When did Tulane's student profile change?

Probably whenever tuition got really ridiculous

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Once upon a time it was a private college for southern ballers. Somewhere along the way it became a safety school for Jersey kids who didn't get into Duke.

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It's been like that since at least the 1960s. I once read a late '60s book on college life which profiled a number of colleges. It mentioned that TU was mostly outsiders, partly b/c tuition was too much for locals.

On a related note: the entire state college system of the South was once the backup plan for Yankees. The same book I cited alluded to this, and IIRC Vonnegut mentioned it in one of his novels.

The South had a much smaller population in those days, and of course a number of state schools. Northerners who couldn't get Ivy League scholarships or make it into the overcrowded Northern state colleges would go South instead of paying expensive tuition at lesser private colleges in the North.

My favorite example of this is the great jazz pianist Bill Evans* (from New Jersey) who in the late '40s somehow ended up at SELU!










*He's buried in BR. Go pay your respects.

Hard to imagine them as being a member of the SEC at one point. Their current student body would not fit in except maybe with mizzou

My granddaddy & great uncle went there from Mississippi in the '20's; even then Tulane had Jewish Fraternities.

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What year did you enroll?

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THIS

I'm 32, and from what I can remember, it has always been a school for people from the Northeast. Over the past five years or so, more and more people from around here have been going there

Most of this was set-in-motion when the took the risk of leaving the SEC. They took the lead of trying to construct a "Ivy League of the South" called the Magnolia Conference. They petitioned Rice, SMU, Vandy, Duke, etc to formalize the conference. Much like the Ivyies, they wanted to minimize athletics (limited scholly $, smaller facilities, etc) and focus on the competing academically with the Ivyies. Duke didnt take the bait because they wanted to keep their rivalry with UNC. Rice and SMU stayed in the SWC (Texas probably made them) and Vandy saw the benefit of being the only private school in the SEC and stayed. It was a huge gamble that didnt pay off.

How does this affect enrollment? Tulane athletically never recovered. Call it the SEC mentality, but most southern students want a full college experience. They dont want to drive off campus to sit in a NFL dome stadium that is 1/5 full (and that generous). They lack of a campus culture didnt appeal to most southern student despite the high academic reputation. Northern students could give a rip about athletics/campus life, they literally only look at Tulane's academic rep.

I think the on-campus stadium is a game changer for their university in regards to regional relevancy. It is helping shape the university as a "college experience"that just happens to have good academics.

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Texas and Louisiana are the most common states of origin for incoming students.

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Tulane's student body is less than 5% from LA.

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Even people I knew at Loyola barely interacted with Tulane, or "Tuh-lane" as our family members pronounced it.

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I attended Loyola for a year in the mid-00s before transferring to LSU, and we barely ever interacted with Tulane kids. I have no idea what the statistics were, but Loyola always seemed to be a mixture of southeast Louisiana locals and international students.

It's my understanding that Tulane has always held a relatively big Jewish/Northeast population. When I enrolled 5 years ago, the 2 most well represented states were New York and Louisiana, in that order. AEPi and ZBT are both big presenses on campus.

As far as the Jewlane moniker, the Jewish kids I met weren't offended. Quite the opposite, one of my Jewish buddies started printing and selling "Jewlane" t shirts, wherein Tulane's retro angry wave logo was made to be the top point on a Star of David. I thought that was pretty funny.