<p>A personally derived, aritifically contrived “ranking” system, based on the already flawed USNews rankings is just plain silly.</p>
<p>Tulane is not perfect. No school is. I have said repeatedly that the wonderful scholarships that were offered to my son was a big draw to his choosing to attend. But he had an excellent experience and education, easily passed the FE exam and has successfully launched, with three fulltime job offers by last October. Are there students from the NE? Absolutely. Are there students who are more academically engaged than others, absolutely. But that is true anywhere.</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing your experience, shermani, even if it’s unpopular. Tulane will only strengthen by addressing its weaknesses rather than trying to sweep them under the rug!</p>
<p>Everyone is perfectly capable of reading the posts above in their entirety. Seems unnecessary, other than to be purposely offensive, to copy it for purposes of repeating hyperbole. How much time have you spent at Tulane? What is your personal experience with the school?</p>
<p>This has never once happened at Harvard or (to my knowledge) at any other school. Grad students do teach some courses (often discussion sections) at many schools; however to claim that students at Harvard go their entire freshman year without seeing a professor implies a serious disconnect with respect to the relevant information.</p>
<p>Marsden, I have to wonder about your motives in posting your displeasure with Tulane.
This is a forum for people interested in Tulane, and of course we going to defend the school.
By calling Tulane, or any school, second-rate, you are negating the hard work and effort that went into being accepted to, and graduating from, that school. Look at the numbers, it was no small feat getting admitted…</p>
<p>It also bothers me that people will choose Tulane because of their scholarships, and go on to blast the school because it is not the school they wanted.
I would say to Shermani, if you do not like it, then move on. There are students who would feel blessed to have even half your scholarship.</p>
<p>I am also surprised by the negative comments on this thread about the mix of the students at Tulane.
My son has a large group of friends, and they come from the south and the west!</p>
<p>gowill,
I agree with you. Making unkind remarks about the mix of students is also out of line. Yes, there are a lot of students (35%) from the NE at Tulane, but as you said, there are students (65%) from all over the US and abroad. The largest population represented at Tulane is, not surprisingly, Louisiana, representing 14% of the student body. </p>
<p>I think fair, genuine, constructive criticism can be helpful in informing any prospective student of the positives and potential less-than-positives at any school. But unnecessary bashing of a school from disgruntled students and especially from those with no experience or affiliation with that school, is not worth the bandwith it takes up.</p>
<p>There are always a few that have something against Tulane for whatever reason. Other schools sometimes have similar issues. I am not talking about shermani, because while I disagree that his characterizations are valid in general, it is how he sees it and he is welcome to voice his experience. Others are equally free to point out why they think he is wrong (again, in general. Californication is right that one cannot say his internalizations are not what he perceived). People that have no basis for their statements, however, are another story especially when they use childish terms like “second-rate” to describe a school that clearly has bright students, excellent professors, and has been recognized by the White House, the Carnegie Foundation, and various international organizations as an innovator in many aspects of the changing face of the university mission.</p>
<p>Just as a point of (re)clarification also, Tulane defines the NE as everything from Maine to Maryland, including all of Pennsylvania and NY State. Given the large percentage of the US population that lives in that geography, it isn’t terribly surprising that Tulane gets a lot of students from the area as well. Throw in two other high population states like Texas and California, where Tulane also draws from significantly, and it somewhat mirrors the US population distribution in general, especially when one takes into account socio-economic distributions.</p>
<p>My Son when he applied to colleges only one thing in his mind: Research School and fun. He was busy doing the rigarious IB Programs (graduated with Diploma) and did not have time to really study for SAT or ACT. So, he applied only two schools (Johns Hopkins Univ. -JHU and Tulane). For whatever reasons, JHU put him on wait list. After he has accepted Tulane and gave deposit, JHU called and emailed him and said there was a place for him. But, my S told them that he would take a rain check for Phd. The reasons why he has chosen Tulane are because: Tulane is a research school (member of AAU, etc), very competitive admission 26% acceptance rate, gave him a good money (we are not rich family at all) and NOLA with its good food, culture and FUN etc. I know that college is not for everyone and even some kids go to college without having any idea what they want to do (they change major at least once, or major in undecided). No matter where you go, you still havee to work hard to make it there and if you can not stand the heat (the culture, school programs, etc), just move on. You do not need to bad-mouth the school. Just like when you are trying to apply for a job, you dont have to say bad things about your former employer since the Human Resource person will flag you if you do so. That is just my two cents.</p>
<p>Wise words, Okla. BTW, in connection with the other thread where we have a discussion going, JHU is a wonderful choice for a PhD in BME. I am sure you already know this, but it is considered one of the best in the world, if not THE best. Not sure one can really measure if something like that is “the best”, but it certainly shows it is world class. So checking with JHU about their policies regarding tuition wavers and stipends for grad students would be a great place to start. Whatever they are doing, most of the others probably are also since they all compete for top students.</p>
<p>My S is a very serious, focused person and choosy. So, when it comes to applying for school after doing some internet research, he will apply only to two schools. He does not want to send so many application forms and waste so much money like $80 here, $75 there for app. fees, etc. On the average, I believe a kid will spend $350 to $400 just for the application fees. That’s a waste if he/she does not do due diligence in applying for college. So, the other day, he told me that for Phd programs, he justs wants to apply to JHU for BME (Under medical school, kind of tough to get in) or stay in Tulane.</p>
<p>Anyhow, thanks for the info and help on this forum. I really appreciate it.</p>
<p>Welcome, Okla. Sounds like your son will do just fine. Mine just graduated from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. I was very impressed with the faculty we met and the plans for the department. My only gripe- their mortarboard tassles are ORANGE ;)</p>
<p>“Just as a point of (re)clarification also, Tulane defines the NE as everything from Maine to Maryland, including all of Pennsylvania and NY State. Given the large percentage of the US population that lives in that geography, it isn’t terribly surprising that Tulane gets a lot of students from the area as well. Throw in two other high population states like Texas and California, where Tulane also draws from significantly, and it somewhat mirrors the US population distribution in general, especially when one takes into account socio-economic distributions.”</p>
<p>At freshman orientation, Tulane said that the top five states for the incoming class were LA, NY (#3 in population), CA (#1), IL (#5) and NJ (#11). Only unrepresented states were ND, SD, Hawaii and Alaska. So fairly representative of the overall population, but with a bit of a slant towards the northeast (since #2 Texas and #4 Florida were further down the list).</p>