January 23, 2015
Dear Tulane Community:
A world-class faculty alone does not guarantee the success of a university's educational mission. A student's peers—diverse, intelligent classmates with whom to study, discover, socialize and live—also play a vital role.
That is why selecting the members of each incoming class is one of Tulane's most important undertakings. Just a few months ago, I welcomed my first freshman class to Tulane. Now, that first-year class is well into its second semester and a brand new class that we will welcome to campus this fall is starting to take shape. So far, we like what we see.
The average SAT score for those few students who have qualified to be admitted to Tulane out of the more than 26,000 who applied is 1383. That's almost 10 points higher than the last two first-year classes. This shows that Tulane continues to attract the nation's most academically qualified and motivated students. In fact, nearly 72 percent of the new class will graduate in the top 10 percent of their high schools.
Tulane's reputation as a truly national university is also reflected in the 2015 incoming class. Almost 60 percent of our new class hails from six states including New York, California, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Louisiana. Our nationwide network rivals AT&T's!
And for the first time in Tulane's history, California is producing more new Tulanians that any other state, surpassing even our longtime mainstay New York. (I will have to step up my recruiting efforts to get my old home state of Pennsylvania in the top six!)
The diversity of Tulane will also grow through the new class. More than half of the class will be female and nearly 19 percent will be students of color, including members of this year's Posse and students recruited through College Track.
The Office of Admission will continue to process deposits and build the class throughout the semester. The numbers may fluctuate a bit, but by any measure our new class promises to be one of our best ever.
I can't wait to meet them face-to-face.
