Tulane University: General Information
2008-2009 Academic Year
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With this distinctive academic arrangement, students have access to diverse
interdisciplinary opportunities and research resources. Tulane has one of the
widest combined degree selections available at any university, including joint-
degree programs among liberal arts, sciences, engineering, architecture, or
business; and between engineering and business at the undergraduate level.
Tulane's 8-to-1 ratio of students to faculty members, combined with the
university's commitment to excellence in undergraduate education, means that
Tulane classrooms are places of intellectual excitement.
Faculty supervise student research projects in every subject area, making Tulane
one of the few universities where students can work individually with faculty
members throughout their undergraduate years, not just as seniors or graduate
students.
Undergraduates make up nearly 60 percent of the student population at Tulane.
They come from all 50 states and many other countries, with approximately one-
third of full-time first-year students from the Northeast, one-third from the South,
and one-third from the West and Midwest.
H. SOPHIE NEWCOMB MEMORIAL COLLEGE INSTITUTE
The H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College Institute is a center offering
educational and co- curricular programs designed to enhance women's education
and leadership at Tulane University. The Institute's mission furthers a 120-year
old Newcomb legacy of providing all undergraduate women students with
programs, tools, and experiences to enhance their leadership and scholarship.
The Newcomb Institute was established in 2006 by the Board of Tulane to
continue the legacy of Newcomb College, which was established by Josephine
Louise Newcomb in 1886 as a memorial to her daughter, Harriott Sophie. Mrs.
Newcomb's commitment to women's education and leadership is legendary.
The Newcomb history has been one of change and evolution with a high regard
for enriching the academic and leadership opportunities for women in the Tulane
University community. Newcomb was the first degree-granting women's college
in the nation and the first to be established as a coordinate division of a men's
university.
In the 1960s coeducational classes were introduced and by 1969 most academic
departments in both colleges were unified under one chair. In 1976,
coeducational housing for Newcomb College and Tulane College was adopted. In
1987, the faculties of the two undergraduate liberal arts and science colleges were
combined. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Board of Tulane enacted
The Renewal Plan, which consolidated all undergraduate schools and colleges and