Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 56.76
Liaison Liz Davey
Submission Date Oct. 13, 2015
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

Tulane University
PA-8: Affordability and Access

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.35 / 4.00 Liz Davey
Director
Office of Sustainability
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Does the institution have policies and programs in place to make it accessible and affordable to low-income students?:
Yes

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A brief description of any policies and programs to minimize the cost of attendance for low-income students:
Posse Program-- In the summer of 2008, Tulane partnered with the Posse Foundation to increase the diversity and quality of its undergraduate student body. Posse Scholars get full scholarships to partner universities and enter an intensive eight-month college preparatory program to prepare for the rigors of academia. When the posse gets to campus, they are assigned a university mentor who meets with them as a team each week and with individual scholars every two weeks during their first two years. The Urban League College Track Program - Tulane has an arrangement with the Program to accept low-income New Orleans students.

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A brief description of any programs to equip the institution’s faculty and staff to better serve students from low-income backgrounds:
The Center for Engaged Learning and Teaching offers workshops and resources about teaching, engaged learning, and related subjects to aid faculty in developing their teaching, including resources for incorporating diversity in the classroom. See http://tulane.edu/celt/classroom.cfm

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A brief description of any programs to prepare students from low-income backgrounds for higher education:
The Posse Foundation rewards public high school students with extraordinary academic and leadership potential by giving them the opportunity to attend elite colleges and universities in multicultural teams called posses. The organization believes sending a group of students to college together allows them to serve as a support system for one another. The Urban League College Track Program - Urban League College Track (ULCT) is a college preparatory and success program that helps traditionally under-served students from under-resourced communities graduate from high school and succeed in college.

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A brief description of the institution's scholarships for low-income students:
Tulane University offers a variety of scholarship programs that are specifically designated for assisting low-income students. Tulane’s most prominent and generous scholarship program is the university’s participation with the POSSE Foundation to establish 20 full tuition and fee scholarships each year for incoming students from the inner-cities of Los Angeles and New Orleans. Not only does Tulane provide the aforementioned scholarship support, but also establishes on-campus faculty mentors to each POSSE cohort to assist with their academic success. Tulane has recently also partnered with the Stamps Foundation to offer full cost of attendance scholarships which for exceptionally strong academic students, of which low-income students are included in the selection process. For several years now Tulane has offered qualifying students whose families report adjusted gross incomes of less than $75,000 that no loans will be used to cover the costs of tuition, fees, books, and travel expenses. This NOLA (No Loan Assistance) program is dedicated to students from low-incomes. Tulane also participates in the College Track and Raise.Me scholarship programs that allow low-income students opportunities to not only receive scholarship funding directly from Tulane but to also earn supplemental awards towards incidental college expenses.

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A brief description of any programs to guide parents of low-income students through the higher education experience:
We don’t specifically have any programs to guide low income families through the college application process, although our counselors do participate in numerous high school panels at various College Nights across the country. Those panels typically cover applying for financial aid and affording college.

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A brief description of any targeted outreach to recruit students from low-income backgrounds:
Tulane signed a partnership agreement with the Posse Foundation to help further increase the diversity and quality of its undergraduate student body. The foundation works with 33 colleges and universities across the country and high schools in six major cities: Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. We also are partners with College Track. College Track recruits students from underserved communities and works continuously with them from the summer before 9th grade through college graduation. Tulane selects an incoming freshman cohort of 5 students, and we meet 100% of their demonstrated need and cap their loans at $25,000 over the course of their four years at Tulane. Tulane sends special communication about the aid programs at Tulane to students identified as low-income by the College Board.

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A brief description of other admissions policies or programs to make the institution accessible and affordable to low-income students:
The School of Continuing Studies became a voluntary member of SOC in order to help meet the undergraduate-level educational needs of both active-duty and retired military service members. The School of Continuing Studies has agreed to extend to service members educational opportunities that may be distinct from common institutional practices both at Tulane and many other colleges and universities. This is best characterized by The School of Continuing Studies agreeing to be flexible and recognizing the unique and sometimes limiting conditions faced by service members. This includes awarding credit through the use of CLEP and other accepted practices, and the use of the ACE Guide to the Evaluation of Educational Experiences in the Armed Services.

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A brief description of other financial aid policies or programs to make the institution accessible and affordable to low-income students:
See above.

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A brief description of other policies and programs to make the institution accessible and affordable to low-income students not covered above:
Tulane seeks to maximize financial assistance to low-income students by following a fair and equitable methodology for awarding institutional need-based funding. We adhere to federal regulations governing the awarding of the Federal Pell Grant to the neediest of students and supplement Pell recipients with available funding from the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG) program. We use an internal packaging algorithm that rewards Pell recipients with additional institutional scholarship funding when eligible. Tulane is a participant in the Veterans Administration’s Yellow Ribbon program to provide additional financial assistance to qualifying veterans and their dependents. While all veterans are not necessarily low-income, this program does provide advantages to those veterans and their families who are low-income.

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Does the institution have policies and programs in place to support non-traditional students?:
Yes

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A brief description of any scholarships provided specifically for part-time students:
The School of Continuing Studies became a voluntary member of SOC in order to help meet the undergraduate-level educational needs of both active-duty and retired military servicemembers. The School of Continuing Studies has agreed to extend to servicemembers educational opportunities that may be distinct from common institutional practices both at Tulane and many other colleges and universities. This is best characterized by The School of Continuing Studies agreeing to be flexible and recognizing the unique and sometimes limiting conditions faced by servicemembers. This includes awarding credit through the use of CLEP and other accepted practices, and the use of the ACE Guide to the Evaluation of Educational Experiences in the Armed Services.

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A brief description of any onsite child care facilities, partnerships with local facilities, and/or subsidies or financial support to help meet the child care needs of students:
Tulane has two onsite child care facilities. Kidopolis Child Development Center by Bright Horizons is located downtown in the Central Business District, and provides programs designed for children six weeks to five years of age. Newcomb Children's Center is on Tulane's uptown campus, and offers programs for children twelve months to five years of age.Childcare is available uptown and downtown. Both centers first accept children whose parents are current Tulane affiliates, i.e. full-time benefited faculty and staff, medical residents, and full-time students

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A brief description of other policies and programs to support non-traditional students:
See above.

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Does the institution wish to pursue Part 2 of this credit (accessibility and affordability indicators)?:
Yes

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Indicators that the institution is accessible and affordable to low-income students::
Percentage (0-100)
The percentage of entering students that are low-income 16
The graduation/success rate for low-income students 69
The percentage of student financial need met, on average 95
The percentage of students graduating with no interest-bearing student loan debt 55

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The percentage of students that participate in or directly benefit from the institution’s policies and programs to support low-income and non-traditional students:
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The website URL where information about the institution's affordability and access programs is available:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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