Jeff Schiffman (Tulane Jeff) just posted on his blog about the incoming class as it has pretty firmly shaped up. http://tuadmissionjeff.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-class-of-2019.html As he alludes to, there are always some that drop out along the way before move-in, which is known as “summer melt”. But it should be very close to what he describes. The highlights are:
- []Larger class than last year by about 50 students.
[]No one being asked in off the wait list
[]Statistically equal to or maybe even a little better than the best classes Tulane has ever had
[]47 states and 28 foreign countries represented, the latter representing 60 students. That is a large increase over previous classes.
[]More students of color than previous classes.
[]Still heavily female (about 60-40).
Just to anticipate the question, the current freshman class (for about another week!) was 1649 students after move-in. So this really will be a big class for Tulane, about 1700. But as Jeff says in his blog, thanks to Greenbaum space is no longer the issue a class this size would have been in the past.
I’ve heard that this past year much of Greenbaum was empty. So I guess they realized they had space for a few more students.
Could be. One of the issues of housing in the past was that more juniors and seniors expressed interest in staying on campus than there was space to accommodate. I’m not sure how all this planned construction plays into that. I know Greenbaum is just freshmen and sophomores, but maybe that eventually will free up housing in other dorms. I just don’t know the overall plan.
Interesting that most high schools no longer post class rank. While this looks like another strong, diverse class, six SAT points higher has absolutely no statistical significance. Now, if 95% of them return next year, and over 90% of them graduate within six years, then that will be something special. Hopefully the application process has yielded a group of students who enthusiastic about diving in and taking advantage of the Tulane and New Orleans experience to the max.
Actually, being hypertechnical, 6 points on a sample size this large is statistically significant, if I did the math right. It’s been awhile. But that’s math definitions; I get your point and definitely agree that 95% retention and 90% 6 year graduation rates would be far more meaningful. But Tulane does appear to be making progress in those areas, although freshman retention seems to have plateaued at 90-91%. I think the school actually had set a goal of 93%, which would still be great of course.
Well, I stand corrected on statistical significance! I am not nearly as much a math and science person as FallenChemist!
You are a good sport, @NJDad68. I know this is all lighthearted, but just to be clear I do agree that from a “common sense” perspective, 6 points on the 1600 point scale (well, really 1200 points since 400 is the base level for CR + M) is not a seismic shift. Clearly any schools that have average SAT scores within 10 points or so of each other are not really all that different in the quality of student they are attracting, at least based on that one measure. Still, it beats going 6 points in the other direction. And while I would be the last person to not advocate academic quality of the students as an important aspect of choosing a school, I have become a big believer in really taking into account other aspects of what a student brings to the table, and therefore what a school offers as an overall experience to prospective students. But you can list an average SAT quite easily, while it is much harder to convey how much a class of students brings in commitment to service. I’m just rambling with a thought here, but I read a story like this http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/050715_graduate_suzanne-mcshane_breast-cancer-research.cfm and it makes me very proud of the kind of student that Tulane is graduating and the programs in place, like Newcomb Scholars, that allow these students to thrive.
I know this is getting off topic, but I started this thread as an FYI, not really as a discussion on Jeff’s information. So that’s OK. And thinking about the freshman retention rate, I do wonder if it is even possible for Tulane to get to 95-97%. I think there are some aspects of Tulane where it might just be inherent that there will be an almost built-in number of freshmen that will not return. These aspects are the distance people travel to get to Tulane and coupled with that the fact that there are a limited number of cities where you can fly non-stop for a reasonable fare, the uniqueness of New Orleans and some students inability to get comfortable there, and the high cost of attending. For that last, I understand there are lots of other schools that have a similar sticker price and that Tulane is very generous with merit scholarships and in most cases need-based aid. But when you look at a lot of the schools that have the 95% or better freshman retention rates, they have much larger endowments and can afford to provide no-loan guarantees and other aid that makes their schools even more affordable to families that are middle class or lower income. I think when you look at all the factors, it might be very hard for Tulane to ever reach 95% or better. I hope I am wrong and that smarter people within Tulane can find ways to overcome these impediments to getting freshman retention to those levels. 90-91% certainly isn’t bad at all. It indicates most students are quite satisfied with their choice to attend Tulane. But I know the school would like to get that extra few percent for sure.
I think there is a factor that you have all left out— the ACT! Many students have switched to reporting the ACT rather than the SAT. As a result simply discussing an increase in the average SAT score does not provide any insight into the entire new class.
Well, I guess I would point out that we didn’t leave it out, Jeff didn’t report it. I think my discussion below will explain why one can’t include the ACT in this discussion.
You are right that the ACT doesn’t get discussed in the same way as the SAT, @DebmomNY. I think that is because the compressed scale (0-36 vs. 400-1600) makes it harder to differentiate performance. You are also correct that the ACT has actually surpassed the SAT in number of students that take each test, although the numbers are now close. However, the Midwest and South have moved more heavily to the ACT for some time now, and Tulane draws heavily from those regions. Of course they also draw heavily from the Northeast which still favors the SAT, so overall I imagine Tulane is pretty balanced. In fact, I think they report this on the CDS. Ah yes, they do.
So pretty balanced. Those are for students that actually enrolled last year, not for all applicants nor for all admitted, but I would be surprised if those were very different in terms of overall percentages.
So I think that lack of scale precision makes it hard to use the ACT to compare from one year to the next. To be very clear, I am not at all saying that makes the ACT less valuable as a tool for admissions decisions. That is a different purpose and an even more different debate. I am just saying that, for example, there are tables from ACT themselves that say each single score on the ACT covers about a 40 point range on the SAT. So for example, a 34 on the ACT is anywhere from a 1490 to a 1530 on the SAT. So while over two classes of 2000 people each, if one averaged 1490 and the other 1530, we would say they are both very bright, but that the latter was more accomplished on the SAT and let’s face it, to most people that means they are probably just a little bit smarter. Fair, unfair, who knows. The point here is that both those classes would report an average ACT of 34. Maybe that is for the better, a lot of people on CC do say (and I am one of them) that there really isn’t a significant difference between someone that gets a 2250 on the SAT and someone that gets 2380 (shifting back to the current reporting system), and Harvard says they don’t think there is a real difference either. But as I say that is a different discussion. The simple fact is that because of the reporting scale, it is much harder and rarer to see a change in the average ACT score of incoming classes. Certainly if it goes up a point, that does represent a big jump.
I’m in the Northeast (NY!) and there has been a shift to the ACT exam in our local schools.
So far the SAT still dominates there, according to a NYT article pretty recently. But no question things continue to shift. It is no accident that the SAT is making a major change starting next year and supposedly it will look a lot more like the ACT. Time will tell.
Hello FC! I thought I’d intrude on this conversation. My son has just finished his sophomore year. He and a lot of his friends have decided to stay in campus housing their Junior year. The reason is they are planning a semester abroad, and it is really too expensive a proposition to get off-campus housing for just one semester. He’ll probably live off campus his senior year.
One last comment – he’s still loving the school, doing great, and nervous that he’s already half done.
Hey @newtrierdad !! Good to hear from you. You will think I am fibbing, but I was just thinking about you yesterday because I noticed your name in my “folder” set of CC messages, and wondering how things were going.
That makes sense to forgo off campus housing if he is going to be gone spring semester (which is when I assume he is thinking about since you said “planning” instead of “going to XYZ”). Besides, campus housing for most upperclassmen is pretty nice, some of it close to off campus quality. Where is he considering for his semester abroad?
Yes, I know it goes fast. It is hard to appreciate it all at the time. I am getting all these tweets from Tulane about the graduation parties and ceremonies going on now. Hard to believe it was just last year for my D that we were running from event to event. In 2 years that will be you.
Time is passing too quickly, indeed! Our youngest is now starting college in August (DePauw U – she wants small and close to home). My son is planning to study in Athens starting in January, 2016. It’s good to see you continuing to offer sage advice for Tulane.