Tulane ranked among nation’s best as it returns to on-ground classes, plans downtown expansion
The newly released U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges 2021 edition ranks Tulane University No. 41 among the country’s top national universities.
The university’s overall score, which determines its ranking, rose this year to 73 — its highest in more than 20 years.
The publication also ranked Tulane No. 3 among the best schools for Service Learning, No. 20 on its list of Best College for Veterans and Tulane’s undergraduate business program ranked 44th in the nation. Tulane’s ranking for alumni giving rose considerably to 37 from 52 – its best since 1998.
The rankings come as the university is completing its first month of in-person classes since the COVID-19 pandemic. In a year like no other, Tulane has enacted a robust testing program, maintained extensive safety measures, and transformed classrooms and other facilities across campus to bring students, faculty and staff back to campus.
Tulane’s comprehensive COVID-19 Testing Program includes asymptomatic testing for on-campus undergraduate students twice a week, off-campus undergraduate students weekly, and graduate students and employees at least monthly. Since late July, the university has processed nearly 35,000 COVID-19 tests for students, faculty and staff with an overall positivity rate of 1.5 percent.
Despite the challenges of the pandemic, Tulane welcomed its largest, most academically qualified and most diverse class this fall and enjoyed a record year in research funding, partially fueled by the fight against the coronavirus. University researchers are leading efforts to develop effective vaccines, design better diagnostics and advance new treatments against SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind the global pandemic.
Tulane is planning a major expansion in the New Orleans’ downtown biomedical corridor in conjunction with efforts to bolster research in the health sciences. Earlier this month, the university celebrated the ribbon-cutting of a $55 million redevelopment partnership to renovate the former Warwick Hotel near the School of Medicine to include 154 apartments for graduate students, researchers, physicians, faculty and other affiliates.
The university also will play a significant role in the revitalization of the old Charity Hospital, filling a third of its space with laboratories, clinical space, classrooms, student housing and more.
