Tulane University

Tulane University is a private, residential, research university in New Orleans, Louisiana with about 6800 full-time undergraduates from all over the country and the world. The location in a big city, known for great food, night life, jazz music and interesting architecture is big draw, especially since the school has a campus. A big campus tradition is throwing your Mardi Gras beads on this tree in the academic quad.

One distinguishing factor is Tulane’s focus on community service. Tulane has public service graduation requirements including:

·    One service learning course no later than the fifth semester 

• Participation (as a Sophomore or higher) in one of the following:
• Service learning course
• Academic service learning internship
• Faculty-sponsored public service research project
• Public service honors thesis project
• Public service-based international study abroad program
• Capstone experience with public service component.

A second distinguishing factor is that students do not apply to a particular school or major within Tulane University and they can take classes in any of Tulane’s colleges.

According to Tulane's website "applications to Tulane have increased more than 65 percent over the past five years, with 41,365 applications arriving this year. The university's selectivity rate, the number of students who apply versus the number of students who are accepted, also improved to just over 13 percent – matching or surpassing some of the nation’s top schools."