<p>I also believe another reason for the lower retention rate (even pre-Katrina) is that this school is known for having an extremely diverse group of students. I don't remember the exact statistic, but something about having the highest percentage of kids who come from over 500 miles away from home.</p>
<p>In any case, in addition to the number who lose scholarships, another reason cited is that many kids decide it's too far away and end up closer to home.</p>
<p>I haven't seen the latest stat for the class of 2009 in particular (S is a rising junior), but am curious to know how much it's changed. I do know that as a freshman the year of Katrina, a number kids who did come to complete their 2nd semester (but 1st semester on campus) didn't come back. A good part of that was due to post-Katrina jitters and the rest due to the fact that you felt locked-in financially given how Tulane structured what would "roll-over" to spring (ie room and board).</p>
<p>Anybody know what the latest retention numbers actually ARE?</p>
<p>claysoul- higher standardized test scores, which correlates to a higher likelihood of actually staying in and graduating from college</p>
<p>curiouser- i don't think we will ever know the retention rate, at least from the mouth of tulane. they are ever hesitant to publish any numbers of any sort, and the numbers they do publish are statistically manipulated
(for example, this article <a href="http://www2.tulane.edu/article_news_details.cfm?ArticleID=7340%5B/url%5D">http://www2.tulane.edu/article_news_details.cfm?ArticleID=7340</a>. check out the enrollment cited is this article and the updated enrollment statistics on collegeboard.com for '10. i was also even told at around the same time last year by tulane that our class would have around 1100 (claim as referenced by this link:<a href="http://tinyurl.com/27usov)%5B/url%5D">http://tinyurl.com/27usov)</a>. i guess then though it was more convenient at that time to say that tulane had a larger freshmen class, to make the school look better in terms of enrollment. as opposed to in the former referenced new wave article, where it was more advantageous for the school to make our class (2010) to look smaller, so that they could achieve the same with the class of 2011. so be honest, i don't even know which one of the three enrollment numbers is correct- 1115, around 1100, or the 882 number from the new wave article. i have no idea how many people are actually in my class, although i have spent the entire year wondering how many there really are in terms of reality- tulane pr agenda excluded. getting an enrollment head count is a very basic, important statistic that is not nearly as complicated as calculating rentention rates, test scores, etc. TO ME ALL OF THIS IS VERY INDICATIVE AND ENCAPSULATES TULANE- THERE IS A LACK OF TRANSPARENCY AND BECAUSE OF THIS NO ONE KNOWs WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON.)
getting back to curiouser's retention rate question, we might learn something from us news in a month or so when they publish their 2008 rankings, given that tulane is not given another year of rankings amnesty- delaying yet again knowledge on what is really happening to the school.</p>
<p>arm -- MUCH more than standardized test scores predict 1) qualifications of a class 2) chances to stay in college and graduate (especially in a place of temptations like New Orleans). I think this is obvious.</p>
<p>great point, you are completely right- especially at tulane look at how high their test scores are and how low their retention rate is. they have the retention rate of a schools that normally have students with much lower test scores. you point out that there is most definitely a problem of underperformance at tulane- since tulane has students of higher caliber than lower ranked schools, but performs similarly in achieveing the ultimate goal- college graduation-as these lower ranked schools. i was simply saying that standardized test scores are one of the most traditional indicators that have had a historical correlation with graduation and retention, if not at tulane, in the rest of the country in the aggregate. (schools that are comparable to tulane in terms of rentention are SMU, SLU, University of La Verne, University of St. Thomas, Florida State, which are all schools that are supposedly inferior to tulane in terms of overall ranking quality. i've provided a link to reference that: <a href="http://tinyurl.com/3de8d7%5B/url%5D">http://tinyurl.com/3de8d7</a> )</p>
<p>i'll second that, but not in terms of academics.
i just saw that our four year graduation rate is 60%. jesus that much lower than even i thought it would be!</p>
<p>Per retention and graduation rates first I would like to say that retention rate is not a statistic I would use to judge academic quality of a school but is something I would look at if I were sending my kid to a school. That number, never very good has been severely impacted by katrina. The distince, the economic hardship inflicted on the students and families, and shuttered programs have sent the four year graduation rate and the retention rate into the toilet. And no you will not get any straight numbers from the administration. Longer term with the downsizing of the school and the deliberate shrinking of enrollment the D1 atheletes are left as a larger percentage of the undergraduate student body. Thta is never good for graduation and retention rates even though Tulane does do a good job of actually graduating atheletes and recruiting ones who can do college work.</p>
<p>The first rule of weathering a crisis of consumer confidence is absolute and complete honesty and openness about the situation. The second rule is if you don't have a CEO who can do that then turn a liabilty into an asset and can him. At this point Tulane has failed rules one and two. Rule three is it is not too late to follow rule two unless you have a death wish.</p>
<p>Will Tulane take a hit in the USNWR rankings? Probably. Would that add to current woes? Yes. Is it significant in the long run? Only if we don't take it as a sign that we need a change of direction. Will that happen? I have little confidence in the current board of trustees.</p>
<p>I know you think I'm a cheerleader, HL, and some others of you can think whatever you like, but I honestly have a hard time understanding the value of these statistics and reconciling them with the specific experience our family has had with the school. I'd go into details if it wouldn't cause more of the name-calling I've experienced here (which is why I had stopped reading and contributing here again). But I'd just like to say that these statistics don't create a student's experience. My son's has been so far above anything we expected--and I've long worked in higher ed--that I am still surprised by it. Of course, he creates some of that for himself by researching opportunities and taking full advantage of what's there, but if they weren't there, then what...?</p>
<p>It does take a certain person to go to Tulane and not succumb to the vices that are prevalent all around us. It does also take a certain kind of person to succeed at Tulane. Some people find out that this is just not the place for them. Others will embrace it. I personally had a rough time after I came back after the katrina semester and I did apply to a bunch of other colleges including UNC, Umich, Rutgers, and penn st. I got into a bunch but declined to go because I became much happier after the lagniappe session. This past year has just further shown me that I made a correct choice for me. This all depends person to person. The only thing that I wasn't exactly happy about was that Club Ultimate didn't get quite as much funding as I hoped we would.</p>
<p>Tulane is a good school, and if you get a 3.3 / 3.5 from wherever you are from, u have a good shot at tulane. Its not, by any stretch of the imaginaton, elite, like some fellas here make it out to be. Good school, great social life</p>
<p>id say a 3.75+ and youve got a good shot, in another thread a guy posted he had a 3.7 or 3.8 and was rejected but accepted to notre dame, emory, and vanderbilt, so its really a gamble unless you have a real solid gpa...tulane is very elite, one of the best schools in the south and very well known nationally with the number 1 maritime law program in the world</p>
<p>listen, ive always maintained that Tulane is a good school. Ive heard its tough, fun, and a great experience all around. But I wonder whether you have the ability to be the least bit objective.... or if you actually believe some of the things you say. I have never, not once, heard anyone describe Tulane as a, "very elite," school..... In high school, when the elite students were (and are) applying to the, "elite," colleges, Tulane isnt on the radar... its not even a safety it is a super safety. If you think Tulane is on par with the colleges you have just mentioned, then there is a great disconnect between you and the rest of the world.</p>
<p>Jayhawk, you don't know why he went to SUNY. </p>
<p>And you haven't even been to Tulane yet so stop spouting "Tulane is awesome!" We know you're excited...</p>
<p>Tulane is a great school, but it's not a "very elite" school. It's notorious as an ivy reject school. I don't mean that in a bad way, I mean that in a realistic there-are-in-fact-many-many-ivy-rejects-there way. And you don't need a 3.75+ to get in as a transfer. I didn't even have that and I transferred to Brown.</p>
<p>I go to Emory. I didnt have a 3.75 and was admitted to both Emory and Northwestern. Both schools are vastly superior to Tulane. Also, why dont you check out the stats for SUNY Geneseo - average SAT score at 1320 with a 27% admit rate/ 14 grand a year... its a better school then Tualne at a fraction of the price. So how does it feel, jayhawk, to go to a school that cant even hang with SUNY? It must be terribly difficult to be a prestige whore and go to Tulane, maybe you should have studied harder in HS and went to a college worth bragging about. So stop making it seem as if admissions are impossible. Its relatively easy to gain admission into Tulane, not because its a bad school, but because its is a good 2nd rate private school that doesnt have the luxury of turning quality students away.</p>
<p>Furthemore, Emory is not that far superior to Tulane. I would say it's better, but not by leaps and bounds. I'd say Northwestern is substantially better than Tulane. </p>
<p>Tulane gives really good aid so your fraction of the price argument is virtually moot. The average SAT at Tulane is about 1300 as well. </p>
<p>Yadda yadda yadda...look at me, here I go defending the school I transferred out of.</p>
<p>claysoul you are awesome, suny lmao im sure a lot of people have heard of suny generic or geneso or whatever its called...i wonder whats ranked higher tulane that school</p>