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@scocaldad2002
The post was intended to make the point, and I did a poor job at it, that sometimes a student should measure what the college or university diploma does for a student after graduation. Tulane is a top 50 nationally ranked university, a fine institution, but unless a student pursues a subsequent Masters, Phd, or goes on to law or medical school, what does Tulane provide to the student with a 4 year BA or BS degree for a student attending from CA, MO, NJ, FL, NY, OH, MI, WY? All colleges and universities provide for networking, but what does that really mean when applying for a job? What are Tulane’s stats for a student graduating with a BA or BS in psychology, marketing, political science, biology when the student returns to their home state? Bottom line, a student gets out of college or university what he or she puts into it wherever that student attends. It comes down to hard work and determination, not necessarily the few schools where we know the diploma opens doors, i.e. Harvard, Yale, U. Chicago.
@BabaO I’m a firm believer that a college can be much more than just getting a degree. If someone is only concerned that college is a means to an end than community college and transfer to local state college is probably the most economical approach. However, if one thinks like I do that 4 years at certain colleges will really shape you as a young adult and professional than where you go to college can be a huge asset.
For our family, Tulane came on our radar because it has a very good business program, in a great city NOLA with small class size, and a large and active Jewish population.
If D20 has a shot at some significant merit, it might be a college that would be attractive to her.
military institutions, i.e West Point, Coast Guard Academy, Annapolis, Air Force Academy… shape. Fitting in, i.e. Jewish population, has merit. But as to the rest, we can agree to disagree.
Do the international students who are offered places in the Honors Program all get the same 10K scholarship, or do some of them also get 30K?
Anyone know how successful deferred EA students are in the RD round? How should I show interest without annoying my AO since nothing should really change in my application and my first semester grades are already in?
Completely wrong.
My son…
34 ACT, 3.7 UW
Tons of demonstrated interest including two visits, alumni interview and meeting admissions officer at high school.
Tons of EC’s all the works. Deferred. So this is inaccurate. 4 kids applied ED with far inferior stats and got in. This is a money grab and not fair for kids who are not 100% sure they want to immediately and fully commit.
I agree. My DD (accepted) had a 33 ACT, great ECs, and an okay GPA. Her private, intensive BS is known for being very rigorous. What probably put her over the top were her recommendations, which apparently stressed her “keen scientific mind.” She did a lot of competitive summer engineering programs as well. She is very excited!
This is false
Son visited Tulane, did interview, communicated with admissions counselor.
3.7 GPA UW
34 ACT
Great essays and EC’s, etc.
We are dumbfounded.
Daughter Accepted
Did Fly-in weekend
1450
Honors college
Why Tulane essay was very good
Tons of ECs
Received $23000
Daughter accepted EA. 33 ACT and an okay GPA. But lots and lots of community service. ( Won in-school and county and state level community service awards/recognition and Tulane is community service orientated, that’s why she chose it). Went to the local Tulane-in-town all three years to meet admit counselor but otherwise never talked to him or the school and haven’t been to campus yet. going in February. Received $ but I think everyone does?
@Bayeriffic - I agree, this is hard. My son had a mixed bag of acceptances that left us scratching our heads sometimes. He got accepted to Tulane, which was a major feat, but got did not get into the honors college at Ole Miss. Same kid, same test scores, same grades. One school saw something, the other did not. I have no idea what Ole Miss thought was lacking, but perhaps they already had 10 kids with whatever the “something” was and just didn’t need one more. Maybe not many like him applied to Tulane, and he got in. There were a lot of ups and downs in all of this, and I know how hard this was. My son really, really wanted in at Ole Miss for the honors college because it would have given him every thing he was looking for at an affordable cost. Tulane was always a big reach, and a dream school that will only work if the stars align just right. He got in and got a merit scholarship, but he needs more aid to make it work. We will see how it goes when the financial aid comes back. So we may join you in the hopes dashed ranks anyway.
Here’s a wish that all will find peace and happiness wherever they end up going to school. Happy Holidays to everyone!
Will most admitted students go to the new student dates?
@animom. Agree. My daughter has lower stats than most people listed here but was accepted EA and I’m guessing it’s partly due to her community service record. We have never been there but I distinctly remember the Rep here say something like: if you don’t enjoy community service, Tulane might not be the best for for you.
@Watch37 I would be interested in hearing more about your son’s stats and congrats to him on his acceptance. I can certainly understand the financial commitment that Tulane presents without your son receiving any merit scholarships.
Similar to your son, my daughter is a double legacy. My brother and I are both alums and were very grateful that Tulane gave us both merit and need-based aid when our parents divorced. My daughter has grown up with a strong Tulane influence, has visited a few times in the last several years, and our family has strong affinity for the school.
My daughter has a 4.6 W GPA and a 3.9 UW GPA at a competitive public magnet high school. She earned a 1380 on her SAT. She also has substantial extracurriculars including student government, serving as an associate editor on the school newspaper, community service, numerous honor societies, and has won some national arts awards.
I was aware that Tulane has become very focused on yield as my daughter prepared her application over the last few months. I had spoken to the alumni parents of another double legacy applicant whose daughter was deferred last year and was later admitted in the RD round. That, fortunately, helped prepare my daughter and me for a deferral. She then received her notice of her deferral on 12/20.
It was only when she began to hear about some of her peers having been accepted on EA – some admittedly with better test scores, but some without – that the deferral started to become painful. When you graduate from Tulane, it somewhat becomes part of you, so when your child (assuming he/she is qualified academically) does not get accepted, it hurts.
The increasing emphasis on "yield’ in the admissions process is troubling, not only with respect to Tulane, but all schools. It causes the schools to artificially gauge how interested your child is in attending, i.e., I’ll accept you but only if I’m pretty sure you’ll accept me. It makes me want to petition U.S. News to remove this relatively meaningless factor in the rankings. It promotes gaming. The school doesn’t want to accept a student whom it is unsure will attend because it will lower the school’s yield. Likewise, the student is incentivized to follow every online feed available and e-mail the admissions counselor to demonstrate interest, when it really does little to demonstrate genuine interest. I say just let our kids get accepted where they deserve to be accepted and choose the school that is best for them without it penalizing the school’s ranking. Selectivity, academic statistics, quality of the faculty, career placement, and many other factors are more than sufficient to rank a school without consideration of yield.
Once we saw the feeds on CC with the many students who were deferred with impressive (higher) scores, GPAs and extracurriculars, it provided us with some solace. But as an alum with a strong and proud connection to the school, it still stings.
We’ll keep our fingers crossed that she gets accepted so she has the choice to attend and can make an informed decision in the end.
@agentdawn1 We have not visited and plan to go in February or March for one of the accepted student days.
@WellyDad I hope the RD round brings good news to your daughter. She sounds like a great student. I understand being an alum with a strong connection. My D ended up at my alma mater, which has been amazing for her and for me. S has applied there as well, and he may be facing deferral, but he is really excited about his other options so far and those he is waiting on.
The yield think is difficult as schools want to increase their application numbers, while still trying to protect yield. ED certainly helps with that. Many students are not ready to commit to ED and need to mature during senior year and weigh the options that are available.
Our kids’ guidance counselor gave us the difficult news - There is only one sure fire way of showing interest and it’s applying ED1 or 2. EA may work out but at its core it’s basically just RD with arguably better odds for high stats kids.
I totally agree @pantha33m, ED is the only way to get in for sure, even with a legacy hook (to enjoy the benefit of that hook, applicants are expected to apply ED). @WellyDad has your D considered applying ED2? I understand the financial issues, but it sounds as though the merit awards are not as generous this year in any event.
From the Tulane Admissions Blog: “Tulane saw a 14% increase in applications this year. Bottom line, we could fill up multiple freshman classes with students who are academically qualified to attend Tulane. We could fill up multiple freshman classes just with students who would be great fits here and genuinely want to be at Tulane. The problem is we can’t admit all of them. With three years of larger first-year classes, we’ve admitted almost 2,400 fewer students than at this point two years ago. This is not something that we are cerebrating, it’s simply the reality of how competitive Tulane has become.”
In fact, @4kids4colleges, many schools will only give a legacy the benefit of that status if the kid applies ED and are quite open about this (Penn is one that comes to mind).
Tulane does seem to have built a fairly clever mousetrap - attract high stats kids who don’t get in somewhere else ED via an EA that gets announced a week later, and then pull a decent number of those kids in with merit scholarships or ED2 commitments. I know it worked with us.
Decision: ACCEPTED EA (plus Honors College, Distinguished Scholars Award & $30,000 per year scholarship)
Objective:
SAT I: 1510
ACT: N/A Did not take ACT
SAT II: 740 Math, 660 Literature
School: Private Day School
Unweighted GPA 3.98 (estimate, school doesn’t calculate)
Rank: N/A school does not rank
AP: School offers only a few AP’s and is phasing them out all together, all classes are academically rigorous/college level
AP Art History 5
AP US History 4
College Course: Intro to Experimental Psychology at UPenn Young Scholars Program-A+
IB: school does not offer
Senior Year Course Load: Banned Books, Economics, French 6, AP Calc AB, Mentor/Leadership Course, Philosophy
Major Awards: Dean’s List 9,10,11,12
Subjective:
Extracurriculars:
Peer Leader (teach social/emotional health to 7th graders), Jr Coach Volunteer with Girls on the Run (Mentor grade school age girls on goal setting, physical health, social/emotional health), Student Life Committee Co-Head, Student in the Young Scholars Program at UPenn, Volunteer at Boys and Girls Club in St Thomas, Volunteer at a Sea Turtle Sanctuary in Australia, Volunteer at village school and Elephant Sanctuary in Thailand, 2 years JV Volleyball
Why Tulane question: wrote about specific classes I was interested in taking and why, research I was interested in and why, as well as what specific service clubs/organizations I would pursue at Tulane and why.
State: NJ
Country: USA
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: Do not qualify for aid
Hooks: Learning Disabilities, campus visit and tour, spoke with Tulane rep at my school, alumni interview via FaceTime
Reflection
Strengths: Creative Common App Essay about my disabilities, I give most everything I do 110% effort, most E.C.’s are giving back or in service to others because I wish I would have had the benefit of them when I was younger
Weaknesses: spend a lot of time and effort on academics so I have less time for E.C.’s, no awards/honors
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Grades and Scores, Demonstrate intrinsic motivation to, and love of learning, Dedicate most of my time outside academics to service
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Rejected ED from University of Pennsylvania (4th generation legacy), I’m applying to other schools
Where do you expect you will attend and why? Not sure, applied ED2 to another school and if that doesn’t work out I will wait until March to hear from the rest before making a decision, but Tulane has presented me with an amazing opportunity