tulane chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tulane University
1

<p>BACKGROUND BEFORE YOU JUDGE:</p>

<p>I AM APPLYING EA</p>

<p>I am a track athlete and currently met with both the Tulane and Emory coaches. The Tulane coach really wants me to compete for him, and Emory is excited as well but not crazy. As of now, I’ve been emailing steadily with both coaches and I’m leaning towards Emory, although Tulane still wants me a bit more simply because it is D1 and they are more competitive.</p>

<p>As far as the schools
Tulane: Visited/ Met and toured campus with coach
Emory: Visited/Met and toured campus with coach
Miami: Visited</p>

<p>I just got surgery on my back on August 9th. I had a herniated disc the ENTIRE year, and it drastically affected my life, from depression, to insomnia, to 20 full school days missed from not being able to walk or sit at times. (20 school days is an entire month missed…to put it in perspective). </p>

<p>So, I will have a bunch more time to focus on my grades as opposed to the last year. I really wanted to make a comeback after my sophomore year, and while my grades did improve, they didn't improve as much as I wanted them to because of my time constraints, obviously. And considering I didn't get my operation done in the school year so I could still compete in the spring, most of my time was centered around just being able to sleep and walk without a considerable amount of pain. If I didn't compete this spring I wouldn't be able to compete in college, so I kind of had to sacrifice a lot of my life just for that.</p>

<p>So, basic stats are currently as follows:</p>

<p>Intended Major: I want to earn a BA in something concerning Biology, along with a BBA in finance or economics.
[ul]
[<em>]Weighted GPA: 3.8
[</em>] Unweighted (school doesn't calculate): 3.3-3.4ish for up until junior year, probably 3.5+ senior year.
[<em>] Bio SAT II from Freshman year: 720
[</em>] PSAT: 207
[<em>] First SAT in June (horrible test conditions): 2020, aiming for 2150+ in october
[</em>] ACT: Not taken, first diagnostic test was a 32 with no prep though.
[/ul]</p>

<p>EC's:
Sports:
[ul]
[<em>] Track and Field (Varsity 2 years): 9,11,12
--recruited athlete
[</em>] Winter Track: 9
[<em>] Cross country: 10
[</em>] wrestling: 10
[/ul]</p>

<p>Clubs/Activities:
[ul]
[<em>] GSA: 9,10,11,12
[</em>] Japan Club: 9,10
[<em>] Art Club: 9
–Leadership Roles:
[</em>] Mobile Apps Development: 10, 11, 12 (President 11 and 12)
[<em>] All School Musical: 10, 11, 12 (House manger next year)
[</em>] Student Senate (Delegate): 12
[<em>] Future Doctors of America (Co-Founder/Co-President): 12
-working together with the school's red cross club for fundraisers and the 5k.
[</em>] College Guidance Club (Founder/President) 12
[li] Helped organize our school’s first 5k for the Red Cross Club, helped organize/run our third 5k as well.[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Out of school awards/activities:
[ul]
[<em>] Intern at St. Vincent's Hospital Westchester, 100 hours
[</em>] Awarded 2nd Place at the NJIT Dean's Design Competition in 2012.
[<em>] Full Scholarship to NJIT’s Summer Architecture Program 2012
[</em>] 120+ Hours spent in the Art Studio during my junior year @ Cooper Art Academy
[<em>] Recently created/own/run a fitness forum with 130+ members (and growing! @ Fitlit.boards.net)
[</em>] Run a youtube channel, with 10,500 total views, with videos of my training and advice for other people going through with a similar injury. (youtube.com/thebigtortuga). I will be uploading music stuff soon with a friend.
[<em>] Ironwood Throwing Camp, Summer of 2013
--note about this. I trained with several Olympians and one of them is close friends with the Tulane coach. This is why he wants me pretty badly.<br>
[</em>] Spend 10-14 hours a week during the school year babysitting my younger brother (8 years old)
[<em>] Japanese student exchange program member 2012
[</em>] Speak, read, and write Russian fluently.
[li] Speak, read, and write Japanese proficiently.[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Letters of recommendation:
Counselor: Awesome
Primary teachers: Probably going to be decent to good, my supplemental ones are very good</p>

<p>Supplemental:
[ul]
[<em>] Letter from my 9th grade bio teacher, this is going to be amazing.
[</em>] Letter from Plastic Surgeon
[<em>] Potential letter from Floyd Mayweather Jr (Yes, I do know him personally. I have trained with him before)
[</em>] Letter from Duncan Atwood, former US Olympian (got to know him very well at my training camp)
[/ul]</p>

<p>Near-future activities
[ul]
[<em>] Programming an iPhone app that helps people, of all ages and skill levels, to properly construct a training/nutrition program simply by inputting their goals, strengths and weaknesses, and time available to train.
[</em>] Currently working on closing a business deal on a website I have. This is big and you’ll be hearing about it within the next 1-2 years. While in college I honestly don’t doubt I’ll be racking in some serious revenue from it, so it’s quite the venture.
[li] Recently proposed a new GPA system scale that will be instituted in the coming school years [/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Essays:
I'm quite a good writer, they are going to be pretty sick. No worry about that. </p>

<p>Freshman schedule:
Honors Biology 1: A-
Honors World Civilizations: B
Honors English 1: B
Plane Geometry: B
Japanese 1: A-
Tech/Arch Design 1: A</p>

<p>Sophomore schedule:
Chemistry 1: B+
Honors US History 1: B-
Honors English 2: B-
Algebra 2: B+
Honors Japanese 2: B
Tech/Arch Design 2: A</p>

<p>Junior Schedule:
Honors Physics: B-
AP US History: B+
English 3: B+
Trigonometry/Advanced Math: B
Honors Japanese 3: B+
Tech/Arch Design 3: A-</p>

<p>As you can see, even my elective (tech/arch design) grade dropped as a result of my lack of time during last year. </p>

<p>Senior Schedule + Expected grades:
AP Studio Art: A
AP Bio: A- (I'm very good with bio)
AP Statistics: A- - A
Calculus: A
Humanities: A
Personal financial literacy: A</p>

2

<p>Well, that is a lot of detail! Seems to me you have solid stats, not spectacular but high enough to be in the running for Tulane even without the track angle. Certainly having the track coach weighing in for you should help. I would be careful of two things: 1) Be careful not to overwhelm people with detail on your resume. Focus on the things that mean the most to you, and leave out things that were of relatively small importance for you. 2) It is fine to mention that you had serious surgery and were in a debilitated state before that for a time, but there is a fine line between explanation and sounding self-pitying and/or making excuses. Keep it short, to the point and move on. People will generally fill in the rest in your favor if you let them think about it.</p>

<p>But you have a lot of skills, both academic and otherwise. I would think Tulane would be interested in having a student with your background, but of course that is just my opinion. Only the opinion of admissions counts, so you want to present yourself in the best light possible. Read the blog of one of the senior admissions counselors for more about this. [Tulane</a> University Admission Blog - Jeff: Admission Pet Peeves](<a href=“http://tuadmissionjeff.blogspot.com/2011/10/admission-pet-peeves.html]Tulane”>Tulane University Admission Blog - Jeff Schiffman: Admission Pet Peeves)</p>

<p>Finally, and this is trivial but just wanted you to know so you have the right info, for one of the biology degrees you would get a BS, not a BA as far as I know. And I think Tulane’s business school offers a BSM, not a BBA. But these are questions you can ask the Tulane people when you attend a local function, if you can. That would be a good idea if there is one in your area, even though you have visited the campus already.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for such a detailed response! I really want to consider myself in the running without track, just to make sure I’m safe, you know. </p>

<p>And as far as the explanation of injury, thanks a bunch. I wrote a draft of an explanation but it was really emotional and kind of self pitying so now I know I have to edit it haha.</p>

4

<p>You should be able to get into Tulane with those!</p>