<p>would be curious to hear thoughts on the cause and meaning of the tulane’s problematic retention rate, alluded to earlier in this forum.</p>
<p>Hmmm-- looks like sjuhawk might be back?? Join date of today after the latest iterations have been removed !!!</p>
<p>Tata…</p>
<p>It wasn’t a problem last year, actually. It was 92%, which is pretty good. Maybe not Yale, but a comparable rate to many highly thought of universities. The rate used to be low, most likely for the following reasons.</p>
<p>1) More students from > 500 miles away. Students do get homesick, and some don’t have the patience to let it pass. The harder it is to get home on a regular basis, the more of an issue this is for these “at risk” students. Tulane has taken specific steps to address this.</p>
<p>2) Lack of discipline towards studies. Read this as too much partying. While this has often been exaggerated in terms of a problem at Tulane compared to other schools, the administration is nonetheless taking strong steps with regard to this as well. The motive here is more to get Tulane off the party schools list, but it has the additional benefit of retaining more students.</p>
<p>3) New Orleans just isn’t a fit. It happens, but not too much. Not a lot that can be done about this.</p>
<p>4) Students get into schools they originally wanted as transfer students. Very few in the grand scheme of things, but again not much that can be done if the student just has their mind made up. Although I have to say on this one I hear a lot more stories of kids that came in intending to transfer but stayed because they liked it so much.</p>
<p>5) Better students means higher retention. This is a well documented fact. More serious students fall prey far less to # 2. Tulane has been attracting better students 3 years running.</p>
<p>So all in all the situation has improved, as I said, and Tulane has taken various steps to interact more and make it easier for students that are having issues to get help.</p>
<p>Having said all that, I would bring up that given those reasons for why kids leave, except for just a few students it really has nothing to do with whether a school is “best” in the sense USNWR says they are using the stat. They say that if kids don’t stay, it is a reflection on the quality of the school. I am not so sure that is supportable. It more likely is one reason among many.</p>
<p>Not sure why you are responding to the repeat offender, FC. But you failed to mention that pesky storm 5 years back that also threw the retention stats a curveball, given the number of students that didn’t return because they chose to matriculate at the school that temporarily housed them (some schools permitted that) or their major was no longer offered at TU due to the necessary cutbacks.</p>
<p>It wasn’t clear to me that palefires is related to SJUHawk or biograduate(1), and everyone has to join sometime, lol. It is a legitimate question, anyway, and it is a chance to mention some positive steps Tulane is taking. It is very positive to me that in my talks with some of the administration there seems to be a healthy awareness of areas where Tulane needs to improve. That kind of honest self-reflection is a good thing.</p>
<p>As I understand it USNWR uses a 6 year averaging for some stats. Don’t know if freshman retention is one of them, but if it is the Katrina effect would still be in play, and certainly it is in play as it affects 4 and 6 year graduation rates, especially if they are using that averaging technique. Thanks for pointing that out.</p>
<p>Some things are just <em>too</em> coincidental, fc. Smells fishy to me.</p>
<p>You could very much be right, but unless/until they get hostile I will give them the benefit of the doubt.</p>
<p>Who is sjuhawk? I obviously missed something since I have seen that name mentioned a couple times but can’t find the posts.</p>
<p>The moderators may have gotten rid of his posts. He was just one of these people that had an irrational hatred of Tulane. He denies he got rejected or flunked out, but then they all deny it. Otherwise, why the weird vendetta against Tulane? But anyway, he would say wild things, they would always get proved wrong, and he would come back with something else. He finally got at least a suspension from the admins, maybe more.</p>
<p>I’m not sure that the ratings are lagging the numbers. I read the same argument on this board two or three years ago. The discussion in this thread is spot on as the flaws in the US News rankings are legion and the report is continually frustrating for those who put stock in it. That said, being in the top 100 is not impressive. True, there are thousands of schools, but a typical Tulane applicant would not consider most of those schools. Risingchemist, set your sites higher rather than lower!</p>
<p>SJUHawk was just a hater, period.</p>
<p>LOL, Risingchemist is not a student, he is an alum like me. Just a coincidence with the names. He is still in chemistry (and rising), I went over to the dark side of science (the business of chemistry) hence I am fallen.</p>