<p>D was accepted off the deferred list today - so thrilled for her!!</p>
<p>Love the pic, FC! My D was accepted EA with distinguished scholar scholarship. She has since been accepted to Georgia Tech (Ivan Allen Liberal Arts) instate and UNC Chapel Hill. She has visited all three schools and will do admitted students overnight including Tulane honors next month. I am encouraging her to keep a journal of her visits. GT is her third choice, but she is a very Conscientious child and is worried about the money. .Tulane is not out of reach with this scholarship, but GT is so much less. She will likely major in english/Spanish/Econ/international relations and will spend time abroad. Your sage thoughts? </p>
<p>As a former Intermational Relations and Spanish major and a parent of a current student, I have followed the relevant departments closely and can tell you that the great variety of interesting courses across disciplines makes for an excellent education. Anything to do with Latin America at Tulane is well respected for grad schools and in general. I highly recommend Junior Year Abroad in Spain in order to perfect her Spanish. Congrats on her acceptances to three excellent, but quite different schools. In this case, with these particular interests, Tulane should be very appealing from an academic standpoint.</p>
<p>Well, she certainly has good choices, both from a quality perspective and financially. Not sure how sage my thoughts are, but I did spend 3 years at GT after Tulane, and taught some chem courses there. I also took a couple of English courses there for fun, because I always have had a strong interest in literature. I never did get back a book about Faulkner I loaned the prof of one of my courses! So while my direct info is old and I haven’t followed GT that closely since, I think I do have a general feel for what your D is comparing.</p>
<p>So first, finances of course play a huge role in the decision. Are you applying for need-based aid at Tulane? Because if you are, the gap might close some. It is not uncommon for students that are already getting merit money to get more “free” money via grants. It just depends on your individual situation, of course, but if that’s the case then the difference might lessen. Just a long way of saying maybe the whole picture hasn’t developed yet.</p>
<p>That being said, Tulane and UNC will have stronger programs in the areas in which she is planning to major. Tulane is very strong in Spanish, Econ, and IR and my D was generally very pleased with the English department (one of her two majors). The department seems to be especially strong in poetry, which was not her area of focus, but has many excellent profs in various academic pursuits. The Latin American Studies Department is widely considered one of the best in the country. Econ is not quite at that level, but it has also been an extremely solid department for decades, especially in the area of Latin America.</p>
<p>Which is all my way of saying that if you feel it is affordable, Tulane is probably a stronger choice for her intended areas of study. GT is still much more of an engineering/science school, even though they have beefed up some of the other departments in the last couple of decades. Tulane is much more dedicated to the traditional liberal arts. I can’t comment much about UNC-CH for the specifics, but given its reputation in general I would imagine it is very comparable to Tulane in these areas, probably slightly stronger in one or two and maybe not quite as strong in the others. At the undergrad level these shades of comparison are pretty meaningless. She would get a fine education at either, and for that matter at GT as well.</p>
<p>If she were for sure going on to grad school it would also make less difference, IMO. But that is often not the case for people with these majors. So a BA might be her terminal degree. So of course she wants to be at whichever school fits her best regardless of money, in theory. Balancing that prospect against affordability is one of the hardest calls there is to make. It is equally hard to generalize about, she and the rest of the family will have to look at the final packages and decide how to balance the factors. Not fun, I know. Once she is done with school and has a job, she wouldn’t want burdensome debt. Even better would be to have the funds to help her get started comfortably. But no one has a crystal ball to know exactly what her situation will be. I’ve seen students get so caught up in subjects that they go on to get Ph.D.'s and teach, which is the last thing they would have predicted going into college. Who knows what her situation will be in 4-5 years.</p>
<p>I have no idea if this was of much help. Kind of rambling, I think. But hopefully it provides a bit of a framework in which to consider the choices. Once she and you have all the info, including her last visit to Tulane, perhaps it will become clearer. If not, come on back and maybe something will spark that can make the decision easier.</p>
<p>Very helpful! Of course my husband (a GT grad) focused on the line “at the undergrad level, these shades of comparison are pretty meaningless”! We will apply for aid, but not hoping for much, although we will have two kids in college.</p>
<p>Since your H focused on that line, perhaps I should make sure my meaning is clear. In general, it is my contention that, assuming that a given major is offered, that all the schools that are in the top 100-150 of the USNWR ranking (and I use that only as a convenient reference, not as an endorsement of the ranking farce they perpetuate) can provide a good education with, for the most part, quite competent professors. Generally speaking, undergraduates have to fulfill a number of requirements outside their major and of course many choose to explore other subjects anyway. That means that only between 25-33% of the courses they will take will be in their major, unless they are engineers or architects. Then when you consider that they won’t start taking upper level courses in that major until junior year usually, most schools will have enough choices of topics to satisfy most undergrads.</p>
<p>Put another way, does it really make much difference at the undergrad level if Tulane is considered “better” for poli sci than UNC-CH, or that UNC-CH has a better reputation for their English department than Tulane (and I just pulled those out of thin air, I have no idea how they are viewed by some mythical “they say”), as long as they both have lots of courses to choose from? Because you know all these schools have profs that are knowledgeable. Grad school is an entirely different situation where students tend to get very specialized. So unless an undergrad is very advanced and knows they want to specialize in some area within that major that a prof at one school teaches and no one at the other school does, then either school will provide a strong education in history and overall. Say, for example, an undergraduate student came in freshman year wanting to specifically study the history of Brazil, and Tulane had a prof that researched that topic and UNC-CH didn’t. Then of course they would choose Tulane. But that would be most unusual. In your D’s particular case, she has to decide if GT has strong enough course offerings in the subjects she is considering, including offering courses on a frequent basis and not just listing it in the catalog but only offering it once every three years. This can be especially true of upper level courses. If a school doesn’t pass this test, then that is a problem, despite any cost savings. If they do pass this test, I would presume the professors are perfectly capable in their field and therefore the education they would receive would be similar at all three schools, especially since their peer students at all three schools are of similar academic quality.</p>
<p>That is another important factor, to me actually more important than the supposed reputation of the departments. Having your fellow classmates be as smart or smarter than you on the whole generally makes for a better academic experience, IMO. But I didn’t bring that up in this case because as I said, here were are dealing with three schools that are fairly similar in this regard.</p>
<p>So if you accept these premises and the schools are found to have adequate offerings in the intended fields of study, then which school a student attends really does boil down to fit. Are they OK with large class sizes if they choose school A over school B. Urban campus versus rural campus. Big time sports vs. not so much. Weather. Greek scene. The general vibe of the campus. All of that balanced against affordability. This is why one can provide general guideline on how to approach the decision, but ultimately there are so many subjective factors that only as a family can you process it all and decide what makes the most sense. It is a value proposition, and everyone places different weights on each value within the very complicated equation.</p>
<p>I wrote this in a kind of stream-of-consciousness mode. I am sure it could be tightened up but I don’t have the time right now. I can only hope it makes some sense.</p>
<p>And so much of your experience can hinge on the students you meet and become friends with. It’s almost random what can happen. That’s what happened to me back in the day (the '80’s).</p>
<p>Tulane was my daughter’s first of many acceptances - it was so exciting then, but it seems so long ago now. Hopefully we can visit over the next couple of months to help solidify the decision.</p>
<p>FYI, she is interested in history, political science, international relations, french, and hopefully participating in drama productions.</p>
<p>
@mommio - Certainly that is true, although I would contend it is somewhat not random only in the sense that your peer students are generally similar to you in academic aptitude, and that while your classmates are all very unique individuals, of course, there is the possibility that in the admitting process there is a small bias towards a certain kind of student that makes strong connections somewhat more likely. For example with Tulane, it is the strong emphasis on service. I certainly cannot prove this is a true effect, it just seems logical that it is more likely one would form strong attachments with people that have some similar interests and are, in general, your intellectual peers. But within that context there is still certainly a huge element of randomness to it all. And to be fair you did say “almost random”, so maybe that is what you had in mind.</p>
<p>I know what you mean about it seeming so long ago already when it is only 2-3 months since the acceptance came. Where else is she considering? Or is she still waiting for other decisions to arrive? I will add that all the areas you mention are considered quite good at Tulane, with some excellent profs. My D’s language in high school was French and while she majored in China Studies (also English) and so focused on learning Mandarin, she did take 3-4 French courses in order to maintain her proficiency. She seemed to enjoy them all.</p>
<p>@mommio you comment about drama productions reminded me about a casting call that came out yesterday, I bet lots of young Tulane ladies would love to get this part:
“Casting Notes: Looking for PRETTY/SEXY FEMALE, 20s, CAUCASIAN. IMPLIED NUDITY ONLY - will be in state of undress, “morning after” bedroom scene w/ actor Ryan Reynolds.”</p>
<p>FC, in addition to Tulane, she has been accepted at Rhodes, Centre, Kalamazoo, and Lewis and Clark. She is waiting on Macalester, Puget Sound and American (regular decision) but those may not come until mid to late March! The only schools we have not visited are Tulane and American.</p>
<p>I lived in Louisville for about 7 years and so met a lot of people that went to Centre. It is a very fine, small school. Not that the others aren’t, I just know more people from Centre than the others, except American. It (American) overlaps in applications with Tulane a fair amount, and of course is popular in the area of International Relations.</p>
<p>Got the acceptance notice in the mail today. It had no real info that wasn’t on Gibson. Looks like the majority of info will come when we get the invite to the admitted students website.
Questions: if D had received any money (not expecting any, but then, weren’t really expecting the acceptance in general so…) would it have been mentioned in the letter?
Also, there is a brief mention of campus visits, which we want to do. Something called Destination Tulane. Can’t figure out this is just for admitted students or if there are special days just for those students. Anyone been to one to these and has some info? We’ve never been to campus before and D has never been to NOLA.</p>
<p>You are correct that if he had been awarded any merit money, it would have been in that paper letter.</p>
<p>Destination Tulane is for those students that have been accepted but have not yet made up their minds as to where they will attend school. Here is a description and the dates (about halfway down the page): <a href=“http://admission.tulane.edu/visit/specialprograms.php”>http://admission.tulane.edu/visit/specialprograms.php</a></p>
<p>Best of luck with making this decision. If we can help you plan the trip, many of us on here are happy to provide input.</p>
<p>After initially being deferred (EA), my son was admitted as a ‘Distinguished Scholar’ with a (generous) $25K/year merit scholarship.</p>
<p>Some stats:
GPA: 3.5 (at a competitive private high school, the type of place that appears in the Forbes, etc. national rankings)
SAT’s: 2340
SAT II’s: 780, 800
EC’s: stronger on community service than anything else, no real ‘leadership’ stuff
Essays: Did complete the 'Why Tulane" essay</p>
<p>Comments: He was discouraged after initially getting deferred, but now is “floored” and grateful/humbled. Tulane is now definitely on the radar, after having fallen off post-deferral. . . Also, a tip of the hat to Calmom3 with a daughter at Tulane who told us to keep the faith after being deferred.</p>
<p>Question: He (and my wife who loves NOLA) will definitely be visiting. They can likely make the first of the two 'Top Scholars" weekend. Are they best off going that weekend or should they just shoot for one of the ‘Destination Tulane’ days or just some random day?</p>
<p>I’m glad it turned out well for you and your son. That’s a nice scholarship for someone who was deferred. I wonder what the deferral was all about. He definitely has the scores and he did the essay.</p>
<p>It is always hard to know why deferrals occur in any one case… Clearly those test scores are extremely high, so maybe at first blush Tulane thought this student would be more likely to go elsewhere. Or maybe it wasn’t that at all, and Tulane thought they needed to see how the overall class was shaping up relative to this student’s particular resume. One can speculate forever, because it is about much more than stats. So without seeing this student’s entire file and knowing what is happening with that year’s potential class, I am afraid it is just so much talk to guess as to why. But at least it is really good news in this case!</p>
<p>@AsleepAtTheWheel - That really is extremely great news. Kudos to your son. The scholarship and invitation to the Honors Program must be very pleasing to all. Personally I would strongly recommend Top Scholars Weekend over a Destination Tulane visit or a random day. The TSW is more involved and will focus at least some on opportunities that are more likely to be particularly interesting to accomplished academics like your son. In other words, it will have everything DT has as part of its program plus more, including the overnight stay.</p>
<p>Thanks. We figured that the initial deferral was a lack of ‘demonstrated interest’ (which really wasn’t the case) and the fact that Tulane might have thought that he considered the school just a safety (also not the case). I don’t envy these admissions folks, given the task with which they’re charged. We were hoping that it would work out, but were ready to move on if it didn’t. I think feeling that one “deserves” admission to any specific school is nothing short of (obnoxious) arrogance. As a few acceptances have trickled in, my son feels gratitude more than anything else. He’s thrilled (and complimented) that he’s (as he sees it) wanted.</p>
<p>I figured that the Top Scholars weekend was the better bet, but was looking for some reassurance. Thanks again. I’m sure that we’ll have more questions as the process evolves. </p>
<p>thanks.</p>
<p>Accepted after a deferral:</p>
<p>SAT- 2310
GPA- 3.52 UW, 4.46 W
Rank- we don’t rank, but right around the 90th percentile
SATII- 790 Spanish, 750 Math II
White male from full-pay family, though I have applied for Paul Tulane
Everything else should have been solid to very good</p>
<p>Also Accepted To: Alabama, Oklahoma, Baylor, Kentucky
Rejected By: Duke
Still Considering: Vanderbilt, Richmond, Penn, Bucknell, Miami, Drexel, South Carolina, Davidson</p>
<p>Nice list. Penn is probably a real long shot but everywhere else seems quite attainable. I guess you didn’t apply to Miami EA?</p>
<p>So just out of curiosity, if you get the Paul Tulane, would you choose Tulane over Vandy or Penn (if you did happen to get in), or is that not really a deciding factor since you are a full pay family?</p>