When did Tulane's student profile change?

Probably whenever tuition got really ridiculous

quote:

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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.

Dad graduated from Tulane in the 60's. It was very Jewish back then. He has a respectably Jewish nose and fit in fine until they discoverd he wasn't, in fact Jewish.

I'll have to ask about Yankee kids going there. That's never been mentioned and all of his college buddies were from the South.

It has never changed. Always had northern students just like all southern privates, with Rice a little less so. Sports cost money, endowment has never been great, and admin support has waivered depending on who is president. Football de emphazized in 1950. Put resources back into it in late 1960s.
There is a crowding out effect on donations. TU steers theirs to academics. LSU steered theirs to athletics , which worked when state coffers gave LSU academics all they needed.

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.

Paul Tulane was from New Jersey

When I was there (98-01), the law school was still a mix of the two extremes you described in OP, but the undergrad was already Jersey Shore South.

Around 1920 when they admitted women is when the profile changed. A 2nd or 3rd cousin was one of the 1st they admitted too