<p>Hey there! I was just accepted to Tulane University, and though I know a pretty good bit about the school, I was wondering if any present, past or current students, or parents of students, could comment on their experiences with Tulane? It's one of my top choices, so I just want to be armed with as much information as possible when making my final decision.</p>
<p>Wow, that’s pretty broad. It would fill novels, as well. I understand what you are going for, and it’s a reasonable idea, but… You must know what I think, based on my activity here. But maybe you could focus on a few major topics you are most curious about. Otherwise for those of us that were there for 4 years and have a long history with the school besides, there are far too many experiences to pick from. Certainly, you can expand the number of threads you can see on here by resetting the date function to pick up at least the last year of posts and just start reading! That might activate some more specific questions for you to ask as well.</p>
<p>I am assuming you have already visited?</p>
<p>Tepper, are you also applying to Carnegie Mellon (Tepper Business School)?</p>
<p>fallenchemist,</p>
<p>I understnad that may have been too broad a request. I have been through this site reading all of the Tulane threads. More specifically, I was wondering about academics at Tulane. Don’t get me wrong, I love to have a good time as much as anybody else, but I want to know if that is a major facet of Tulane. Do students come to Tulane to learn or just to have a good time in New Orleans? I don’t want to sound like I’m stereotyping, but I would just like an opinion from someone who has had the Tulane experience firsthand.</p>
<p>And kicker, I am applying to Carnegie Mellon, but I didn’t even know that the business school was called Tepper! Haha what a coincidence.</p>
<p>Tulane Students absolutely come to learn. As the cliche goes, you can get as much or as little out of it as you want. I know that sounds trite, but it is very true, and it is true at almost any school you can think of. The main thing is that the more academically talented your classmates, the more you will find the environment you seem to be looking for, and the more competition (in a good way) you will find that pushes you to stay focused and get the work done. I just saw on another thread that Tulane is tied for 13th all-time (since the award was created in 1956) with Duke for Marshall Scholarships, the very competitive national awards for a year of post-graduate study in the UK. Here was the list as posted by someone else.</p>
<p>237–Harvard
119—Princeton
106–Yale
81----Stanford
58----MIT
45----Brown
34----U.S. Military Academy
31----Cornell
28----Berkeley
27----Columbia
26----Dartmouth
24----U.S. Naval Academy
23----Duke, Tulane
22----U. of Illinois, U. of Texas
20----Rice</p>
<p>I don’t think it is likely Tulane students would be so competitive for these if Tulane were not an academically excellent school. Also, Tulane students are frequently accepted to top grad schools and professional schools, on par with other highly selective colleges.</p>
<p>Hopefully Gabby, Tulanechild, TulaneGreg and other current students can give you their impressions as well.</p>
<p>Academics will be as important as you make them. I classify myself similarly to you, Tepper… I like to have fun, but the bottom line for me is my schoolwork because I am here to LEARN and GET A DEGREE. Sometimes, I do feel like this point is lost on some fellow students, but in general, I think academics are very important to the general student body. For example, it’s finals time now and I could NOT find a parking spot in front of the the library all weekend (I live off campus and therefore drove). I think that, amongst other examples, shows that lots of students take school seriously. However, I’m sure you would have found plenty of students at the bars around campus this weekend. </p>
<p>Intellectualism isn’t a feeling that is overwhelming on campus though… I don’t often feel that I’m surrounded by intellectuals until I am reminded when someone says something brilliant during class. By this I mean, it happens (frequently), but for whatever reason I don’t expect it to happen, and I’m half way through sophomore year.</p>
<p>Overall, if you take school seriously, you will CERTAINLY find others here who do the same and still want to have fun. I often see people out at bars and then again the next week in one of my difficult classes… work hard, play harder is in effect :)</p>
<p>I have several good friends from high school who go to CMU, and the atmosphere there is very different, with a larger focus on academics, and dare I say a “nerdier” environment haha. That doesn’t mean nerds don’t exist at Tulane, but it isn’t the prevalent stereotype I would use when typifying the average TU student. I don’t know if CMU is high up on your list, but if it is, thought this might help to differentiate these two very distinct choices.</p>
<p>Let me know if you have any follow up questions… the questions you are asking were a big part of my decision making process when I chose Tulane. I was worried I wouldn’t fit in because I actually LIKE school. I was definitely wrong.</p>
<p>Similar to what others have said - the academic programs at Tulane will challenge you and the end result will be an increase in your understanding of your field of study. It definitely has an air of the “you get out of it what you put in” sort of thing. The culture of the university never gives you the feel that you’re surrounded by pompous intellectuals or anything like that… and then you get to know the people in your classes and realize that someone you may have thought wasn’t too smart actually scored perfect on the SAT or were valedictorian of their class - I was challenged during my time at Tulane; however, the courseload is very do-able. Certain areas of focus (pre-med, engineering, architecture, etc.) take a lot more rigor than others (I was a communication & history double major). Hope this helps. Definitely a work hard, play hard school.</p>