That’s quite a nice list! Yes, my daughter attends Loyola New Orleans (she is currently on a one year leave of absence due to some music opportunities in Atlanta.) It’s a great college! My daughter wanted an artsy vibe and a very diverse, progressive campus and felt Loyola was perfect. They also gave her great merit and “showed her the love” as far as making her feel welcome and wanted.
I recommend he attend accepted student weekends at his top 3 schools when he’s ready to decide. That’s what did it for my daughter-she knew then and there that Loyola was the school for her.
They brought the price down to $26K but her #2 choice was $19K so she wrote an appeal in early April, hoping they could bring it closer to that COA. They gave her an extra $3K per year so it ended up at $23K and right in our target range. So that won us over as parents.
Her major is Popular/Commercial music (she’s a vocalist) but she feels their overall music programs/professors are excellent. A very supportive/collaborative music environment, not cut-throat at all. Students don’t have to be theatre majors to be in the musical productions and I think anyone can audition for ensembles so lots of diverse music involvement/opportunities.
The area is very nice, about 20 minutes from the French Quarter. Pretty safe with some isolated safety concerns (as with any major city) so I recommend staying in groups when walking around off campus. They are literally next door to Tulane and can share some services like the cafeteria, so they often hang out with Tulane students.
We went to family weekend before Covid hit and the school president was so warm and friendly, chatted with us for awhile. We are from Buffalo, NY so we weren’t thrilled with her going to a college that was 19 hours away by car! But she is very independent and loved it so much so how could we not give our blessing? We were worried it would lean too conservative for my daughter, but New Orleans is actually very progressive compared to many parts of Louisiana so she quickly found “her people.”
I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions. Good luck!