Admitted as Spring Scholar to Tulane.
Anyone have any actual experience doing the same? Looking for pros/cons.
Do most people who enroll as this do a study abroad in the fall?
I know a lot of people who were spring scholars. Generally you spend your fall semester studying in Rome and then move into the dorms before spring semester starts. Super common. Everyone I know who did it had a lot of fun. Tulane has deferred rush for Greek life so you don’t miss out on anything.
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What is the typical gpa of kids who ED but get spring scholars?
Any spring scholars out there? My son was admitted spring scholars last night.
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My daughter heard that spring scholars are often placed in dorms with sophomores, where there might be an empty bed. So they aren’t put in the freshman dorms when they start in January. Doesn’t this make it hard to make friends?
I don’t know the answer to that but there is a spring scholars Facebook group and the spring scholar administrator runs it. She may be able to answer that.
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My daughter did this program and I think it ruined her college experience. Be sure you compare the Hullaballoo Hello orientation Fall admits get versus what Spring Scholars get. She showed up and moved into a Sophomore dorm and wasn’t even greeted by her RA. Tulane is a tough social experience if you are not Jewish to begin with the Spring Scholar thing made it harder.
Most estimates of the Jewish population at Tulane are ~40%. While that might be a higher % than at many schools across the country it still means that 60% that are not Jewish. In any case, unless someone is anti-Semitic (I’m not suggesting you are), what relevance does someone being Jewish play into your ability to befriend and interact with them?
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Remember also students who didn’t get in, or who are considering Tulane: there is the IDT (interdivisional transfer) from the Tulane School of Professional Advancement to NTC with fulfilling the 6 core requirements:
Foreign Language
Math
Science
English (English 1010 compulsory)
Social Science
Humanities
With a C (or C-) or better
At least two (2) semesters in SoPA (School of Professional Advancement)
At least 18 Tulane credits
Upon completion of such, you will require a deans letter of approval from SoPA, just like going from NTC to SoPA, and you will have completed IDT to becoming a full fledged Tulanian!
Google: Tulane interdivisional transfer, it’ll show up under the School of Professional Advancement.
Perfect way to circumvent the normal freshman undergraduate route if you have a year or three of a break from school, and last I saw, you need a 2.0 GPA to get in, send in your transcripts (if you have any), have a high school diploma or GED, and be in good standing where you were previously if you were someone else previously. Not necessarily the 1-3 years break from school. Also, you don’t need to break from school, all you have to do is go into the SoPA and work on the transfer process.
They only know what you tell them. 
This is the link to the proof: https://sopa.tulane.edu/student-information/policies/general-policies
and its TOTALLY okay to circumvent the normal admission route, AND you don’t need to take a gap year or anything!
Good luck everyone, especially if you’re financially hurting, SoPA may be the PERFECT way to start!
Any of your friends and family that didn’t get into Tulane via the normal undergraduate application route can easily join you thru SoPA, and don’t worry, it’s a totally viable option, plus, you have proof from the link ^^ that the IDT, the TRUE backdoor into Tulane exists. Don’t worry about your image of “oh, what about those who worked hard to get in the normal way?”. Well, are they helping you get in?
Good luck!
What you said goes both ways. Some specific examples I know of are the there was a Tulane parents Facebook page. The Jewish parents started their own page and now don’t communicate with other parents. Keep in mind this is 50% of the population of Tulane. They hired a plane to fly the Israeli flag over the graduation ceremony. This was a ceremony where many kids from many different backgrounds. Imagine how the muslim students felt given the hardworking and money they had spent to earn that degree.
The Jewish specific Facebook group has 1K members, the Tulane Parents group has 8.7K members. MANY of the parents that post to the generic “parents” page are Jewish.
When you say “They hired a plane”? Who specifically is “They”? It could have been a single person. Heck, it could have a non-Jewish person that hired it in an attempt to cause friction. I’m not saying I know what/who it was but your suggestion is that a thousand parents contributed to hiring a plane. FWIW - not that it should matter - but my household is neither Jewish nor Muslim.
Unfortunately the actions of the few often get attributed to the many.
Fortunately future graduations are moving back to the Superdome where there will be a roof between the ceremony and any airplanes.
It was understood that the Facebook page was the source of the plane. I’m sure Tulane did a thorough investigation…
If it matters… and at the end of the day it’s public airspace and anyone could have flown just about anything they wanted without any fear of repercussion from the University.
We’ve strayed a bit from the original question/intent of the thread however. Happy to create a new thread to discuss or take it to direct message if you want to continue.
I truly am sorry that your daughter did not have the college experience she envisioned.
My point was Tulane is tough socially if you are not a member of the predominant very cliquey exclusionary culture. Spring Scholars makes that more difficult. You implied non-jewish kids did not want to befriend Jewish kids when in fact quite the opposite is true. The Facebook group and plane are concrete examples of actively excluding member of the Tulane community.
My point was also that Tulane is a school of 8K students. Even at a 50% Jewish ratio that would leave 4K students NOT Jewish.
What was your experience, as a parent of a Tulane Spring Scholar, or as a student who was a Spring Scholar? How did you spend your fall before your first Spring Semester at Tulane? Your experience, “roses and thorns”, if you chose a study abroad location (Rome, London, Paris, Barcelona, or Sydney)?
Moved the post to an existing thread on the topic.
My student was not a Spring Scholar but can relay from from the Parents Facebook group and posts on this site that the experiences are mixed and seem to depend on the applicant/student.
The normal Fall Start Freshman Hullabaloo Hello week of orientation is missed for the SS’s. When Springtime comes they get room assignments based on where there’s an opening to slot them. Some friend groups are already formed but at a college of 8K students this shouldn’t be that much of an issue unless the student is very introverted. They should make friends in their cohort if they choose to go abroad.
For students that Tulane is by far their #1 choice - it provides a path to admissions that they might not otherwise get. Some absolutely take advantage of the study abroad but could also simply take a gap semester - earn some spending money for school. The study abroad programs generally get a thumbs up from what I see but it’s going to depend on the student. I know my son would NOT have thrived going abroad their first semester from HS - so a lot is specific to your situation.
Me and my husband are both graduates of Tulane and our child was admitted as a Spring Scholar. I think 80% of the admits were either legacies and/or sibling as this seems to be Tulane’s way of manipulating admission statistics.
I would not recommend the program. Our child went to Rome and it was basically nothing more than a waste of time. The classes were a joke and now they are stuck having to take Summer school every Summer to try to graduate in four years, something the university was not honest about. When they started in the Spring there was zero orientation. Rush was miserable because Fall semester is dirty rush when most of the greek organizations choose their pledges. They do not have one friend who was in their Rome cohort so the notion that that will form social connections is false. My child is very out going and friendly and has managed to find their way but if asked they would have chosen another school if they knew then what they know now.
We will not let our younger two children even consider Tulane given they are legacies and regardless of their qualifications will probably be relegated to the awful Spring Scholars program. Our first child’s experience has ended any philanthropic relationship we had with the school.
Spring scholars don’t calculate into their reported admission statistics.
Sorry your student had such a poor experience.
Exactly. They don’t have into count them, so they don’t have to admit the actual number of connected students they admit.