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<p>Two things wrong with that statement. First, it isn’t a “misterpresentation” in the least. It is a straightforward numerical calculation. No one makes these students apply, and as I have clearly demonstrated there are hundreds of schools that offer free apps. Why don’t they get 44,000? In any case, who decided that the way other colleges do their admissions is right and Tulane is “questionable”? Who published a set of rules for who you are allowed to mail things to? Other schools are free to do the same also if they want, or keep doing things as they are.</p>
<p>Second, while the yield is low (which is a negative in the eyes of people that look at these things traditionally, so rather negates the argument that they are doing it to “look good”, although of course they will put their best foot forward), the number of apps is so high that your contention that “very few” top students that would normally pick Duke, Vandy, WUSTL, Chicago, Berkeley, Stanford, and some other highly rated schools would pick Tulane is wrong. It is a low percentage of these students they recruit, maybe 5%, but that still turns out to be a couple of hundred at least. I know, my D is one (accepted Chicago, WUSTL, and two Ivies), and I have personally talked to and/or gotten PM’s from or seen posted on this forum dozens of others. Out of 1,500 or so freshmen, that is significant. This year, for example, Tulane has two Presidential Scholar winners. That is the national program from the White House that identifies only two kids from each state and a handful of others (15 I think) for academic achievement. Two is the same number as Duke and Vandy, and two more than Emory.</p>
<p>So yes, this program does work. It is intelligent strategy. It’s kind of funny, really. All these schools have business majors that teach strategy and marketing. Tulane actually uses it in a manner consistent with what students are taught, and they get slammed for it. You would suggest they should be a slave to the statistics? They didn’t invent the stats, why should that guide their behavior? It is a ridiculous notion. Besides, do you know what percentage of the USNWR ranking that stat is worth? 1%. Sure, let’s spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to pump up a stat that is so meaningless in any context. Does it make them look more selective? Ok sure, it does. But, to me at least, not as much as the amount it raises the academic profile of the class, giving them average test scores and the like that places them in the top 30 in the country. That is what their goal is and that is what they are achieving.</p>
<p>I think regarding the essay, you and I are quibbling over semantics. Here is what they say on the app, as far as I can see:</p>
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I think this is exactly what I said earlier. If what I am seeing online is somehow wrong, then it is. But that is the best information I have, and it says 2010-2011. However, I see very little difference between this and schools that give a prompt and ask for 500 words or so.</p>