I am starting a thread for those invited to apply for Tulane Pathway to Medicine Program
Thanks for starting the thread. My daughter is applying; she hasn’t had time yet to get the essay written, but it will be done before the deadline.
yes, same
I am just starting to work on my application, but the link sent in my invitation only redirects me to the Green Wave portal with no option to view or edit my TPM application. Is anyone else having this issue?
I finished the app, I wonder how many they invited to apply?
This is a silly question, so I’m sorry! But could you tell me more about the program? When’s the application due? I’d love to apply, but I don’t think I was invited to, so is there any way I could ask them to consider me or should I leave it alone?
@bird2618 I believe the only people that can apply are those invited to the program. The application is through the green wave portal (an option popped up for me to apply for the program).
@bird2618 it states that the program is by invitation only and it came through the portal for my daughter.
Congrats to those invited to apply for this. I would be very interested to hear what attributes you feel may have distinguished you for an invitation (e.g. stats, community service, shadowing experience, etc.)
My daughter was admitted EA to Honors program and was also awarded the 30k Distinguished Scholars as prospective Neuroscience / pre-med major, yet was not invited to apply for Pathway to Medicine despite a strong resume (e.g. research experience in med school lab, 33 ACT single sitting, 3.99 unweighted GPA, 9 APs, class rank 3/200+).
She thought it may have had to do with choosing a non-related topic for her personal statement essay (she saved medical topics for Paul Tulane essays, which did not pan out) but, upon inquiring with AO to express interest in Pathway to Medicine, she was simply told that the invitation “had nothing to do with” the personal statement topic, so we’re still left wondering wondering what Tulane found lacking in passing her over for Pathway to Medicine…
@noserfdom first of all , it was not obvious in the portal if the invitation was there. You had to click on your application first (I think) and then it showed up as a line item. Also the students received an email about it, but not the parents. Just double check all that stuff.
My son was invited to apply – I can tell you his stats. He expressed an interest in Pre-Med and Chemistry through the common app drop down selections. His essays were not based on medical experience because he doesn’t have any. Due to other extra-curriculars that were very time consuming, he did not do any lab work, hospital volunteering, etc. His community service was limited to NHS hours.
His stats were strong outside of anything medicine related. 35 ACT, National Commended Scholar, 3.9 UW, and decent recognition in music and sports – district level, but not as good as state level. He won Dean’s Honor Scholarship, and is project was based on music and not medicine.
I agree with you, I don’t always know how people are picked for what. Only based on my son’s background (1 out of thousands), the appear to like people who have varied interests(?).
I would say though that based on your daughter’s background, I would not worry too much about Pathway if she is 100% determined to become a doctor. Assuming she does well in her Tulane core classes and continues her work in research, she should do well on her MCAT and be able to go to medical school, whether it’s Tulane or any other med school out there.
Thanks for the info. She definitely didn’t get the invite. She had actually reached out to AO to politely inquire about it hoping it may precipitate a late invite but no luck nor much insight to what was lacking.
Your son’s 35 ACT is very strong, so maybe one of their criteria was ACT higher than her 33.
I was thinking maybe her community service was lacking (mostly just NHS), but sounds like your son was in same boat. My daughter’s main time commitment was soccer - not a super standout individually, but played at a high-level (good enough to be recruited to a couple D-III schools).
Also while she mentioned aspiration for career in academic medicine in Why Tulane, mostly she emphasized interest in undergrad research, so maybe her interest in medical school did not come through strong enough…
Not sure what made my daughter to receive an invite. ACT 34, SAT 1500, GPA uw 3.97/w 4.35. She did not do her essay on anything medical. She has a ton of extra curricular activities, including summer internship at the VA hospital research lab(May be that? ). Good luck to your daughter. She can always consider creative scholars program at Tulane.
Hi!, I was invited to the program, and recently submitted the application
Stats:
GPA: 4.5 (3.8 UW)
IB Diploma Candidate
36 ACT
National Merit Finalist
Extracurriculars:
Tennis Team Captain (2x All City 1st team)
Started a program to bring National Science Bowl Competitions to Title 1 schools (recently took one of our teams to the LA tournament, and came in 5th!)
Counselor at a summer camp
Founded a few clubs at school
I applied as a Biological Chemistry Major EA, and was accepted into the Honors Program, I also received 25 k a year in merit aid if that means anything
Hope this helps!
@noserfdom, my D was invited; almost identical stats to yours. GPA 4.0 W, 4.5 W, IB diploma candidate, class rank top 3/300. She did write about Creative Premedical Scholars in her “Why Tulane” essay, but I am not convinced that is what got her the invitation. If you want to hear a very cynical view, here it is: we are a family that can’t afford Tulane, even with the $31K merit she’s been offered, but our EFC says otherwise. I believe Tulane thinks we can stretch to afford the extra $45-50K per year. After D was admitted, she was made to feel very special (not complaining about that, it made her really happy!). Lots of congratulatory correspondence from Tulane etc. In my mind, the TPM invitation was a carrot dangled to “seal the deal,” a way to get us to commit. Perhaps they recognize that it will be a financial stretch for us (but not enough for them to offer need-based aid or additional merit). The TPM invitation is perhaps a strategy designed to make us an offer we can’t refuse. There is no doubt that, if you’re accepted into this program, it could be a good incentive to spend a little more money. I would love for D to not have to worry about going through this whole application process again in 4 years (the thought of it turns my stomach). But $45-50K per year is not a small sum, and there is no way we can make it work without taking on substantial debt. In summary, in my cynical view, the TPM is designed to rope in high stats kids who probably can’t afford Tulane, but might try to make it work if they are guaranteed admission to med school. Maybe you don’t fall into that category, so they don’t feel the need to entice you further with an offer you can’t refuse. It sounds like your daughter is amazing, and I’m sure she’ll succeed without TPM.
@labmama I am really sorry that Tulane isn’t working out for you - your D has some impressive stats. And it’s great she was invited to this program. But I do think you are taking the not getting the DHS or Paul Tulane award too personally (from a different thread), and I would hate for you to scare off others with your cynical view.
I really don’t think Tulane has time to look at 40k+ admits and decide who they think they can dangle a carrot in front of because they think they can afford Tulane. Tulane has tons of people knocking down their door who are full pay - but they are trying to create a great and total class. They have been quite clear that they are trying to give more need based aide. I know that you tried to get more money and were denied - so probably there are quite a few other people that have more need than you.
We are in the same boat financially, and trying to figure things out. My D was nowhere near the stats of your D, but I think she’s a great candidate - and so did Tulane. But in no way will I knock down a school because they couldn’t meet us financially - it’s just the way things work. They have their reasons, and really trying to create a class that works.
Your D has quite a few other great options - please don’t scare people off from Tulane.
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@labmama I don’t think the TPM department, marketing department, and financial aid office are so well orchestrated , that would use TPM to push someone to spend more and commit to Tulane. First is the point 3mamagirls made – they just don’t need to. There are a lot of full pay, high stats people willing to commit to Tulane.
Second, this is a long shot carrot at best. The TPM invitation our kids received is not a guarantee of admission. It’s an invite to apply, and from there only a subset will be selected to interview (it can’t be a huge subset if they are only doing interviews over 2 weekends), and then from that small subset an even smaller number will be selected. I don’t think anyone applying thinks they have anywhere near a guaranteed chance they’ll get it, and they won’t find out until April 1st.
3rd, if someone can barely make it financially for undergrad at Tulane, how are they going to finance Tulane for eight years? Medical school is expensive, which is why you see a lot of pre-med, high stats students taking guaranteed merit offers at Alabama. If anything, Tulane would weed out the students that can’t afford full pay, because they wouldn’t want to see a TPM have to drop out due to finances.
The reality is they probably just sent a blast email and invite out to a set of kids that achieved a certain score and/or GPA, and perhaps expressed an interest in pre-med. Be wary of all the correspondence of making your D feel special, and thinking that translates to them wanting to give you money. All the colleges do this whether it’s mailer coming in every other day (Tulane), or a personal phone call from students which we’ve received from other colleges.
Thanks for the replies. The common thread distinguishing the four students above from my daughter seems to be an ACT (or equivalent SAT) higher than her 33, so perhaps their criteria included a hard cutoff for ACT. If so, I think that would be an unfortunate departure from the holistic review they use for scholarships, honors, CMS, and admissions in general. While actually being selected for TPM would have surely been difficult, it would have been really nice for my daughter to at least have had a chance to make her case. And had she been able to do that and ultimately gotten selected that would have almost certainly sealed the deal for Tulane.
Right now, while we are seriously considering Tulane (and set to fly in for Honors weekend, which will be our 2nd visit), I just struggle to justify the $10k+ higher cost vs. a couple of top LACs that have accepted her with equal merit money plus some modest need-based grants to boot, despite our FAFSA EFC north of $60k. We have yet to hear from Tulane regarding need based aid but it doesn’t sound very likely from what I read here nor from Tulane’s net price calculator. If her ship comes in with MIT, UChicago, WashU, Amherst or one of the Ivies that will be a different situation altogether, but its hard to justify breaking the bank for Tulane…
@noserfdom I received an invite with a 1500 SAT. Maybe it was random and they want to lure more kids.
Has anyone received notification about an interview? If so, how & when did you find out?
My daughter got an email that she did not get selected for the interview