Presidential Scholarship/Honors College

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tulane University
41

<p>Hi mcel123 - I am in East Greenwich. You?</p>

<p>It has been awhile since I looked at that stuff and I am on the road at the moment, but here is what I remember:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>A good offering of Honors section classes for the "routine" courses, so your classes are likely to be smaller and even if not, you are going to be with the other Honors kids that you are liekly to be with in the dorm.</p></li>
<li><p>Special dorm, as implied above.</p></li>
<li><p>Honors colloquia that get into social topics, art, science, whatever. Again, a chance for the Honors kids to bond, get into things just for them. Plus I think there are activities like crawdad boils, etc. just for them.</p></li>
<li><p>And yes, they do get special advising, as well as opportunities post graduation. Just by the nature of the set-up, they will be pushed/helped to go for the Rhodes', Marshall's, Truman's, etc.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Other schools that have honors programs do some of these things, but not many do all of them as far as I can tell. There seems to be a lot of energy behind the Tulane Honors program. Almost more similar to an honors college, although I am not sure I would go quite that far. My D is looking strongly at an honors college, Barrett, which is part of Arizona State U. Starting this fall, they will have seperate dorms, classes, functions, advising...pretty similar to Tulane. Where Barrett is unique is that it will be the only school in the country to actually have a free standing (their term for it) campus for the honors college. What that means is they have taken the southeastern section of their campus and made it Barrett only, so besides the dorm, there are Barrett classrooms, a dining hall, amphitheater, gym, and a few other amenities. But of course the Barrett kids have access to all the resources of ASU proper. So it is interesting.</p>

<p>I only went into that kind of detail so you can get a picture of the extremes, Barrett being one end and the schools that have pseudo-honors programs, where the kids essentially get a special advisor and early registration and that's about it, being the other end. My impression is that Tulane is between these, falling somewhat closer to the Barrett end. They certainly are making a great effort to attract the best kids to Tulane, with more merit aid and a better honors programs than most highly selective schools.</p>

42

<p>thank you for the insight into the honors program. Its one of the primary reasons im interested in Tulane. (And im from Bristol btw.)</p>

43

<p>Is anyone going to the honors weekends?</p>

44

<p>I don't know, but I'm considering it. I live in New Jersey so it would mean a flight, and I sort of want to wait to hear back from my other schools in April before I haul myself to Louisiana to visit. I almost didn't apply, but I ended up filling out the "extra special VIP amazing person WE WANT YOU" freebie application because they kept bombarding me with emails. I just wanted a guaranteed acceptance to make myself feel better while I waited until April to hear back from everyone else, but the 24k/ honors college offer intrigued me.</p>

45

<p>Hey, does anyone know how you can get into the honor's program if you weren't offered a place with your admission letter? I think I read somewhere that if you complete your first semester with a 3.3, you can instantly gain admission into the honors program, is this true?</p>

46

<p>Not to be picky, but it is an honors "program", not a separate college. There is a difference. However, it looks to me like the Tulane HP is very good. See my post #41.</p>

<p>Markos - It is a 3.45 for freshman (after a semester, obviously) and sophomores, and a 3.6 for juniors and seniors. That is cumulative GPA, btw. See Tulane</a> University Honors Program towards the bottom. Also, not sure how "automatic" it is, but probably your chances are good if you take challenging courses and get the grades.</p>

47

<p>24K plus Honors-rec'd letter early November.
SAT 2160, average ECs,5 APSs with 4s and 5s.
Top 6% in HS, mostly Honors and AP.
Might go to the Honors Weekend April 5.
Anyone going to the April 1st reception in Princeton for admitted students?</p>

48

<p>YEEAIIHH! This made me happy.</p>

49

<p>Okay, when you say cumulative GPA, do you mean to say that it includes high school grades? My school doesn't do GPAs : S</p>

50

<p>24k/yr, Honors Program
SAT- 1360/1600, 2100/2400
GPA- 3.825 UW, 4.57 W
Rank- 16/491 UW, 18/491 W</p>

<p>from CT</p>

51

<p>Markos - No, high school will only be a distant memory by then, lol. I mean nothing from high school will matter to Tulane any longer. If you are not invited to the Honors program coming in as a freshman, you can apply to be in if you achieve a GPA of 3.45 or higher after your first semester, or after your freshman year (cumulative, meaning both semesters, not just the second one), or any time in your sophomore year. In your junior and senior years you would have to have a 3.6 cumulative GPA to get in. So it is always your total GPA, which is only the same as your semester GPA after your first semester.</p>

<p>So say you get a 3.3 GPA after first semester. You would not be eligible to get into the program. But then suppose you pull a 3.8 second semester with the same number of credits as you took the first semester. Your GPA after your freshman year would be 3.55, and you would be eligible and should apply. Or even a 3.6 would give you a cum of 3.45, right at the cutoff. However, if you "only" got a 3.5 second semester, your cumulative would be a 3.4, which would be too low. OK?</p>

52

<p>Jaja, cum.</p>

53

<p>and thanks : )</p>

54

<p>24k/yr, Honors Program
ACT- 34
GPA- 4.1278 W
Rank- 18/718 W</p>

55

<p>I'm kinda bummed I got 20k and not 24k. I have a 4.0, 6 APs (mostly 5s) and 33 ACT. Do they offer to increase your merit aid if you give them add'l info? I have some new EC stuff going on and some good SATII scores.</p>

56

<p>It certainly wouldn't hurt to update them and politely inquire whether it would be possible for your merit aid to be increased.</p>

57

<p>wow man.. I have higher or up to these stats on pretty much everything and got waitlisted. my question is: what was the difference that made them waitlist some and give big scholarships and an invitation to honors?</p>

58

<p>TTwhite - we have two related threads going, so I will just ask in addition to what I said before:</p>

<p>Did you apply early action? Did you visit campus? Anything that might indicate you are especially interested in Tulane, and not just using it as a safety? These things all make a difference, especially if you take them in light of my other comments. For example, my DD is 2370 SAT's (2 800's), top 2% of a very competitive high school, good EC's, NMF (duh), excellent AP results, etc. She got in early acceptance and got the DHS, full tuition.</p>

<p>So what did she do prior to applying? She went to the local gathering, went to visit last April, wrote to the school, and I am a grad, which is obviously something that cannot be controlled. I won't deny that the last factor would make Tulane believe her probability of going is higher, but honestly I think the other factors would have been enough. That is why all the guides tell you that showing a strong interst does make a difference. Schools want to know this for all the good reasons, as well as the "bad" reason of having to keep their stats up.</p>

<p>You know, it occurs to me that the same people that diss Tulane for playing the game would also diss Tulane as being a "lesser" school if it fell further in the rankings. Can't have it both ways.</p>

59

<p>Did anyone else get the letter listing the terms of the Presidential Scholarship? It says to sign it and return it to them, but I am just wondering if this is a binding agreement to go to Tulane? I am not ready to commit to any college just yet but I want to return it so that I am still eligible...</p>

60

<p>hey lafayette - I would suggest you just call and ask.</p>