<p>I guess the title speaks for itself in many regards, but I was wondering what, if anything (beyond academics) they look for in winners of the Dean's Honor scholarship. I've submitted my application already, and I guess I'm desperate (masochistically desperate, I must admit, but desperate all the same) to hear about people who've won in the past and determine what kind of shot I have.</p>
<p>I'm so disappointed in myself...I told myself I'd not submit to the "chancing" mentality, but I suppose it's only human in this situation.</p>
<p>It is very human, and I know how nervewracking the wait can be. I found your stats on one of your other threads, and you are definitely a strong candidate for the DHS based on stats and activities alone. That will put you into the pool of people that they will seriously consider. Your stats are much like my D’s, who won one last year and is now a freshman at Tulane (your UW GPA a smidge higher, her SAT 10 points higher, your EC’s stronger). Not that it means much for your chances, but she also tried for one of the scholarships at WUSTL and did not get that.</p>
<p>Just to reiterate what I said in another thread, there will probably be about 1,500 applicants for the DHS this year. Either 75 or 100 will be awarded; it was always 100, but they reduced it to 75 last year, I suppose because of the economy and the hit the endowment took. No idea if it will go back to 100 this year. So it will probably come down to your project, because as near as I can tell that is the only way they have to differentiate between people at that highest level.</p>
<p>I wish you the best of luck, Tulane would be lucky to have you I am sure. I am assuming that you have already received your admission and got the $25K and invitation to the Honors Program?</p>
<p>Yes, both of your assumptions are right on the money. I would really, really love to go to Tulane, but without this scholarship it’s verging on pretty unlikely, given a sticky situation in the need-aid department, so I’m crossing fingers and toes on this one. </p>
<p>Just a question I’d like your view on, FC:
In the period of time after I was accepted to Tulane, I was chosen out of my journalism class as the recipient of a new annual award (i.e. I was the first of supposedly many recipients to come) that was given in memorial of my town’s late major. This award came packaged with an informal work experience with my local paper, for whom I will be contributing several columns and collaborating on reporting. </p>
<p>Do you think I should make some effort to inform the DHS committee of this (since it would be a bit redundant at this point to send it directly to the Tulane admissions office proper), or would it seem over-reaching and pretentious? And if I do inform them…what would be the best way to do so? Just a letter outlining (in more detail, obviously) the specifics of the award, and my conviction that this information will “let them understand me better as an applicant” or some such.</p>
<p>Just wondering if anybody knows whether or not an admitted student, who was not invited to be in the Honors Program, would have a shot at the DHS? My daughter has applied for the DHS, and worked incredibly hard on it, but was not invited to participate in the Honors program. Does she have a shot at it??? She applied to Tulane EA the first day that the application was online and has made it very clear that Tulane is her first choice and where she will be attending. We have already paid her deposit and have visited two different times. She made a DVD slideshow and it it stressed that her decision to attend Tulane was greatly influenced by Tulane’s belief in the importance of public service, which she also believes in passionately. Won’t bore you with the rest of the details, but just wondering if she has a shot at it. Her SAT scores aren’t as high as some that I have seen on here, but were good enough to get her into Tulane.</p>
<p>Just being honest, it is a very long shot. It is first and foremost an academic competition based on test scores, grades and other academic achievements. Because out of the 1500 or so that apply for the DHS there are probably 300-500 (I might be high on that but the point is the same) that are so close academically it is hard to separate them on that basis. That is when they use EC’s, other non-academic factors and of course the box project to decide on the final 75-100 that get the offer. I hope that doesn’t sour you on Tulane; they do state pretty clearly on the app site that a student should have a 2250+ SAT’s minimum and be in the top 5% of their class. But I do hope she applied for the Community Service scholarship. It is worth $5,000-$15,000 annually and is added to whatever she got in merit scholarship, so it can come pretty close to a DHS in total. The deadline is Jan 15 if she hasn’t applied yet, and while I don’t think there is a place for a project like there is with the DHS, if her project was about community service I would absolutely get it to the scholarship committee.</p>
<p>Also, she should be aware she can earn her way into the Honors Program after freshman year. I think it takes a 3.6 average.</p>
<p>OK, just saw your other thread that she applied for CSS. Good. I cannot tell you much about past award winners (actually nothing), but I would make sure that committee gets her slide show. Why not?</p>
<p>Thanks for your response. I was worried about that. She wasn’t even considering applying for the DHS until a friend of mine (whose son is at Tulane on the DHS) really encouraged her to do so and said she thought that she was the perfect candidate and would have a good shot at it. I can’t tell you how much time she put into that project. Oh well. She received a $15,000 Academic Achievement award and did also apply for the Community Service Scholarship, which she had planned on doing all along. And no, her not getting the DHS could never sour us on Tulane. While I don’t live in New Orleans now, I was born and raised there and my father, grandfather, and several uncles all graduated from Tulane. Tulane is truly the perfect school for my daughter and she is so excited about attending. She’s very interested in the Undergraduate Public Health Studies program. I just kind of wish that I hadn’t encouraged her to apply for DH and had thought a little bit more about it. Her combined SATs were 1940, but she’s in the top 6% of her class and has an unweighted 3.85 GPA. Took 4 APs last year and 3 this year. </p>
<p>We’ll just wait and see what happens. I do think that she has a pretty good shot at a Community Service Scholarship. By the way, what do you know about that one???</p>
<p>Darn, I am sure her SAT’s are far too low. I am afraid your friend gave you/her bad advice. Sorry to be so blunt, but she is obviously such an excellent student that she will do superbly at Tulane. I fully expect her to be in the Honors Program after her freshman year, she is clearly a very disciplined worker. Alas, some people just don’t do as well on standardized tests for reasons that will always be a mystery.</p>
<p>I am afraid I know little about the CSS. But from what you descibe about her passion, and if they will look at her project (wouldn’t that be great if it wasn’t “wasted”, although I am sure efforts like that are never a waste), maybe she will get it. It is very competitive also though, I think there are only 30 of them. But it is one of her strengths, so who knows?</p>
<p>That’s wonderful about your history with Tulane. We are starting the same kind of history I hope. I went there and now my D is there, just finished her first semester. We all love Tulane and New Orleans. So how come Dad skipped a generation?</p>
<p>Well, actually I am “mom”, and I went to the “other” Louisiana school over in Baton Rouge. Truth be told…I couldn’t have gotten into Tulane! lol Anyway, I am just thrilled that she will be at Tulane and so is she. It was the first school that she looked at and we were lucky enough to hear Dr. Cowen speak and that was all it took. Tulane’s credentials speak for themselves, but their focus on public service was the piece of the puzzle that was misssing for her from the other schools that she looked at/applied to. It is yet another excuse (not that I need one!) for me to make it home more often.</p>
<p>I appreciate your honesty. It is okay. Everything is a learning experience, right??</p>
<p>oops, sorry Mom! Glad we are cool. Heck, I won’t even hold it against you that you went to that other school!! Dr. Cowen is impressive, isn’t he? And a super nice guy. I had a chance to spend a few minutes with him at the Legacy breakfast during move-in weekend (or was that orientation? I forget). Very warm and genuine. I wish your D the very best of luck. She sounds amazing.</p>
<p>I did spend lots of time with Tulane students and had lots of fun. Don’t know when you graduated and this is not a slight at all, but the Tulane of “my” day is a different school from the Tulane of today. Not that it wasn’t a great school in the late 70s and early 80s, but definitely not the same emphasis on service, etc. Don’t think my daughter would have been a good match for the Tulane that I knew and loved. Personally, I think that it is the perfect combination now. Thanks for the kind words and wishes.</p>
<p>By the way, what is your daughter’s major??</p>
<p>I completely agree with you that Tulane has changed dramatically, and I graduated in 1977 (no slight taken at all, lol). Not only is there the strong service emphasis, but the academic quality of the students has risen equally dramatically, even since 2000! I make no bones about the fact that the Tulane of today is a better school in many ways than when I went there, and that is as it should be.</p>
<p>My D is planning a double major in China studies and Creative Writing, although when we visited with her at Parents’ Weekend she loved her courses so much she wanted to add 2 more majors, lol. She was only half-joking.</p>
<p>Glad that you understood my comments about Tulane in the 70s versus now. And, like I said, there would have been no invitation extended to me to attend Tulane. I just took advantage of all of the fun aspects of Tulane, including lots of fraternity parties. </p>
<p>I think that I have almost talked my husband into retiring, at least part of the year, in New Orleans and one of the things that I most definitely will do is take some classes at Tulane. I know that the TIDES classes are only available to freshman, but there are so many other wonderful classes that I would like to take. I ended up graduating from a small, liberal arts college in Winston-Salem, NC (which is where we live) and was a History major. So, I am dying to take some New Orleans and Louisiana history courses at Tulane one day. I have been advised by my daughter, however, that she and I WILL NOT both be taking classes at Tulane at the same time, so I’ll have to wait a few years.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of your insight and good luck to your daughter at Tulane.</p>
<p>To the OP-
If you look at the list of similar threads listed at the bottom of this screen (I love this feature now on cc) you will see that in the past, Tulane listed the kinds of stats that they look for in their DHS. I agree with FC (no surprise there) that the DHS is first and foremost an academic scholarship, used, IMO, to cherrypick the top students they want to snare away from other schools (I can’t take credit for this hypothesis- its been presented by others many times in the past, but I agree with it, and it worked with my son, as it did with FC’s daughter). So, cmb, if your daughter’s stats are not very strong (apologies, I haven’t seen them), applying for the DHS might not have been the best use of your daughters time. That said, you never know! However, I totally agree that the Community Service Scholarship is a very attainable goal, especially if she is a strong student with a passion ofr community service. They can combine the community service award with her $15K award to make a very nice scholarship- which in some cases can equal the value of the DHS. Good luck!!</p>
<p>My daughter applied and did not receive the DHS award. So, what are my options? Do you think Tulane will award scholarships to additional applicants with the awards that aren’t accepted? Also, does anyone know when the Legislative & Heinkel (?) awards are notified?</p>
<p>Don’t know about the LA scholarships, but as I said in the other thread I am 99% sure they don’t award more DHS scholarships based on people that won the award not choosing Tulane.</p>
<p>Agree with FC. They have a net number that they aim for, and send out offers with a net yield in mind. I’ve not heard of them offering any other DHS after the fact, but I suppose if there is surplus $, it might possibly get reallocated to some other scholarship pot - but doubtful, since it is donated by David Filo (founder of Yahoo) [David</a> Filo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Filo]David”>David Filo - Wikipedia) specifically for this scholarship, and I’d bet he has some restrictions on how the $$ is used. In fact, last year they called it the David Filo Scholarship on the Accounts recievable bill, but its back to the DHS this year. Due to the economy, there were concerns that he would cut back on his funding for the scholarship. This led to a nice letter-writing campaign to Filo from the current DHS students. It may be why they only sent out 75 instead of 100 the past 2 yrs.</p>
<p>I got the DHS & I’ll most likely be visiting for the April honors weekend.</p>
<p>Also, for those that are curious, my stats are:
SAT 2200
Class Rank: 11/591 (top 2%)
ECs: Orchestra, Girl Scouts, Latin Club, etc
Coursework: I’ll have taken 15 AP classes by the time I graduate. I’ve taken the most vigorous coursework that migh HS offers.
School: One of the top in Texas, well-respected (we had TONS of kids get into Tulane this year)</p>
<p>I should also mention that I’m a Native American, so that might have helped. For my project I took the perspective of an admissions officer and sort of made a parody with altered lines from my favorite books (i.e. A Tale of Two Cities, Heart of Darkness, etc). I thought it was pretty decent, especially since I was doing it the night before the DHS deadline.</p>
<p>I’m not 100% sure I’ll be attending Tulane, but considering the scholorship, its hard to turn down. So far I’ve been accepted to University of Texas Plan II honors program, Texas A&M, Tulane, Vanderbilt, & Dartmouth (likely letter). I really want to go to Dartmouth, but we won’t qualify for financial aid, so its looking like i’ll end up at Tulane. I’m really interested in their Political Economy major as well as cell and molecular biology. I’m pre-med.</p>
<p>muffinlover - congrats on the DHS, that’s fantastic. Not sure if NA status makes a difference or not, but clearly you are an outstanding student in any case. I also thought Dartmouth might be a good fit for my D, but she wasn’t so interested. Maybe that is also due to the cost; like you we wouldn’t have qualified for financial aid. So with the DHS, she chose Tulane and is really loving it.</p>