Thank you FriendofMax for your kind words. It has taken me this long to construct a reply to your question. In the interim, my daughter has successfully transferred from Tulane to an Ivy school. She completed her Freshman year with a 4.0 average and 39 credit hours. She worked hard under a lot of adversity and we couldn’t be more proud. She will miss New Orleans terribly, and as parents we truly enjoyed the growth that she experienced in being a “city girl” for a year. About the “tiered system”: here is our experience: My daughter was named as a member of the Honors College at Tulane. Aside from allowing her to take courses designated as Honors, she found little of value in that designation. So she applied for the select programs. She was not granted an interview for Tulane Scholars. She was interviewed by the Newcomb Scholars but was not offered membership. She daily worked with the Scholars in various Honors classes, but was not one of them. Essentially, they were getting an entirely different (and I think better) education than my daughter although she clearly was academically their equal. There was most definitely an insider/outsider feeling among the best students. We just couldn’t understand why she couldn’t get anywhere based on merit - there was always a sorority-like “you’re in, you’re not” selection process. My daughter is also not a party girl. She is not inclined towards Greek life and what that means at Tulane. She experienced an entirely different sense of otherness because of the emphasis on the party culture on campus. She was assigned to room with a young lady who was on academic probation and regularly stayed out at night and skipped classes to sleep during the day. She experienced “otherness” almost everywhere she turned. She applied to an Honors Fraternity and was not offered membership. I do not wish to lead anyone to believe that my daughter is socially awkward - quite the opposite is true. There is just a system of choosing between people at Tulane that she could not understand. We are not wealthy - we are public school teachers, but we are also not poor. My daughter is friendly, well-dressed, polite, funny, talented and smart. She just couldn’t get a break at Tulane. This was emotionally very difficult for our entire family. That said, the true reason for her transfer had more to do with her major course of study. I still think that Tulane is a wonderful school if a student wants to study medicine, public health, architecture, business, etc. My daughter’s major fell under the Liberal Arts umbrella. Far too many times courses in her major were taught by professors from other departments who were “forced” to teach these classes outside of their field of study. Several of them expressed their displeasure at having to teach these courses. Ultimately, we thought and she thought she could do better. It was sad for all of us because it just was not what we expected. I would be remiss if I did not say how welcoming and nurturing the Music Department was for my daughter - it was a friendly haven on campus. Onward!