<p>fallenchemist…it’s just a little disheartening to know that Tulane was one of the schools that really seemed to want her sending waived application fee and emailing her daily. She got into 11 highly competitive schools already, all will be lucky to have her so we aren’t heartbroken, just a bit baffled. Everything in life is meant to be. I guess this wasn’t. Good luck to you and all the candidates! Best wishes!</p>
<p>One more question…do they send out letters or do you just have to keep checking your status of admission on their portal?</p>
<p>Just a point because i keep seeing comments about Tulane waiving application fee- Tulane DOES NOT HAVE an application fee. It is free to apply for everyone. </p>
<p>Hahaha, then why do they write Waived Application Fee? That’s too funny.They should just say No Application Fee!</p>
<p>It’s probably something that comes from whatever marketing company they use. Another “lure” to get top students who may not have other wise considered applying to Tulane to submit an application. It’s pretty effective since I’ve seen many people mention that in their reasoning…</p>
<p>Well, they just waived it for everyone, lol. Marketingspeak. I agree it is rather silly, but again really common. But apparently it, along with the rest of the package including the emails, does get students to apply that otherwise wouldn’t. And those of us that have been on this forum for some time can tell you there are literally hundreds of very happy Tulane students currently attending (and dozens if not hundreds more that will be attending this fall) that have said they never would have applied without Tulane sending them the easy application, the reminder emails, etc. The downside of all this, as was discussed earlier, is that there are always some students that get excited about Tulane because of the literature, etc. and then don’t get in. I could reiterate the facts that all Tulane (and other schools do this, certainly) is doing is identifying students that appear to be candidates based on a few stats. It isn’t going to turn out positively every time, but that is little consolation to that excited student. But at least in your case, as you point out, there are about a dozen other high quality options. That is absolutely outstanding. Assuming Tulane is not going to work out, does she have a favorite of the remaining schools?</p>
<p>Oh, and to answer your question, I don’t know if Tulane still sends paper denial letters or not. Certainly continuing to check Gibson once a day or every other day is the best way to go.</p>
<p>Have no application fee, get hundreds of safety and “what the heck” applications from students with no real desire for Tulane, rightfully decline those applications, reduce your admission percentage, which leads to higher rankings. Am I being cynical?</p>
<p>The only thing that bothers me about this is that often the scholarships including DHS and PT are given to students who probably aren’t going to choose Tulane and other very qualified applicants that have Tulane as 1st choice aren’t given scholarships and there fore can’t afford to attend. I see the listings of the scholarships awarded to kids in my sons graduating class and it makes me ill. They have a thing at his schools (probably common everywhere) where thy all apply to many colleges to their “list” in the graduation booklet is long and impressive with all the scholarships they are offered. But then I think, that’s taking away scholarships from students who may have really needed them. Half the schools these kids apply to they have no intention of attending. One girl was accepted to 15 schools and has a list of scholarships longer than my grocery list. And she will tell you she only ever planned on attending a local school here in town. She just wanted her list to be big. </p>
<p>Do these scholarships then ever get re-granted to kids who really will be attending, or would if they got money? Or do they just go “away”? Does anyone know?
I’m wondering the same about the Tuition Exchange. Got a letter from another school telling us way back in February that D didn’t get it, but that means they had to have awarded it to at least a few kids that will go somewhere else, so we wouldn’t mind taking someone’s rejects. :-)</p>
<p>@myjanda - The DHS and PTA awards are not re-granted. It is built into the calculations that about half the kids getting the scholarship will attend elsewhere, so they end up close to the budget they have. If Tulane changed to a re-granting system, they would simply award half as many until they were all being used. But that is just a theoretical construct. The nature of the awards are such that I don’t see that happening, or for that matter being in the spirit of those awards.</p>
<p>But the Presidential and lower merit awards are a bit different I think. They are the same in that they are not “re-granted” per se, and there is a budget for that kind of scholarship money as well, of course, But it is my understanding that if, towards the end of the cycle, it looks like they have money remaining in that pool, they will give consideration to raising some awards. I don’t know how much that happens any more; Tulane is so popular these days I don’t think that has been happening as often as it used to. But that is my understanding of how that has been handled in the past.</p>
<p>Tuition Exchange I know nothing about, other than it exists.</p>
<p>
Perhaps a bit. In the USNWR rankings (no I won’t get on my soapbox about the travesty of the ranking schemes) admission percentage only counts for 1.5%. So even a change of a few percentage points in the admissions rate, or even more than a few percentage points, won’t really move the needle on a school’s ranking.</p>
<p>@dolphnlvr6 - This whole topic of merit based awards is, as I am sure you know quite well, a highly debated topic in higher ed. Many believe they should disappear completely and all the money go into need-based awards. Anecdotes like you relate certainly give those calling for change more ammunition, I suppose. Personally I disagree. There should be tangible reward for merit, but I also know that is very easy for me to say given our experiences as a family. So I won’t take any further position on it, but I will point out what is probably obvious to most that have been following this forum for a while: Tulane has been very successful using merit scholarships, even generous merit scholarships compared to almost any other school out there as has been documented, to attract a more socially conscious and more academically oriented student body than at any time in their history.</p>
<p>Given what we know about not only how much Tulane students give back while they are at Tulane but afterwards through The Peace Corps and various other highly committed organizations, it would be interesting to try and quantify the investment made through merit scholarships and the return through these kinds of activities. I know that is almost impossible and the correlation between those things is debatable, but it is an argument that could be made.</p>
<p>Wanted to stop in in this forum to say thank you to @fallenchemist for all of his great info and support. My D has pretty much come to the end of the college app process as she decided to enroll at UMiami for the fall. </p>
<p>She loved Tulane and they were quite generous with merit, thus it was in her top 3 of the 8 schools she has been accepted to. However, she was focused on the Digital Design major at Tulane which our local rep led us to believe would be changing to more of a daytime major. Apparently that is not the case as I placed a call to confirm with the department head who flat out said, “Nothing is changing” in regard to that major. She wasn’t interested in an evening based major and without a fall back major that she could see herself happily in, Tulane fell behind others. I think the 2 years of a core curriculum put her off a little as well. </p>
<p>Great school and city, just wasn’t the right fit for my D. Congrats to all whose kids are going! So glad this process is over for her but now I’m on to the next kid!</p>
<p>Congrats on her decision, @NYMom3Kids. The vast majority of the time students end up at the right place for them, I think. I am sure she will do very well at Miami.</p>
<p>Waitlisted</p>
<p>*ACT: 35
*Unweighted GPA: 4.0
*Rank: 4/169
*Course load: very challenging (2 AP, 25 hours dual credit total)
*Essay: good, not great (just copied and pasted my common app essay)
*Recommendations: didn’t read, but most likely excellent
*ECs: band, theatre, scholar bowl, newspaper, mock trial, school ambassador, honor societies, etc. Several leadership roles and awards. A couple of part time jobs. 100 hours community service work (required by school). Summer programs: state-sponsored academic camp sophomore year, Boys State junior year
*Awards: National Merit Finalist, Yale Book Award, lots of school awards for various things
*No interview
*Major: undecided
*State: MO
*School: private, Catholic, nationally recognized but not super-elite
*Ethnicity: White
*Gender: Male
*Income: parents are divorced but ~$120000 total</p>
<p>I think it was due to not showing enough interest. As I mentioned above, I didn’t write the “Why Tulane” essay or anything specific to this application. I’m slightly disappointed because I did like Tulane a lot when I visited, but since I’ve been admitted to WUSTL with scholarships and grants for the full cost of attendance, I’m certainly not heartbroken. Still waiting on Duke and Vanderbilt decisions this week. Congratulations to everyone who has been admitted; it’s a great school in an amazing city and I’m sure you’ll love it!</p>
<p>Rejected );</p>
<p>@tonybill95 - Not to be presumptuous, but unless you get similar financial offers from Duke and/or Vandy, I hope you are picking WUSTL. Even if it is in your hometown, possibly (I see you are from MO, so just guessing). That is really great that you are in such an excellent school with generous money. And you are right about why Tulane wouldn’t have really shown interest in you. You are kind of the “poster student” of those that are kind of interested in Tulane but likely to pick somewhere else. At least you visited. So you got a nice trip to NOLA out of the deal. Best of luck.</p>
<p>@135pipe - Sorry, I know it is disappointing. I am sure you have someplace lined up though.</p>
<p>Yes university of Florida and penn state. Ranked higher than Tulane but Tulane med school and university I just love them, and it’s in New Orleans!!!</p>
<p>@fallenchemist I do know that I’m extremely fortunate to have such an opportunity, so yes, I’m very likely going to accept the offer from WUSTL. And since you expressed some concern, I have no qualms about staying close to home. Although it may not be quite as cool as NOLA, I love St. Louis!</p>
<p>@tonybill95 - you don’t have to convince me, I am St. Louis born and raised. Went to Horton Watkins (Ladue). I love St. Louis as well. It is a great city in many ways. Not a tourist draw type city like New Orleans, San Fran and a number of others, but a great place to live.</p>