (like Duke, Penn and Priinceton do) since Football is not that great; create community service programs that appeal to men equally. If you look at any of the high school summer programs that focus on community service, you will see they are disproportionately female. I believe that is happening to Tulane, and needs to be fixed quick or else it will become an all girls school.</p>

<p>I have other ideas as well, but am curious as to what the very insightful contributors to this thread think so far</p>

82

<p>I definately agree that the administration could do more, but I take issue with a few of your ideas.</p>

<p>The website isn’t “elite” enough?!? What the heck does that mean? It is user-friendly and I like it. </p>

<p>As for diversity, at the expense of being politically-correct, I don’t think that is an issue Tulane should really care about. It is overrated. Everyone says it will “enhance” the academic experience but I don’t think anyone has ever seen that happen. People often self-segregate and interact with people similar to themselves regardless of how diverse a campus might be.</p>

<p>As for the M/F ratio, Tulane will never turn into an all-girl school. If anything, as the ratio increases and becomes more female-heavy, more men would like want to attend as they would be benefitted by the population demographics.</p>

<p>Tulane makes the party school list because it is in New Orleans. There is not much they can do about that, and frankly I don’t think that’s such a bad thing. There’s nothing wrong with smart, social people.</p>

<p>EDIT: I’ve been perusing Duke’s website… Tulane’s website is far superior in my opinion.</p>

83

<p>Post #81 sounds suspiciously like another post that so longer exists. Being critical (even under the guise of constructive criticism) of a school one’s child is reportedly about to attend seems to send the wrong message, which perhaps is why a different s/n is used in that post above.</p>

<p>The male/female ratio seems to parallel that of most colleges these days which, according to this [url=<a href=“http://www.cardinalpointsonline.com/2.7384/colleges-aim-to-equalize-male-female-ratio-1.782117]Cardinal”>http://www.cardinalpointsonline.com/2.7384/colleges-aim-to-equalize-male-female-ratio-1.782117]Cardinal</a> Points - Colleges aim to equalize male, female ratio<a href=“which%20was%20the%20most%20recent%20statistic%20I%20could%20find”>/url</a> is about 43/57 . Nothing unique or different there. Don’t think a slight shift on either side of the 50/50 ratio makes a hill of beans difference to most students or parents.</p>

<p>Tulane puts great emphasis on community service. I applaud Tulane for this, and see this as a strong quality and unique component of the school’s and its attractiveness. If more girls are pulled to community service (which may or may not be true-- my s’s did a ton of community service throughout their lives (and continue to do so) as did many other male posters I’ve seen on cc), then so be it.</p>

<p>Party school delineation in that other website/publication is whatever you choose to make of it. Pen State is # 1? And schools like DePauw and Union are in that dubious ranking? Somehow that strikes me as pretty amusing. Ands if a school liek Tulane has a strong focus on community service, attracts a group of kids with this focus, yet still is identified as a fun place to be and not labelled a nerd or geek schoool (hope I am not offending anyone with these terms) well, thats actually a pretty nifty balance if you ask me.</p>

<p>All that said, I do think the school could do more for freshmen and to address the retention rate (which I believe is improving). Oher schools are more involved in assisting with roommate selection and also have a longer and more “team-building” freshman orientation week right before classes start. Tulane tends to blend it in with move-in and the first week of classes, which I think pulls the freshmen in too many directions. Tulane has volunteer (though well attended) summer orientation programs, and the additional NOLA experience, attended by about 100 freshmen is fine and may give those 100 attending an added cohesiveness, but I’d like to see a few more days fosused on getting the freshmen settled, acclamated and supported. The freshman orientation program at my other s’s school is phenomenal and really boost the students comfort level and school pride right away.</p>

84

<p>^^^ Oops, too late to fix a typo in the first sentence. Meant to say *no longer exists.</p>

85

<p>This is all great feedback. Keep in mind, that this whole discussion started with helping to move Tulane up in the rankings. You are welcomed to criticize my ideas, but come up with others that will elevate Tulane’s status by not only drawing high level kids to apply but by getting them to attend even if they have been accepted at other more highly ranked schools. Right now they are using New orleans as a draw. So just as Penn is the “social” Ivy, maybe Tulane is the “social” or “cultural” top ranked school. Maybe the focus can be less on drinking and more on the cultural flavor of New Orleans</p>

<p>BTW I am not the other poster with a new name</p>

86

<p>"We can all parse these numbers any way we want but that fact is that the US NEWS stats are the ones everyone pays attention to, and Tulane application/yield quality won’t go up significantly until the stats do. I believe Tulane is often a student’s second choice despite the merit scholarships. Meaning it seems that most who get into a higher ranked school choose to go there, despite all the wonderful opportunities Tulane has to offer. This will only be made worse with its recent ascent into the top 20 party schools, according to Princeton Review.</p>

<p>So the question is : what is the university doing to enhance its status vis a vis other universities it competes with?"</p>

<p>I don’t know what you’re talking about, because the application quality has gone up tremendously in the last two freshman classes. Tulane had similar admissions stats to schools like the University of Florida and Syracuse following the hurricane. TU now has similar numbers to schools like USC, BC, and Georgetown. That’s a pretty significant improvement in a short period of time. The huge decrease in acceptance rate and increase in the quality of the freshmen classes alone will be enough to move Tulane back into the 40-42 range. At least it should, if you look at hard application numbers Tulane has the biggest disparity in the country between admissions statistics and US News ranking. That should begin to change in a few days when the 2010 rankings are released. The disparity likely only exists now because of Hurricane Katrina. Hopefully a jump in ranking will result in the application numbers continuing to improve. Also, yield is not a factor in the rankings. I really wish people would stop harping on needing to improve the yield to see moves in the US News rankings. </p>

<p>There are many other extremely weak points and fallacies in your lengthy post, but I’m not going to address them all. I agree with jym. You obviously have a bone to pick, and I seriously doubt you’re actually the parent of an entering freshman.</p>

87

<p>^^ Agreed, Johnny Utah-- it will be interesting to see what the USNews rankings have to say in a 3 days, 11 hrs and 27 minutes (they still have that obnoxious countdown clock on their website [US</a> News & World Report - Breaking News, World News, Business News, and America’s Best Colleges - USNews.com](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/]US”>http://www.usnews.com/) ). Hopefully any well-informed student/parent will look well, WELL beyond the USNews rankings.</p>

<p>So, OP, are you really a brand new poster here if you have a kid about to start at TU? Thats hard to believe, and its a little hard to envision you as TU’s “BFF”, even if you truly are trying to improve TU’s status.</p>

88

<p>I will certainly take bff at their word that they are sincerely trying to float ideas to help Tulane improve. But the premise of the comments, which was reinforced in their last post, is for Tulane to get a better ranking. This, I think, is the wrong motivation. As I have said many times, the rankings are flawed and limited. Of course I agree that a lot of parents and students use them to make decisions, but I would argue that to change one’s behavior on the basis of where you fall in a system that tries to measure something immeasurable would be illogical, and possibly detrimental. Tulane has in fact been drawing better quality students for some time now, and I don’t think being 28th or so in terms of SAT averages is bad at all.</p>

<p>As far as the party school ranking, that is Princeton Review. Taking PR too seriously would be a huge mistake. Compare 2008 to 2009, for example, in a wide variety of categories. Schools that were in the top 10 last year are totally missing this year, and vice versa. Does that seem realistic for something that has any real meaning?</p>

<p>I agree with jym that the M/F ratio has been trending that way at many schools. This year for Tulane is a bit extreme, granted, but one year is not a trend. I also agree with her that there could be more orientation activities prior to classes starting. Like her son, mine at another school had a whole week before and it really was worthwhile. Now New Orleans of course is very hot in August, but I know where her son was and it is about the same weather, so I guess that is not an excuse.</p>

<p>Having said all that, I think Tulane and President Cowen have done an outstanding job in horrific circumstances when things could have gone very differently. But that is becoming ancient history, so looking forward, are they doing what needs to be done to keep it going? I think so. They are putting a lot of new resources into the Honors Program, which caters to the best students. They initiated the TIDES courses, designed to help freshmen adjust and bond and I am sure they will tweak that program to maximize its intended purpose. I also like the web site, and they have initiated applying to Tulane via Facebook.</p>

<p>I would agree that they could emphasize their research opportunities more in all fields, and promote their professors better. But all in all I think Tulane is doing a lot of very good things, and one should never lose sight of how tough the job of admissions really is.</p>

89

<p>Agree with all fellenchemist posts above, with the exception that my antenne are still up a bit about the intent of the original post/poster. Strikes me as unusual that the OP is “new” poster here with a soon to be entering freshman. Heck, for all we know it could be someone from TU purposely posting a post to see they kinds of responses it would get (I don’t think this is likely, but ya nevah know!)</p>

90

<p>I see many thoughtful ideas on how President Cowen (and successors, presumably) could improve the school. I’m sure some of them will be selected for implemention. On a personal note though, I’d hate to see these improvements result in wholesale alteration of the schools character. For better or worse, Tulane is known (by some at least) as place where the really smart cool kids go. IMHO it would be a shame if Tulane “progresses” to the point where the college experience is indistinguishable from Johns Hopkins, Georgetown or UChicago.</p>

91

<p>For sure NewHope. I forgot to mention in my post how much I DISAGREE with the suggestion that Tulane is too intertwined with New Orleans as a draw. The years a student spends at a university are about more than what happens on campus. This is especially true for Tulane, more than just about anywhere else I can think of. Certainly Columbia and other schools in NYC use that as a promotional feature, and rightly so. I will interpret, hopefully correctly, that what BFF meant was that they thought it was overemphasized to the detriment of the academics. I don’t agree, but I can at least see that it is something one would want to keep an eye on to make sure the balance remains appropriate in how the school is presented. Besides, it cut boths ways, as anyone that has read posts on here for some time knows. People, parents especially, worry about Tulane being in New Orleans because of perceived crime, hurricane potential, etc.</p>

<p>Tulane is quite unique, and I don’t think there is much chance that will change any time soon. I will say, though, that I think the atmosphere at U Chicago is very cool also. Pretty different than Tulane in many ways, but it certainly is also a very interesting place for a certain kind of student.</p>

92

<p>I interpreted the OP’s comments re: NOLA as that it was a draw that might attract students who were interested in an urban, fun city. There are many students insterested in schools the calibre of TU that don’t want to be in a rural area or small college town. Pres. Cowen talks frequently about the uniqueness of NOLA, its language, its food, Mardi Gras, and even the interesting personalities that make up NOLA as unique qualities that no other city has. And why shouldn’t he-- he is right, and he is right to use its unique persona to his advantage. That said, what he then goes on to point out is that most students go down to Bourbon St a time or two, realize how crowded, touristy and expensive it is, and don’t often return.</p>

<p>I think it will still take time for students and parents not to be afraid of the impact of the weather. Sadly, because of Katrina, people are still wary of NOLA, and the city (and the revitalization/rebuilding) could use a serious PR boost itself. Even though Gustav took a pretty good whallop on Houston last year, its impact, at least with respect to people’s fears of going to Houston, was short-lived. Older s lived through the Houston evacuation for Hurricane Rita a few yrs back (right after Katrina) but again, people’s memories about those events are understandibly short-lived.</p>

<p>I think that once parents and students get past their apprehension of NOLA and the weather, many (especially the parents) look forward to the opportunity to enjoy a visit there. My H has a conference there this week (so will arrive a few days ahead of DS and me), and I have a conference there in Nov. So things are picking up in NOLA. NOLA can be an initial “draw”, but I don’t see is as an ongoing reason that students are pulled there. There is no major industry per se that might be a reason a student would want to come there. Perhaps Tulane could look further into establishing better summer internship opportunities with companies there. Even though the engineering school has been scaled back, there should hopefully still be opportunities for the remaining students and the oil industry. The school of Architecture has worked closely with the entities involved in rebuilding NOLA. I’d like to see the school perhaps beef up the internship and job placement programs a bit as both Tulane and NOLA continue in their rebuilding mode.</p>

93

<p>Interesting point. How does Tulane increase its ranking, draw higher level kids, get more of an academic powerhouse reputation - yet still retain its character? (Is Brown a good example of that?)</p>

<p>About my obsession with the rankings, I remember back to when we were students applying to college, before the days of US News and World report, when we just knew where schools stood in terms of prestige. At that time, Tulane, Emory and Duke were approximately on the same level as far as I can remember. Since then, these other schools have flown by Tulane in terms of ranking, and that was happening long before Katrina.</p>

<p>So my goal is to get Tulane into the 20’s for ranking - not the 40’s - where it rightfully deserves to be. Does anyone agree with that?</p>

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<p>

:eek: really??? IMO, while that may add to the “cool” factor, it seems to detract a tad from the “intellectual” image that bff is striving for. Gotta check out the facebook application. Anyone have a link?</p>

<p>****** ok-- looks like you can join a facebook group to discuss issues related to appying <a href=“Facebook Public Group | Facebook”>Facebook Public Group | Facebook; but not actually “apply” via facebook. That, IMO, might be a little edgy. They’ve had Tulane Facebook groups for several years. In fact, thats how DS found his roommate. But applying via facebook?? That’d be unique, for sure.</p>

95

<p>You are right. When TulaneJeff said Facebook Application, I was misled by the capitalization. Since he is in admissions I took his word for it as stated. Just shows how the small things in grammar make a big difference. It is an application of Facebook, not a Tulane Facebook Application. Still, hopefully it will be useful to those really interested in Tulane.</p>

96

<p>Johnny,
I agree that the applicant quality has gone up significantly, but if you read the whole beginning of this thread, it addresses the fact that the scores of the “yield class” or the students who have chosen to attend, has NOT gone up significantly. I think that means that even though a higher caliber student is applying and being accepted, they are not choosing to attend. What can Tulane do to get them to attend?? Probably start with increasing its ranking. That’s the whole premise of this discussion. Despite the imperfection of ranking methodology, it’s what everyone reads and goes by.</p>

97

<p>bff- the average scores did not go up that much THIS YEAR. Prior to this year, my understanding is that there were significant jumps, especially the class of 2012. I understand it went up something like 35 points (from 1330 to 1365, or something like that). So the fact that this class matches (at least) that class is not a bad thing at all. And as far as I am concerned, Tulane is in the 20’s. I give no creedence to surveying for “peer evaluation” and using that as part of the grading system. Likewise I think there can be many reasons for freshman retention, or lack thereof, unrelated to academics and/or school “quality”. It all goes back to what is a “best” school being totally unmeasurable, not least because what is best for Student A might be terrible for Student B, and vice versa.</p>

<p>What will really change if somehow the USNWR rankings finally recognize Tulane as a top 30? I think not much. So let some people base their decisions on the rankings. So what? Tulane is doing fine, and will continue to do so as long as they stay on this track (and don’t have a major natural disaster again any time soon!).</p>

98

<p>Well, there is a post containing a leaked US News 2010 ranking on the college search board. It is quite a letdown if accurate. Tulane ranks #50, tied with Miami and slightly below the University of Florida. Florida? Really? I don’t understand how there is such a huge gap between Tulane’s student quality and its ranking. If you just glance through the ranking list and compare admissions statistics it seems to be the one area most strongly correlated to ranking, at least the one actual hard stat not something ridiculous like PA. I don’t understand it really. Tulane was ranked higher than this prior to the storm, and has improved significantly in admissions stats and at least slightly in all other areas. The University of Florida thing is a joke IMO. I hate US News</p>

99

<p>Johnny:</p>

<p>when the mag comes out tomorrow, you will be able to easily see how Tulane ranks on each and every USNews criteria. Applications is only one factor of many. Also, it will be interesting to see how well the USNews test score data compare to the college’s own published data. “Student quality” is both test scores and top 10% of a high school class (where T is low relative to the others).</p>

100

<p>I understand that Tulane is relatively low with top 10% compared to schools like USC and BC, but that shouldn’t be enough to drop all the way to 50. This is the lowest ranking the university has ever had, basically the same as last year’s. I just don’t understand how the school starts killing it in admissions, the endowment was at an all time high in 07-08, and the school improved at least slightly in all other areas…yet we’re stuck at 50. Do you think 50 is an accurate rating?</p>