I asked a friend of mine about his visit to Tulane and he loved it. He plans to enroll in grad school in fall 2019 and has been visiting only highly selective private and public institutions (he’s a honors Rice grad). But one thing he jokingly said that stood out to me is that he was surprised with how the school lacked a strong Asian presence which he’s become accustomed to. Rice University has a strong Asian presence (and likely will be majority Asian soon) and the remaining schools on his list he visited he said had a strong Asian presence (Harvard, UChicago, Duke, Georgia Tech, UC Berkeley, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and Emory).
He went on to say that if Tulane was to recruit and enroll more Asian students, he can see the school improving its academic profile … eventually making it to the coveted top 25 rankings or maybe even top 10. I laughed initially but thought about it more when I got home … he was actually serious. The most notable universities in the US all have a very strong and quickly growing Asian populations so he has a valid point.
Thoughts?
Already happening… incoming class and soph class are most diverse ever. We looked at it as an opportunity for D, who is Asian. Academic profile is highest stats in school’s history. Check out:
http://tuadmissionjeff.blogspot.com/2010/05/class-of-2022-facts-and-figures.html
Plus, one student from the state of Wyoming !
@proudmama2016 I seen nothing about an increase of Asian students. And the incoming class is 22% students of color which is still very low for 2018 and compared to other highly selective and ranked research universities such as Rice, Duke, Stanford, Harvard, Emory, UCLA, Georgia Tech, etc
Yes, @NuScholar, so it’s an opp for academic POCs to attend a good school. Seems to me that TU is trying to increase its diversity, as is Davidson and a few other schools that are behind their peers. That’s why it is an opportunity for Asians and other people of color. (It’s already geographically diverse and gender diverse.) Tulane is on the right path to raise its overall diversity and profile. (And note that all the UC’s are extremely diverse because they’re state unis in one of the most diverse states in the country.)
Tulane has a ways to go, but if in the next ten years it increases the diversity of the student body to the level of Duke or Emory, creates a community that reflects the vibrant city its in and diversity of the country (and world), it’ll be a stronger and more vibrant academic institution. I believe that’s why they have their eye on the diversity ball.
Tulane doesn’t really have a choice but to increase in diversity because of the demographic shift in the country. It’s really going to be hard to keep the school overwhelmingly white if they want to make money and improve in rankings. Many of the top or affluent students in the world are people of all colors @proudmama2016 … it’s 2018 not 1918. Again, in my opinion, Tulane is moving strangely slow in the diversity direction and it’s negatively impacting the image of the university hence my friend not wanting to go.
I doubt they’re turning away qualified Asian students. Their goal is probably to raise URM first and improve the academic profile with geographic diversity. Strong Asian students would definitely fit in the latter goal. Need to pull more from Texas suburbs and West Coast?