My daughter was accepted to both Tulane and Boston University. These are her current top schools and she loves both equally and has visited both. I’m looking to make a pro and con list about the type of education she will get at each college. She wants to go on to medical school which means she will need to maintain about a 3.5 GPA wherever she goes. Thanks!
How far is it to travel to each and how convenient/inconvenient are the connections? How does she feel about cold weather and/or heat and humidity? (yes, I know that Boston gets steamy in the summer, but it’s a matter of degree)
She likes the warm weather at Tulane. BU is closer to us but flights to Tulane are not all that expensive. However, visiting her at Tulane would require some planning while visiting BU is just getting in a car.
If she gets a certain GPA at Tulane, doesn’t she get into their medical school without the MCAT? That’s always a huge bonus. No idea if BU does that as well. Regardless of that statement, I would NOT choose the school based on her wish to go to medical school. So many kids go to college thinking they will become doctors and they change majors when they see how difficult it is to fulfill the requirements and do it well. I think 3.5 is light for medical school acceptance but that’s just what I’ve heard and not from experience. Did she get any money from either school? I would take her back to both if you can afford to and she will probably get a feel for one over the other.
I may be in a unique position to have an opinion here, though dated info.
I attended Tulane as a freshman decades ago, and then transferred to Boston U.
I had gone to BU for a summer program in HS, but for some reason decided to attend Tulane,
thinking I would like the warmer weather in the winter. While that is certainly an obvious advantage
of Tulane, I really hated New Orleans to be honest. Loved Tulane, hated New Orleans.
I decided why not go to a school where I would love the school AND the city, so I transferred.
The thing that bothered me most about New Orleans was the crime.
I witnessed crimes, sometimes even committed by the NOPD (police brutality).
A favorite professor of mine was stabbed walking home from campus, to his nearby home.
I was nearly mugged except I was smart and found a way to escape.
That said, I have learned as an adult and father looking at colleges with my own children recently,
that many of the finest colleges/universities are in some really bad locations. I visited Johns Hopkins
after the riots in Baltimore, and we wandered no more than a couple blocks from campus and decided
not to travel further on foot. Driving around the city, it was as bad as NO. Columbia, U Penn and many
others offer a top education where your kids have to learn to be street smart. Boston is not exactly
a rural setting, and there is crime in any big city, but I definitely felt safer in comparison, both back years ago, and on recent visits to Boston.
Tulane would offer a very good education though, just be prepared and know if you kid is “street smart”,
or ready to become so. Professors back in my day were excellent, I joined a frat and had fun there,
but in the end that was not enough to keep me there. In hindsight, had I not known about Boston and BU, I am sure I would have graduated alive and happily be a Tulane alumnus now, but I was aware of other options.
Major will matter somewhat. BU does have a reputation for tough grading, though not sure if that is
in all majors. That could make Med school a bit tougher, but IMO if you child is smart enough for med school, they should just buckle down and get the grades anywhere. Effort counts a great deal.
The 3.5 GPA is the minimum for them to consider your application to medical school from what I’ve heard. And yes Tulane has a certain amount of spots open for their own students above a certain GPA. I’m not sure about the MCAT but I will definitely check that out. She did get money from each school but BU gave her $7000 less than Tulane.
We visited Tulane last month so it’s fresh in her mind. And she will visit BU again on one of their accepted students days.
Have you compared any core curriculum or required courses between the two schools? You might look at what courses she would be taking in her first year. Is there flexibility or is it very rigid? That’s something I wish we’d done more of when we got down to the final three with our S & D.
If she opts not to go the medical school route, what other majors is she interested in? I believe BU accepts you for a certain college. See if you can find out how easy / difficult it is to transfer internally if she wanted to. If she hasn’t already, join the accepted students pages on FB. My kids found it interesting to see who else was considering.
Two really nice choices to have! Good luck.
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Thanks! These are all great things to consider and I will look into it.
I heard somewhere that it is very difficult to get an A at BU. Has anyone else heard this about BU or Tulane.
Go to Tulane. Much better pre med. Much less grade deflation.BU is notorious for that.
If Tulane is going to be 30K less over four years, I’d go to Tulane. Med school is expensive!
Hopefully New Orleans is less troubled than it was in @blevine 's time. Interestingly, I was at JHU in the 1980s and did not find the area around the campus unsafe at all. Maybe things have changed since then.
When we visited Tulane we stayed in downtown New Orleans. I did not feel unsafe and we walked from the hotel to restaurants at night. However, we made sure to stay on the main streets. We were just a street away from Bourbon Street which was something in itself to be sure.
The guaranteed acceptance to Tulane’s med school is via this program: https://tulane.edu/advising/prehealth/academic/creative-premedical-scholars-program.cfm
Regarding the safety, the only place one might be safe is on Bourbon Street. I witnessed police brutality just 2 blocks away from the main tourist area of the French Quarter. You don’t realize just how close you are to very serious urban decay amd crime when visiting the tourist venues in/near Bourbon Street.
I was at Johns Hopkins just last year.
@mamedefamilia I would think you saw the news about racial problems in Baltimore, similar to St. Louis. I personally witnessed police raids and arrest a few blocks from JH campus during our visit. Drove through the city, was pretty bad in most areas. JH campus is beautiful, but I would worry if my kids was there. Search threads here, news of kids mugged right next to campus not long ago.
I do not recall hearing of ANY incidents while I lived in Boston, maybe I was just lucky, but IMO huge difference.
As far as grades, I got As at Tulane Engineering, and knew some others who did as well. When I got to BU, kids complained of getting 10/100 on Physics tests in the engineering school. So yes Tulane graded easier back then. Also, while Tulane liked to market itself as Harvard of the South, did not feel that way to me at all when I was there. I dont know much about medical school, but would hate to see future doctors picking a school based on ease of grading.
A very good reason to select Tulane, it us much smaller than BU, if you want a cozy campus and closer community, much different in that sense. I saw people I knew almost all day walking around Tulane campus. BU used to be called Big and Ugly, though beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
I found the 19th century brownstone dorms to be quite beautiful. Other parts of campus are ugly, but you are not there for the scenery.
I’d go with Tulane because it’s cheaper (always a consideration for premeds) and BU has grade deflation (pretty much kills med school hopes since med schools don’t really take it into account and they’ll take a 3.7 from Tulane over a 3.5 from BU any day).
Due to the nature of med school selection, premeds do pick their universities based on grading policies.
DO check Clery Report for both colleges (Clery = mandatory legal reporting of all crimes).
You may find it helpful to take into account that in the past year Tulane was ranked No. 4 for happiest students, No. 1 for Best College City, No. 5 for Students Most Engaged in Community Service, No. 12 Best Quality of Life and No. 14 for “Their Students Love These Colleges.” I will leave it to someone knowledgeable about BU to weigh in on school spirit and quality of life there.
Thank you for that information! Great to know. I think being happy at a college and engaged in the community are big factors.
My information on both are not so dated as the impression I gave.
A close relative of mine lived in NO not long ago and went to visit.
She and her husband spent the whole time there looking for jobs elsewhere to get out of the city.
People remember Katrina, looting, crime in the superdome when it was a shelter ?
Have been back to Boston many times, and nobody would challenge Boston as the #1 college town.
But Tulane is a fantastic school. I will not deny that.
Just know what you are getting into. College reported crime stats
are on campus. The crime is off campus.
Since PR rankings have been included (#14), then, to be fair, it should be noted that Tulane is also the 9th “Top Party School.”
Not sure how Columbia (#4), which is located in one of the safer neighborhoods in the safest big city in America, was included by implication as an example of a high-crime location.
To finish off the safety/security issue the OP may just want to their own research here:
http://ope.ed.gov/security/
Because back in the 70s and early 80s it wasn’t. I grew up there, many of my friends’ parents wouldn’t let them come to my apartment. “Above 96th St” was a bad thing to many back then.