Well at least you acknowledge that they can perhaps improve their diversity. My biggest point of discontent with Tulane is their financial unfriendliness to low income folks. Obviously many families love them because they are generous with merit aid, and I think it’s great that Tulane is an excellent merit option for folks. But meeting 95% of need is falling pretty far short in the land of FA. Also, even 100%-need-met schools vary hugely in their financial friendliness. Some are ‘no loan’, some use a few loans, and some double up on loans (as Tulane did in adding an additional perkins that was almost half of the total loan amount). Net price variance from the extremely friendly likes of Princeton and Penn to other 100% schools can easily be 8-10k, or even more if the school looks hard at home equity.
i’m simply stating my opinion, which is based on the facts we’ve been talking about: Tulane is not particularly financially friendly in terms of meeting need, and that results in fewer low income people in attendance.
Now, all that being said, I don’t necessarily think Tulane is doing it wrong. They rely heavily on merit for a reason - to attract people that would alternatively choose Ivies or other elite schools. Not necessarily low income folks. Low income folks can go to the elite schools no problem, so they won’t likely be lured away by merit, even full tuition scholarships.
As for my d, she may in fact decide on Tulane. We’ll just have to wait and see. The reality is that they’re not THAT far behind the other schools, so it would be doable if she ends up loving it. And SHE has no problem with diversity there - I’m the cranky one that cares about FA :-).