<p>Thanks for the heads-up. mom60. thta's where we're booked for January. We'll try to shift. Anyone have a good place in mind?</p>
<p>Zhou, you sound like a beautiful soul. If we lived near a good place for you, I'd offer you our son's room!</p>
<p>texdad. How interesting!</p>
<p>I've been unable to connect to the live chat. Luckily, H was able to connect from his office and post a question. </p>
<p>Regarding the big donations from Filo and Clark, if I remember correctly it was given for university endowments rather than specifically engineering, so that would let Tulane off the hook for that money.</p>
<p>Zhou, I've got my fingers crossed that things work out for you!</p>
<p>well, I am sorry to say that other than hearing that there will be an advisor to help eng. students deal with transfers, nothing was mentioned with regard to scholarship help.</p>
<p>There was no question about it -- but I presume someone has asked and they just edited that question out. They may not have gotten that far in their thinking.</p>
<p>They screened quesetions very well. They only allow questions that can easily be answered.</p>
<p>Live Chat was pfft! for any useful information for the struggles we are discussing here.</p>
<p>I have spoken with the Transfer Advisor who I think is a good guy, hired especially for this, through May (?) of the coming year. He has a background in College Counseling and I expect will be valuable in helping kids identify whether they want to change majors vs. change schools and, if the latter, identifying appropriate schools. He will also be helpful in negotiating the transfer application process.</p>
<p>For those kids who don't need that kind of help (my S and many posting here), he does not have the policy level position to deal with things we want done, such as forging agreements with "receptor" schools for streamlined transfer; establishing a fund to let these kids keep their DSA/Founders/DHS $$; speaking out swiftly and surely to eliminate the "no-poaching" mandate for these particular kids. We will have to look higher for those things. He reports to the Provost and I believe will put forward some of the ideas he and I spoke of. In short, a good guy but with limited "portfolio" of what he can do.</p>
<p>texdad- thank you for that post and helpful idea based on what happened to you. Hope someone pursues it. I do think these kids are "owed", but I don't think I've got the energy to spearhead such a thing.</p>
<p>I don't know about the rest of you but none of my questions were answered. I do think they pick and chose what questions to answer. I also was annoyed that the suggestion of come back to Tulane and pick another major and you will be happy was an insult to the engineering students
And that students would receive letters next week regarding the restructuring. Just a few days after the deadline to withdraw. I think the withdrawal deadline should have been postponed a bit longer for those affected students. They need time to think and make inquiries and not feel rushed into a decision.</p>
<p>This was the first live chat I actually participated in. I was expecting more clarity and less politically correct answers. </p>
<p>I was particularly surprised to see they were not extending the spring withdrawal deadline past 12/12. I agree that for the affected students (primarily engineering), this is unacceptable at best.</p>
<p>I remain puzzled as to why specifically the Engineering programs were targeted--I always thought of those disciplines as being in high demand and very desirable for a university to offer. I still don't get it.</p>
<p>I asked 3 questions--none was answered. Although these latest changes only indirectly affect my son, I continue to be so very sad for those kids who are so heavily impacted. Seems to add insult to injury.</p>
<p>Perhaps as this news all simmers for awhile, Tulane will develop generous and more empathetic policies. Maybe I'm naive.</p>
<p>or maybe just wishful, as I am. Even though my child is not outwardly affected by this decision, it still feels like a body slam to us as well.</p>
<p>Oh, isn't the withdrawal deadline Dec, 15th? Or I just didn't remember it correctly. If it's Dec 1st, then there's no way I can go elsewhere for Spring 2006. I think I missed the chat. So what was actually discussed? I guess they excersied "censorship", lol. </p>
<p>To gmmom, it's all the generous support from peer institution and all the people who have helped me through this disaster that made me realize that I can't be so self-absorbed. Thank you. Things will work out right. Timing is crucial, however.</p>
<p>To along, yeah, indeed, where did the time go. I like this thread. It's like a support group.</p>
<p>To ctymomteacher, thank you and I very much indeed honor your compliment. I am actually "a brat" as said my parents, lol. Yeah, they said it in a loving way. My dad actually told me my mom would weep in the middle of the night after I left for college. I mean, I lived in dorm as well during HS, but I got to go home every weekend. Not any more. I love them and they're always someone I look up to.</p>
<p>To Blizzard, thank you and I need that. And hope things will work out for you and everyone else mired in the disaster aftermath.</p>
<p>Mine weren't answered, either, but then I was asking for jmmom, so they weren't the easy ones.</p>
<p>This timing is just so awful for some of you that I can't help being terribly upset for you even though my own son is okay.</p>
<p>Kraemer, alongfortheride, and others, just letting you know how sorry I am for these terrible circumstances. My husband and I were just crushed to read about it in the Times-Picayune today. His MBA is from Tulane and we are just aching for the school. </p>
<p>Things are just so devastated down here and everyone is pulling together to get over Katrina.Surely Dr. Cowen would never have made these cuts without doing tremendous assessments, b/c it's going to hurt Tulane and also the metro N.O. area. Our whole area will suffer in many ways as the ripples spread from the painful cuts being made. New Orleans will need so, so, so much help to get back on its feet....everyone wants normalcy again but it's going to take lots of $. We have so many friends who have lost everything from Katrina.</p>
<p>Just letting you know that my thoughts are with you...</p>
<p>
[quote]
I remain puzzled as to why specifically the Engineering programs were targeted--I always thought of those disciplines as being in high demand and very desirable for a university to offer. I still don't get it.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I don't know, but I'm guessing that closing the School of Engineering (which is really what they are doing) made the most sense because it's the most expensive undergrad program to operate.</p>
<p>To survive, Tulane has to take big chunks out of the operating budget. That kind of savings can't be achieved with nickle and dime cuts here and there. They have to whack big programs, like an entire school, and whack them fast.</p>
<p>I think the annual operating budget for Tulane this year was supposed to be $700 million. Add $200 million to that for Katrina costs -- $200 million that isn't just lying around. Then, consider that the long-term operating budget, even without Katrina costs, will have to be trimmed substantially. They may get 85% of the students back for one semester, but Cowen has to be planning for significantly reduced student revenues for the foreseeable future. That's a problem because, according to Tulane's prior strategic plan, they were already overly dependent on student revenues as a percentage of the operating budget.</p>
<p>I'm really devastated about this news. I'm an alumna of Tulane Law School and I have a son who's a junior in HS and wanting to major in engineering. We've been looking at schools during the past 6 months, and his reaction to many schools is that he likes Tulane better. He doesn't want to go to a strictly engineering school like RPI, WPI, Rose Hulman, etc., but a university with a lot of options and diversity (like Tulane). Other schools like that are much harder to get into -- Penn, Wash U, Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, etc., and don't offer the merit aid that Tulane has been offering. Anyway, a very sad turn of events.</p>
<p>I especially feel bad for current engineering students.</p>
<p>Interesteddad, yes, I would agree that the facilities needed by an engineering school are more expensive. However, it's not like the engineering school hasn't been pulling its weight. It brought in the $30 million gift from Filo and Clark and it met and exceeded its goal for Promise and Distinction, which is more than many other entities inside the school had accomplished. Go figure.</p>
<p>The largest rebuilding in US history will now take place and the engineering students that thought Tulane would be in the middle of the world's biggest lab and think tank won't get to be there - through the rebuilding of the levees, power grids and communications. </p>
<p>Perhaps if drastic measures like this are what Tulane needs to survive, my son is best finishing up somewhere else, for I fear what the value of a Tulane degree might really be. I don't know. I'm dealing with a second semester sophomore who lost his school this fall, worked non-stop to catch up at his new institution, and now has been blindsided again. His freshman friends that he kep up with and so looked forward to seeing again he will see for one more semester, only to leave for good. We chose Tulane for the college experience. We choked up the money for the experience. His experience has been nothing short of upheaval and heartbreak after this last decision. </p>
<p>I do wish the rest of your children the best with their continued efforts at Tulane.</p>
<p>zhou - I, too, see 12/15 as the Last Day to Withdraw. Looking at the "legacy" Registrar website, I also see 1/25/06 as the last day for a "full refund." Wouldn't that also apply to these students (actually any student?) if, say, an Engineering student starts the Spring term and realizes within that first 9 days that this is not going to work?</p>
<p>DH is able to handle this period of Limbo #2 without the preoccupation I am suffering. At my most optimistic, my thoughts go like this: "Well, it's like a Gap Year without the gap. He experiences his host small LAC for one term. He goes down to NOLA and experiences the beginning part of the recovery of a city and maybe/maybe not decides to stay with a changed major. Meanwhile, he accumulates more than one full year of academic credit." When not optimistic, I am just nearly sick to my stomach and feeling betrayed and burdened with a transfer process we should have no need or want of.</p>
<p>The two answers/actions I most want asap from Tulane:
1. A swift, sure and clear "release" of these kids and their host schools from the "no poaching" policy. There is precious little time for kids to try and stay for one more visiting term or to transfer permanently to their current host school (I'm not even sure this is of interest to my own S, but I would like to be able to talk with Bates without the burden of the "agreement" getting in the way. And I am certain other students are at schools where they would most assuredly like to matriculate.
2. An investment of time on the part of high-enough level Tulane staff to forge transfer relationships and agreements with high-caliber Engineering schools. With what the entire higher education community stood up and did for Tulane in early September, shall we expect any less from Tulane in terms of "stepping up" for its very own students? Why can't Tulane step forward to do the leg work on this so that our kids do not have to start at Ground Zero going through a time-consuming and burdensome transfer application process?</p>
<p>I posed both of these qx for the Live Chat. No dice. I spoke about them to Tulane's new transfer specialist and he will propose them, but he does not have standing, really.</p>
<p>Anyone with ideas of how we can best achieve these goals?</p>
<p>
[quote]
There is precious little time for kids to try and stay for one more visiting term or to transfer permanently to their current host school (I'm not even sure this is of interest to my own S, but I would like to be able to talk with Bates without the burden of the "agreement" getting in the way. And I am certain other students are at schools where they would most assuredly like to matriculate.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yep. The Tulane freshman who was at Swarthmore wants to stay and the school would happy to have him. The Admissions Dean had lunch with the student and his friends and then told the paper that honoring the anti-poaching agreement was the reason he couldn't. The Dean continued to say that the kid would have a big advantage in the transfer process for next fall because he already knew the student was "a great kid" and because his recommendations would come from Swarthmore professors -- basically, he's in as soon as poaching is no longer an issue. If this student were an engineering major (I don't think the articles ever said), it sure would make sense for Tulane to release him and let him get on with his college career.</p>
<p>I just feel so badly for all of you in this situation. I'd be worried sick. Zhou just breaks my heart going through this with his family halfway around the globe. He's a strong young man!</p>
<p>On the other hand, the silver lining is that a lot of schools with engineering departments are going to bend over backwards to help the displaced students, with or without Tulane's help. So there is the distinct possibility of ending up in an even better engineering program once all the dust settles. And, a semester in New Orleans will certainly be a learning experience.</p>
<p>petition the school, get all the involved Eng. Students involved? Speak with the accrediation agency? Speak with the host schools the Eng. students are now attending?</p>
<p>I think the best approach may be to look out for yourself. By that, I mean, get through finals at the visiting school, take a deep breath, and then sit down at the start of holiday vaction to sort through the options. </p>
<p>Do you want to stay at your visiting school? If so, then that sets a course of action.</p>
<p>If not, then the focus shifts to identifying a new school and to preparing a letter of introduction to work the system at the new school (both through the admissions office and the engineering school).</p>
<p>Realistically, I think you have to prepare for the worst and proceed under the assumption that it will be up to you to work it out. I actually think Tulane will help and that will be great. But, I don't think it makes sense to wait for that to happen.</p>
<p>The real crunch is going to be the financial issues for the large number of merit scholarship students at Tulane. Financially, Tulane views these scholarships as price discounts. Much like the airlines, they offer these discounts because they would rather sell a seat for $20,000 to a high-stat student who benefits Tulane than not sell the seat at all. I think it is is highly, highly unlikely they will write checks to cover price discounts at another school. These scholarships are not budgeted expense items, they appear on the revenue side of Tulane's ledger in the form of price discounts.</p>