Tulane University, founded in 1834, is one of the foremost independent national research universities in the United States. Its admission criteria place it among the most highly selective universities in the nation. The schools and colleges in Tulane University offer undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees in the liberal arts and sciences, architecture, business, engineering, law, social work, medicine, and public health and tropical medicine.

Tulane University is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, a select group of the 62 leading research universities in the United States and Canada with "pre-eminent programs of graduate and professional education and scholarly research." Tulane also is ranked by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a university with "very high research activity." Of more than 4,300 higher educational institutions rated by the foundation, Tulane University remains in a prestigious category that includes only two percent of universities nationwide.