<p>Tulane did contact USNWR and they refused to adjust it. You would have to ask USNWR why they made that decision.</p>
<p>A search for material supporting that assertion–again–came up empty. </p>
<p>Do you have anything?</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a search for Tulane’s rankings history was more productive. </p>
<p>[U.S</a>. News Rankings Through the Years](<a href=“http://web.archive.org/web/20070908142457/http://chronicle.com/stats/usnews/]U.S”>U.S. News Rankings Through the Years) </p>
<p>Shows clearly that Tulane’s major drop in the rankings occurred between 1998 and 2002. It fell twelve places in those few years. I doubt you’ll blame Katrina (2005) for that, will you? </p>
<p>The search also shows that you’re already aware of these facts, btw.</p>
<p>Marsden: You may say lots of bad things about Tulane but there are lots of students and prospective students that believe in Tulane. One of them is my S. He was accepted at JHU but chose Tulane simply because of the Free Apps, good financial aids (Scholarship, merit aids, etc), Tulane being considered as very active in Research School and NOLA attractions, etc. Now, I have checked that Tulane is Ranking 50 but tell me out of 49 schools above Tulane, which ones that have also given a lot of aids to the students? I bet not that many. Here is a reference for you regarding Tulane is a good good and cheerful giver: <a href=“A Rise in Students Receiving Merit Awards - The New York Times”>A Rise in Students Receiving Merit Awards - The New York Times; …THEREFORE, I believe no matter how hard you try to bad-mouth Tulane, it does not work at all because of those forementioned reasons. My friendly suggestion is that do not waste your time to ■■■■■ in this forum as your arguments will not prevent any prospective students to come to Tulane. Life is good aint it?..</p>
<p>Marsden – it is clear that the methodology of the usnwr rankings make them a trailing indicator. Katrina was 8/2005, but Tulane’s ranking didn’t go down from 44 to 50 until 9/2007 (when the 2008 rankings came out). The biggest pieces of the formula are subjective reputation and 6 year graduation rates, so I can see how those numbers would take a while to change (either up or down).</p>
<p>Seems to me that Tulane has done a great job responding to that crisis – jacking up applications, embracing Nola and community service as its brand, playing the merit aid game big time to boost the credentials of its enrolled students, etc. They’ve taken a page out of the playbook of some other schools that have significantly boosted their rankings (think USC). And since usnwr lists Tulane in its up and comer category, there’s reason to think that plan is working. </p>
<p>Tulane may wind up better off in the end as a result of Katrina. Never let a good crisis go to waste!</p>
<p>Speaking of Ranking, it really does not matter much. My friend’s son was accepted at Case Western Reserve Univ. (CWRU) last year. CWRU is as expensive as Tulane since it is a private school and according to the ranking, it is ahead of Tulane. But, they dont give much to the students. So, that boy chose to go to city college and hoping to go state school after that. The moral story is that Ranking does not matter at all. Anybody may be accepted at university with better ranking like Johns Hopkins Univ (JHU) or CWRU but if the school does not provide or give much, it is useless. In the end, the ranking means absolutely nothing. Who wants to graduate in any better ranking schools but will owe 80K to 100K upon graduation?..This is just undergraduate and if she/he will go to grad school doing Master level, the debts will be increased. Ranking where art thou?</p>
<p>
Correct. And many of us have been saying this here for years and years and years.</p>
<p>ok. so I am a new poster but I have been reading this forum for ages. truthfully I would not mind if any one of my children chose to go to Tulane but so far not. Still 2 more to go so you never know. Anyway, that being said, I have to agree with Marsden.
Fallenchemist and jym626 (though to a lesser extent) do continuosly and constantly compare Tulane to the likes of Harvard, Yale etc. They both apparantly have very bright children who did choose Tulane over higher ranked schools. Was it due to the money? Maybe. After all they both won the DHS. The point here is that for whatever reason your children chose Tulane over these “higher” ranked schools, that was their decision to make. Every family has to decide on their own priorites. However, it is not necessary to try to convvince the whole CC community of Tulanes superiority. If the $$$$$$ was exactly the same would Tulane been their choice? Maybe, maybe not. But, what appealed to your children about Tulane may not affect everybody in the same way. Many many people do care about rank, that is why these lists are so popular. I am just wondering why it is so important to you to try to convince people that Tulane is so great. The people that like it, like it and those that don’t, don’t. It just seems that it is your mission to convince everyone that Tulane is so great. Who cares? Also, out of curiosity, why would Tulane get a zero for the retention and six year graduation rate after Katrina? From what I understand, many students did come back so though I do not have any documentation, I would “assume” that they did not rate a zero on those factors. Justwundering!</p>
<p>SJUHawk, is that you? Whoever you are, and my guess is you are not a “new” poster at all, your comments are ridiculous. I would ask you to point me to any post where I ever “continuously and constantly compared Tulane to the likes of Harvard or Yale”, but I won’t waste your time, as none exists. Please don’t be so disengenuous or make outrageous, inflammatory, baseless, absurd, laughable statements. </p>
<p>Speaking for myself, I have been quite honest with the things I liked and didn’t like about Tulane. I can speak from experience, as can FC, as we have both had kids there, and he attended there as well. I can compare Tulane to the other schools that I have had personal experience with. Can you? Your opinion is just that, but its baseless. I don’t try to convince cc’ers of anything, but will respond when trolls like the poster above and SJUHawk come here to do nothing but trashtalk a school. It serves no benefit but to be insulting, argumentative and inflammatory. Its offensive and I will respond. But other than that I don’t care if you or anyone else likes or doesnt like any particular school. Whatever floats your boat. There is a great thread about things that applicants didnt like about schools. Its a riot. But its based on experience, even if it s as silly as not having a Chick Fil A nearby.</p>
<p>Yes, my s chose Tulane over Emory because of the DHS. And since he changed his major to Chem E its a good thing, since it isn’t offered at Emory (other than as a dual degree with Ga Tech, and sorry FC, he didn’t like Tech the summer he spent there). FC’s dau chose it over Wash U, and I believe the DHS was the selling point for her as well. </p>
<p>So yes, if information is balanced, accurate and fair, thats great. As I said, there are many things that I think Tulane can improve upon. Same goes for any school. But no, I don’t think Tulane is “superior”. If you want my opinion, please ask, rather than putting erroneous words in my mouth. I do believe I know my opinion better than you do.
Classic straw man argument.</p>
<p>**As an afterthought, I never understand why some schools get singled out to be trash-talked and many others don’t. Haters have no place here. They serve no purpose but to be obnoxious and abrasive. Currently there are comments in some threads berating UVA because of some admission insensitivity. And Penn State is getting quite a tongue-lashing as well for obvious reasons. If I had personal experience I might respond to these current discussions, but I don’t so I won’t.</p>
<p>One cannot defend statements attributed to them that they never made.</p>
<p>I agree with you, jym. It is probably the same one or two people just creating new screen names. Who knows? Who cares?</p>
<p>Seems like now they want to attack/insult us as well as the school. What a waste of bandwidth.</p>
<p>** as an aside, I think its great that you seem to have your ear to the ground and some hot-off-the presses info that you can share with current and prospective students. Every school should be as fortunate.</p>
<p>Just – Studies show that college decisions are mostly based on two things – reputation and cost of attendance.</p>
<p>That first one is why rankings matter to the people running colleges and the people sending their kids to college. The usnwr method is certainly imperfect, but so is every other method that people use as well. </p>
<p>That second factor is why schools spend so much of their budgets on financial aid (whether need or merit based). So if the dollars are the same, most (not all but most) kids would pick Harvard over Tulane. And also over just about any other school in existence.</p>
<p>Tulane is doing a good job in presenting parents an attractive cost/reputation equation. Which is getting increasingly better students to enroll at Tulane. Which I expect to cause Tulane’s rankings to increase in the future. Like what schools like USC and BC have done.</p>
<p>oh boy. everyone needs to calm down. I did not mean to offend anybody. I was just stating my opinion that it seems TO ME that jym626 and fallenchemist try very hard to defend Tulane at all costs. I did not mean to put words in other peoples mouths nor was it my intention to mis-inform anybody as to what they or anyone else said. This is just my perception. Nothing more. Nowhere did I put down Tulane or anybody associated with it. I even mentioned that I would not mind if one of my children decided to go there. What I should have said and meant to say was that I would be very happy if one of my children decided to go there. I apologize if I offended anyone. It is still my opinion that there are very many people who do care about the various ranking lists and to those people they are entilted to their opinion as well. I am still wundering about the zero rating that was claimed to be assigned to Tulane for the years that katrina was and still is counted. I am pretty sure (again I do NOT have any documentation) that there was a large percentage of students who did in fact return to Tulane. Tulanes retention and 6 yr graduation rate did get lower due to katrina, but ZERO? Not likely!</p>
<p>b/c it’s an overrated party school</p>
<p>You didn’t post <em>your opinion</em>, justwundering, or whoever you really are hiding behind a new screenname, you posted disengenuous, outrageous hyperbole. You didn’t post <em>your perception</em>, you posted claims of what we said, which we did not, and then responded to your fabricated stuff as if it were fact. As much as I hate the expression “straw man argument”, thats exactly what you did, and its frankly quite annoying.</p>
<p>** if you didn’t mean to offend, you failed. The post, with the fabricated statements, is quite offensive to me. I see no reason to “calm down”. You make up complete lies, embellish them and then tell people to “calm down” when they react? Really?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s your opinion and I’ll respect it, but seriously, do you know anything about the school at all? </p>
<p>I don’t get why people call schools ‘party schools’. It doesn’t make sense. Every school (except the obvious BYU/Wheaton like ones) have students that party, and students that don’t. People that call a school a party school are just showing how little they know about the school. Yes, Tulane kids party. Do all of them? Doubt it. </p>
<p>justwundering- please, go back and read the posts in this thread. Fallenchemist clearly stated that the graduation rate wasn’t actually zero, it was just reported as such.
Your ‘perception’ is completely welcome here, of course. But when you state it like a stone cold fact (“Fallenchemist and jym626 (though to a lesser extent) do continuosly and constantly compare Tulane to the likes of Harvard, Yale etc”), you’re going to make people upset.</p>
<p>Thank you, jph093. You are exactly right.</p>
<p>As for pizzafatface, if you go back and read his posts in other threads, he just likes to pop in, when he sees the opportunity, with some outrageous silliness with snide comments about many schools. At least he is consistent-- an equal opportunity hater/■■■■■ 
Easy to ignore.</p>
<p>I don’t know who you think I am. I think you are way over reacting. It is not my intention to offend anyone. I am justwundering about the ZERO. A clear cut question without an answer. Yet.</p>
<p>*****As an after thought, “straw man argument”? The pot calling the kettle black I would say. signing off now. </p>
<p>JYM626. I do not know what fabricated statements you mean. I apologized for misstating what i meant to say. I meant<br>
my perception is defending Tulane at all costs.</p>
<p>jph093, I see that he said it was reportedted at zero. that is what I am wundering. why Zero when clearly it was not zerro?</p>
<p>justwundering - to be clear, they did not report zero, they reported N/A because the number was meaningless after such a disaster. USNWR apparently just took that as zero, at least according to a letter sent out by President Scott Cowen when this happened. To be specific, if you look at the Common Data Set Tulane submitted, it says “N/A Due to Hurricane Katrina, Tulane was closed for the 2005 fall semester”. You could have easily found this yourself, but in any case it is unreasonable to expect an answer within minutes or even hours on here.</p>
<p>Hope that clears it up for you. I accept your (sort of) apology, but telling everyone to “calm down” is a bit facile when you say that I “compare Tulane to the likes of Harvard, Yale…” clearly implying that I am saying Tulane would be considered as prestigious a university as these schools, and yet I would love to see you show me, in context, where I said anything of the sort. If you bothered to look at the “examples” Marsden gave as links, you would see that in every one of those cases where I mention Harvard and similar schools it is only to compare admission rates, course offerings, and things like that. I do not think I ever said that Tulane was in that neighborhood. In fact, in one of those posts I specifically said that Tulane was in the next tier down.</p>
<p>I don’t know about you, but personally I hate being misquoted and taken out of context. It is dishonest, lazy, stupid, hateful, or all of the above.</p>
<p>Justwonderin-
You made up complete lies about what I said, attributed them to me and then responded to them as if they were truth when they were lies. That is a straw man argument. I did no such thing. I responded to your distortions because that is what they are. You fail to see that your post was outrageous. I cannot help you with that. YOURs is a straw man argument to the nth degree. Mine is simply a response to your garbage. No straw man there. </p>
<p>I never said word one about the USNews 6 year retention rate (and now you claim that is all you really wanted to know about), yet you specifically called me out and insulted me with false attributes and overstatements. Excuse me if I am offended by this crass behavior.</p>
<p>If you wanted clarification from FC about his USnews retention rate comment, you could simply have asked him for clarification. You chose instead to show up out of the blue with outrageous hyperbole and overgeneralizations, and then wonder why it is bothersome to us? Really? Where did I ever mention Tulane and Harvard or Yale in the same breath? Please - show me. I am most curious. In fact, other than talking about my personal experiences at Yale when my sibling was there and I visited from the former “sister school” or going on a road trip to New Haven for pizza at Naples Pizza or visiting with my DS, I don’t recall even bringing it up. Ditto for Harvard. Unless your next post is an apology for lying- I agree with you, sign off.</p>