Has anyone won Paul Tulane yet?

fallenchemist
Fri, 01 Feb 2013 08:51:27 +0000

I think it is very hard to predict this year. In the past when it was only the DHS and given the criteria that was being used then, I would have said your chances were pretty close to zero. The DHS was always awarded to students that had won either the Presidential scholarship ($27K this year) and sometimes the Distinguished Scholar Award ($25K this year). If there ever was a case of a Founders Award recipient getting one ($22K this year), it was highly exceptional. You are a merit award level below that. Also, the criteria outlined for the DHS is that the SAT scores should be 2250+.

However, some things seem to have changed this year. First, there are a lot more awards, since this is the initial year for the Paul Tulane and so that is 50 more full tuition scholarships than before. Second, there were no published criteria for the PTA. I have speculated before that it would seem likely the academic criteria would be similar, but Tulane may choose to use the award to attract candidates that are strong academically (obviously you are an excellent student, and don’t mean to imply otherwise) even if they don’t have “Ivy type” of stats, but that also display other characteristics that they feel put them in the highest strata for those qualities. Leadership, perseverance, creativity, etc. Who knows? Only Tulane. And there is nothing wrong with that. Merit is an inherently ambiguous term, we just always assume it means purely academic merit.

So that is all a long way of saying that no one here can really know how it will all turn out this year. I have an opinion, but I have no real basis for it so there is no sense in relating it. I wish you the best of luck, and can only advise that you try not to obsess about it. It is really hard, I know. Frankly if I were in your shoes I am sure I would be. But it does no good, so hopefully you can stay busy and not think about it too much. Also, hopefully, you have another school that you can afford that you feel is a great choice as well.