<p>I'm not sure if Tulane is offering less of them this year, or if they have decided to experiment by taking some lower stat kids to see if those kids want to go badly enough to go full pay. I'm thinking perhaps it's the latter.</p>
<p>S: 3.2, 1450/2060 - no scholarship
Friend of S: 2.8 1500s total (not sure of M/V) - no scholarship - he will be going at full pay.
Second friend of S: Not sure of stats at all, thinks kid has a higher GPA than he does but lower SATs.</p>
<p>Two girls also accepted from our school, but also got into Michigan so they must be very good students. (Average accepted student at Michigan is over a 4.0 at our school.) I would assume they got money but S doesn't ask these things. (The boys volunteered it.) Neither of them will be going to Tulane as I guess it was more of a safety for them; one is also trying ED for an Ivy.</p>
<p>Some thoughts on merit scholarships and Tulane Admissions:</p>
<p>From the schools perspective (not Tulane any school offering merit aid) the purpose of merit scholarships is to lure student to attend that might otherwise choose another school. This tool is most effective in luring students who would otherwise not receive financial aid to cover what the merit aid covers. They have a limited number of dollars they can award and still meet their budget, and therefore will award merit aid where they think it will be most effective. Merit aid is not a reward for good grades, but a tool for manipulating their yield. Students with a lower EFC are likely to do better or at least as well at a school that offers very good need based aid. For them merit aid is not much of a lure. The university has the best chance of luring a high achieving student with a high EFC whose parents would have to pay full freight elsewhere.</p>
<p>Another group of students that are admitted are students, who maybe do not have the high school stats to fall in the above category, but the school sees their potential as students and therefore they are admitted, but not offered a scholarship. These students are less likely to have been admitted to a higher ranked school for whatever reason and the school hopes that they will be the students first choice and thus attend anyway. These kids still have very good records. I would also question whether using SCEA would decrease scholarship potential as ED does, as the student might not need as much luring to attend. I have read only about 1/3 of the current freshman class has an academic scholarship.<br>
During a conversation with patents at orientation last summer it was mentioned that Tulane seems to be more willing to accept a student with potential (as evidenced by high test scores and some evidence that they have turned the corner academically so to speak) and less than stellar, but still very respectable high school records. These students seem to rise to the occasion and do very well at Tulane. </p>
<p>My daughter has many friends at school that do not have merit scholarships. They are high achieving smart, personable kids. It is not personal, try not to take it that way. That doesn’t help pay the bill I know.</p>
<p>Actually, that is quite frustrating, considering my D was deferred with higher stats than that, and she has great ECs, etc. etc. How can you not take it personally!</p>
<p>Tulane has made it very clear by this years admissions season that they are not all about stats; seems that they are heading towards a more holistic approach…</p>
<p>And based on RTR’s post, it looks as if they are attempting to fish for full pay candidates that they perceive as being diamonds in the rough, yet likely to attend due to the attainment of the “reach school”… not a particularly bad idea</p>
<p>One other thought I had; there seem to be a number of “connections” admits that I have heard about from a number of different geographic areas…could explain a deferral/rejection of others with higher stats…</p>
<p>lovegoldens sorry to hear about your D.
For a mom(or dad) it’s always personal. My D got deferred and then waitlisted at a school where her stats put her clearly in the admit range. No one from her school with her stats had ever been denied(she has no hidden negatives, I always wonder when you see that x on the top right hand side of the scattergram “does that kid have a record or something”).</p>
<p>I still hate that school:). I do thank them sometimes as I truly believe Tulane is the perfect fit for my D.</p>
<p>Nothing hurts more than someone hurting your kid.</p>
<p>From the school’s perspective I’m sure they just had admitted too many great kids like your D already and need to wait to see if they will have room. It’s not personal for them, try hard not to take it that way.</p>
<p>Your D will find her perfect school be it Tulane or elsewhere.</p>
<p>Very interesting post, Septmbr. Great to hear Tulane has been such a wonderful fit for your D.</p>
<p>The only thing that mystifies me a bit about what you say in post #3 is that when Tulane offers a lot of the merit scholarships, they have no idea what the EFC of these students is yet. Those filings aren’t due until after the first of the year, right? So I am not sure they are able to manipulate things quite that way. I think for the most part they are based on merit, but I do agree completely that more and more merit means adding a significant component of qualities outside of test scores and grades. Since we did not apply for financial aid, I might have some of my “facts” wrong. If so, please correct me. This is an important topic with regard to Tulane.</p>
<p>I do have one other quibble:
For a private school of Tulane’s caliber, that is huge, not an “only”. Most private schools ranked higher than Tulane give far fewer, and many none.</p>
<p>Anyway, enjoying the discussion and I look forward to learning more about this from yours and others perspective.</p>
<p>“they have no idea what the EFC of these students is yet”</p>
<p>I have read for years that schools in general use zip code as a barometer of ability to pay. It has been discussed at length on the FA board. I have also read that some schools send mass mailings to students based on not only psat scores/sat scores but zip codes. It has been implied that many need blind schools that meet full need do this hoping to encourage students from wealthy areas to apply. This is not sinister if all students had an EFC near zero the school could not survive.</p>
<p>I think a school can roughly estimate EFC based on zipcode. </p>
<p>"For a private school of Tulane’s caliber, that is huge, not an “only” "</p>
<p>I agree with you on this, but my “only” goes back to the question in a previous post that implied everyone who attends has a scholarship</p>
<p>The zip code data mining hypothesis was discussed in the past, and it was mentioned that while this, as well as using mailing lists of private schools, can be a reasonable approach to accessing higher income kids, it doesn’t have a way of discerning what a family’s debt is, what their mortgage is, etc, so doesnt really have a good way of truly knowing a family’s ability to pay, or what thir CSS or FAFSA will truly look like. I may not be expressing that well, but it was suggested that this was auseful but limited approach when trying to identify the higher income kids. </p>
<p>On another subject, someone mentioned that tere was a 4th named merit/academic scholarship this year? Can someone summarize this year’s academic scholarships and the merit award that accompanies them?
Thanks</p>
<p>Hi jym - I started spreadsheeting the info I have from people regarding the awards they got and their stats. Still have work to do but here are the names of the awards and the amounts (these are all per year for 4 years (5 for architecture) as long as maintain required GPA):</p>
<p>Presidential - $25,000</p>
<p>Distinguished Scholar - $22,000</p>
<p>Founders - $20,000</p>
<p>Academic Achievement - $15,000</p>
<p>If I see anything that contradicts this as I continue to compile data I will post that too, but seems consistent so far.</p>
<p>Thanks, FC!
So the merit awards (not counting the DHS) of 17, 21 and 24K of last yr are now 20, 22 and 25K, with a new one added of 15k? Is that correct?</p>
<p>Last year, I received 24k/Honors Program Invite [with a 31 Act, 105/100 GPA]
BUT the valedictorian of my class received 17k and but not a honors program invite [with a 31 ACT 109/100 GPA]
and the salutatorian received neither a scholarship or an honors program invite [a 29 ACT 108/100 GPA]</p>
<p>I was the only one who matriculated to Tulane. Moral is, I would not be too offended to have not received a scholarship.</p>
<p>Hm, I’m hoping I get a scholarship, and vitaebellaa’s post gives me hope that I will (I have a 32 ACT). If I were to get a 20k+ scholarship, I’d definitely consider Tulane. Still, I’m guessing I won’t be getting much.</p>