Tulane University
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian university headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The university is home to colleges and schools centered around liberal arts, sciences and the professions. A common Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences serves both the men's undergraduate Tulane College and the once-separate women's Architecture
Tulane has a separate Graduate School, which offers advanced degrees in engineering, sciences, social sciences, humanities, and the fine arts. It also has a University College which serves the New Orleans community and focuses on continuing education.
Statistics
The following statistics from reflect some of the changes at Tulane between 1998 and 2004:
- Undergraduate applications received annually have more than doubled since 1998, growing from 7,780 to 17,548.
- The average SAT scores for incoming students has risen from 1278 to 1335.
- Application acceptance have lowered from 79% of applicants to 44%.
- Funding for research and development has nearly doubled, from $68 million to $130 million.
- The National Institutes of Health funding ranking has risen from 96 to 78.
Campuses
The main campus is over 100 acres (0.4 km²) in uptown New Orleans, near the Audubon Zoo and just a streetcar ride away from downtown. Other locations include:
- the F. Edward Hebert Research Center, near Belle Chasse, Louisiana, which provides facilities for graduate training and research in computer science, bioengineering, and biology;
- Tulane National Primate Research Center in Covington, Louisiana, one of eight such centers funded by the National Institutes of Health;
- Tulane University Health Sciences Center, located in downtown New Orleans, which houses the School of Medicine and the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine;
- the satellite campuses of University College, Tulane's open admissions college, which are located in downtown New Orleans and in Biloxi, Mississippi;
- Houston, Texas, where the business school offers an executive MBA program.
History
The University was founded in 1834 as the Medical College of Louisiana. With the addition of law and general colleges, it was renamed The University of Louisiana in 1847, and was a public university. It closed during the American Civil War; after reopening, it went through a period of financial challenges, until going private and receiving a major donation of land from philanthopist Paul Tulane. Once private, the university was renamed in his honor.
The student-run radio station of the university, WTUL-FM, began broadcasting on campus in 1971.
In July 2004, Tulane was the recipient of two $30 million donations to its endowment, the largest individual or combined gifts in the university's history. The donations came from Jim Clark, a member of the university's Board, and David Filo, a graduate of its School of Engineering. The gifts were particularly significant since Tulane's endowment, $722 million as of June 2004, was one of the lowest among the 62 members of the Association of American Universities.
