<p>
This is an old post, but I’m not sure what barrons is referring to. I’ve done a quick news search and found nothing along these lines, and according to what I’ve seen the same guy has been president for many years.</p>
<p>fallenchemist: According to the Princeton Review, Tulane has a selectivity rank of 94/100. The standardized test scores may have gone up (I don’t know) but that is true at almost every school.</p>
<p>The average SAT score is not 1400/2100! Check again. The average SAT score is 1330/1990! That us a big difference. Plus, only 79% of the admitted students submitted SAT scores. Obviously, the ones who didn’t submit scores either didn’t take the test or did poorly.</p>
<p>The average HS gpa of incoming freshman is 3.49 (B/B+ student).</p>
<p>Only 74 percent are in the top 25% of their HS class - 26 percent are below the top 25% of their HS class! This is the best class Tulane has ever had!!!</p>
<p>In case you want to continue to call me a ■■■■■ or allege that I made up these stats, here is a link: <a href=“http://www.eduers.com/University/Louisiana/Tulane_University.html[/url]”>http://www.eduers.com/University/Louisiana/Tulane_University.html</a> </p>
<p>Some specific stats can be found on the Princeton Review site but you need to register.</p>
<p>And here is the big one: 86 percent of accepted applicants choose to go somewhere else! Of the 10,563 people accepted last year, only 1,502 enrolled (14 percent!). That is the lowest yield of any college in the country! Out of every 100 accepted only 14 enroll and you think that is indicative of a school on the rise?</p>
<p>The President of UMBC just quit under questionable circumstances. At least half of the schools listed have run into financial trouble and the big dreams crashed into a reality wall. So much for predictions. </p>
<p>The President of University of Maryland Baltimore (city) resigned under questionable circumstances, not President of UMBC (Baltimore County.)</p>
<p>SJUHawk - the stats, wherever you got them from, are old except for the yield. And you are apparently incapable of understanding that this is Tulane’s actual strategy. I will say it one more time in the hope that it will sink in, but 1500 or so is the largest class size they can handle. So they are achieving their target, with better students.</p>
<p>Tulane is not SAT optional, so if they didn’t submit the SAT they submitted the ACT. That happens at every school.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, you have still produced zero in supporting that Tulane is on the decline. Even if everything you said was accurate (and it is far from accurate), it is static information. BTW, I clicked on your link. 2006-2007. Very interesting. LOL You are welcome to your opinion about Tulane and the other schools you seem to like to trash. I guess that is fun for you. It is rather amusing that someone from St. Joe’s would trash Tulane about their stats when SJU’s are way lower.</p>
<p>I will concede one thing to you. I mistakenly picked up on the admitted student averages rather than the enrolled averages. Last year’s enrolled average was apparently 1365/2040. This year’s appears it will be higher.</p>
<p>No, this years are 1330/1990 and GPA of 3.49. Check the Princeton Review site for the stats for THIS YEAR!</p>
<p>No, PR or you are making the mistake of taking the midpoint of the mid 50% range. That is not the same as average. They also don’t correct for schools that don’t unweight the GPAs. PR is known for having some incorrect data. Anyway, doesn’t matter in the least since your statement was that Tulane was declining and that is clearly wrong. In other posts you say UNC students are banjo pickers, McGill women are ugly, etc. I think that tells us all we need to know about you and as far as I am concerned this is over. I will only respond to other blatant falsehoods.</p>
<p>Let’s stick to the facts. Tulane’s incoming class has an average high school GPA of 3.49, etc. You haven’t shown me any stats that show that this and the SAT, etc., are an improvement over past classes. Give me some links.</p>
<p>You said that based on SAT scores that Tulane would be a top 30 school. So I googled it. Here is the list I found (I don’t know how up to date it is but is guidance at the very least. Tulane is listed at 108th! Not even in the top 100, nevermind top 30. </p>
<p>Look for yourself. Enjoy: [Top</a> 500 Ranked Universities for Highest SAT 75th Percentile Scores](<a href=“USA University College Directory - U.S. University Directory - State Universities and College Rankings”>Top 500 Ranked Colleges - Highest SAT 75th Percentile Scores)</p>
<p>You made the original assertion. You need to show it is in decline. And the reference you gives proves nothing. It does not take the average. And it is old. By your own vaunted PR, Tulane’s 75th percentile SAT is 1400, but the current data it is actually 1430 (720 Reading, 710 Math). And when I said #30, I was not counting LAC’s just like USNWR. Without dissecting the list, a 1430 would indeed put it close to #30 for research universities, and because Tulane’s range is narrower than many and the average is higher than the mid-50% range would make it, it is indeed #30. The fact that you have brought up data from the last few years and I am presenting the current data shows it is not in decline, but again I don’t need to prove anything. You made the original baseless charge.</p>
<p>Stop, you are making a fool of yourself. You have consistently used old data and are bringing attention to your tendency to make highly disparaging remarks about people and schools for no reason. I know the anonymity of the internet is wonderful for people like you, but do you really have no shame?</p>
<p>Silly old man. I didn’t make the original assertion, you posted that Tulane is on the rise. Everyone in the country knows that is false except for you. I gave you the stats and you say, “no, the Princeton Review makes mistakes.” I point out the horrendous yield and you say “Tulane wants an embarassing 14% of accepted students to enroll.” Stop deluding yourself and prospective students here that may rely on your false statements. </p>
<p>Tulane used to be in the top 50 of the universities in it’s category right? Am I wrong about that? If so, that corroborates my point. </p>
<p>Tulane tried to skew the acceptance rate by sending spam to every highschool kid in the country and allowing them to apply online for free. It was an OBVIOUS attempt to make Tulane appear more selective than it actually is. It didn’t fool anyone! And as a result, the yield dropped to a miserable 14%. As a result of the “marketing” (i.e. begging unqualified kids to apply online for free), the acceptance rate fell to 25%. The problem is that the yield is so low that everyone knows that the acceptance rate is an illusion. If you were to compare Tulane’s yield with any good school, you will see that it is about half (or less) of the other school’s. Therefore, among the applicants with a realistic interest in Tulane, the acceptance rate is at least 50% (double the yield by dividing the number of applicants and accepted students by 2). </p>
<p>Gimmicks don’t endear a university to intelligent people. There are some fools that will be distracted by the smoke and mirrors but mostly everyone is on to Tulane. (That is true of WUSTL too although that is a better school.)</p>
<p>Another school on the rise is Dickinson College, under the leadership of William Durden.</p>
<p>If the acceptance rate is an illusion then so is the yield. Get rid of the ones that were accepted that had no intention of going, the yield goes up too. You will never get it, so no big deal. I will point out, though, that they made the app free back in 2002 (kind of perverse to make a free app a bad thing, but oh well) but the number of people applying didn’t take off until 2007. It is well known it is because bright, energetic, caring students were attracted to the idea of helping to rebuild New Orleans while attending a great university. No wonder you didn’t apply.</p>
<p>Not that USNWR rankings are worth anything, but Tulane was in fact #50.</p>
<p>I showed where PR had incorrect data, but you can ignore that if you choose. No one cares.</p>
<p>Here is evidence it is on the rise, since you insist: [Tulane</a> University Magazine - News](<a href=“http://www2.tulane.edu/article_news_details.cfm?ArticleID=4817]Tulane”>http://www2.tulane.edu/article_news_details.cfm?ArticleID=4817)</p>
<p>quote from that article:
Now it continues to rise to 1365, and Tulane has made numerous references to the last two classes being the strongest in the school’s history, and they have said this year’s class is likely to be even stronger, but we will see.</p>
<p>I already mentioned all the attention and awards the school got from the Carnegie Foundation, Time Magazine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. While it was President Cowen that was named in all that, it was for his work at Tulane. It is one and the same, as he himself said every single time he was asked. Tulane is now the largest employer in New Orleans and is completely integral to the rebirth of the city through community service, with nearly every student getting involved.</p>
<p>So you go on hating and being dishonest. It just means no one will pay any attention to anything else you say either.</p>
<p>Yield is a good indicator of desirability. It’s just not a great indicator of quality. Nebraska has a higher yield than Stanford, MIT, Yale, Princeton, Penn, and Brown. LSU has a higher yield than Dartmouth and UVA. Kansas State and Bama have higher yields than Cornell and Georgetown. All of the above mentioned schools have a higher yield than Duke and Vandy. Yield does show a portion of desirability. It just does not show financial considerations ect. with regards to why people choose one college over another. </p>
<p>[Most</a> Popular Colleges: National Universities - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/best-colleges/2009/01/26/most-popular-colleges-national-universities.html]Most”>http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/best-colleges/2009/01/26/most-popular-colleges-national-universities.html)</p>
<p>Even Harvard didn’t crack 80% yield last year.</p>
<p>Thanks Ben. Do you think it is even fair to say: Yield is a good indicator of desirablility relative to other choices one may have? I don’t doubt for a minute that Tulane’s yield is low exactly because they market so heavily to the highest quality students and therefore have increased dramatically the number of cross-admits with Duke, Vandy, WUSTL, Chicago, and many other higher ranked schools, and that they lose most of those students. In fact I know that is true. For example, these threads are full of people saying things like “I wasn’t even considering Tulane but I got the free app that was so easy, then they accepted me with a scholarship so I went down there and loved it” often coupled with “I got accepted to School X (read Vandy, Michigan, Chicago, others) but I just thought Tulane was right for me. I never would have even considered it before they sent me the free app that was so easy”. What SJUHawk doesn’t get is if Tulane gets even 10% of those students to enroll that are of that quality that otherwise would not have applied, they are better off than if they had not used that strategy. And that is exactly what has happened, possibly even a higher percentage. So unless they care about people like SJUHawk that both can’t get it and think there is some prestige in having a high yield (which they don’t), they have employed a strategy that has worked spectacularly well for them, especially given how dire things looked after Katrina. What do you think?</p>
<p>Absolutely. When I said it’s a good indicator of desirability, that doesn’t mean it’s a good indicator in a BUBBLE. You have to consider the details. </p>
<p>You have to consider Louisiana students who are guaranteed admission with lower test scores but then not given much if any financial aid based on merit. They eventually decide to go to LSU or the like and save a ton of money. So it’s still desirable, but not at the expense of $150k +. </p>
<p>Then consider the cross admits with the Ivy league and the like. If they get accepted to schools that are a reach for almost everyone, they go there versus Tulane. So it was a desirable ‘safety’ or match but since they got into their dream school they go there. Tulane would have been fine had they not gotten into their dream school because they still though highly enough of the school. Tulane has more cross admits with Top 20 schools than most. It may be considered a safety for some of those tip top students but so what. Being a safety to the top 10 schools is fine.</p>
<p>34,000 applications for 1500 spots in 2007 was a big deal. 40,000 in 2008 was a much bigger deal. 44,000 applications for 1500 spots in 2009 is amazing no matter how you slice it. </p>
<p>Tulane had around 9-10,000 applications for the same number of spots ten years ago. Yes they have a free application now. Yes they market themselves. Coca Cola gives out free samples and markets itself too. </p>
<p>Considering Tulane’s located down in Louisiana, has no ‘powerhouse’ football or basketball program, and has less than 10,000 undergrads the fact that they market themselves makes sense. 75% come from more than 500 miles away. Tulane is the best school for hundreds of miles. It just also happens to be one of the most expensive.</p>
<p>[The</a> Decade’s 15 Hottest Colleges - The Daily Beast](<a href=“http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-12-13/the-decades-hottest-schools/]The”>The Daily Beast: The Latest in Politics, Media & Entertainment News)</p>
<p>I find the USNWR rankings so disingenuous, esp. since they don’t speak to personal fit and are partially driven by alumni donations.</p>
<p>On the rise or having risen, significantly, in the past few years:</p>
<p>Tufts
Rice
Wash U.
Emory
Vanderbilt
Tulane
Pine Valley University (okay, it’s a fictitious university on a soap opera, but so what?)
UNC @ Chapel Hill
UVA
UT @ Austin
University of Michigan
William and Mary
Pomona (even though I am not a Pomona fan because of area)
UC Davis
UCSB</p>
<p>UCLA and CAL have always been and will continue to be “hot” schools–a lot of academic excellence, despite budget cuts (which will be somewhat mitigated by the out-of-staters paying full tuition), and a geography that cannot be beat</p>
<p>Carnegie-Mellon, too–offers a lot of what Cornell does without the terrible isolation some of Cornell’s students feel</p>
<p>and, University of Rochester–excellent school and happy students</p>
<p>Georgia Tech and USC are among the biggest risers in my opinion of the last 10 years or so.</p>
<p>Thanks for the link Benetode.</p>
<p>UMich would be rising too, it’s participation in Common App= higher selectivity=lower admission rate= possibly higher ranking.</p>