(Another) Student's View after Freshman Year

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tulane University
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<p>So I know that this won’t really influence any students who have yet to decide on Tulane, but I will still share about my freshman experience at Tulane for future students and parents to read. Also, feel free to ask me any questions about my experience as I’d love to answer them and provide advice to y’all. I’ll apologize now for the length of this. </p>

<p>I guess we can start off with a background. I’m from New England and chose Tulane as my first choice. I say chose because I had the option of going to higher ranked schools, however, I found Tulane to be the best fit for me. I came in majoring in Biomedical Engineering. In high school I had never been super into the hard sciences, but I really wanted to work in a laboratory setting doing cell and tissue engineering. My interests in cell and tissue engineering still remain, however I have since dropped BME as a major. Midway through my first semester physics and chemistry had taken a toll on me. I had lost all motivation to study and didn’t want to continue pouring my heart and soul into studying only to get mediocre grades. I kinda went through a questioning of what I want to do with my life which has remained since then. My GPA suffered dramatically and I needed to bring it up in order to keep my scholarship. In order to do this I switched to Undecided and enrolled in less “challenging” courses. I am very happy I did and feel that I’m starting to get a direction as to what I’d like to study. </p>

<p>That being said, I have done much better academically this semester and am looking towards a GPA in the 3.8-4.0 range. Also, I am very excited about this and feel it to be relevant. I took intro psych in hopes of dabbling around in an “easier” science and have realized I really like it and now plan to major in it. I did well in psych101 and was actually asked by my professor if I would like to do research with/for her. I will register it as an Independent Study (PSYC 492) for 3 credit hours. I am very excited to be given this opportunity so early and I know that should I decide to further my education in Psychology it will be very helpful. </p>

<p>Socially I think Tulane is a great place. I feel like I have found some friends. I can honestly say that I don’t feel like I have made the best friends of my life, but a lot of that does come with time. I am hoping to further my relationships with them. So far though, I really am enjoying myself and I don’t feel like I have NO friends. A lot of the comparison for me is to my friends from high school (a core group of like 6 of us) that I was really close with, but those friendships had a lot more time to build. I can say that Tulane is a clicky school in some aspects. I have met transfer students that have said they’ve had problems making friends. A lot of people make friends in the residence halls and I think that was the case for me as well. I usually make one good friend in each class that I study with or ask questions to. I have talked to some of my friends at other, larger schools and they’ve told me that making friends in class is nearly impossible, so that’s good :)</p>

<p>I’m not one to really travel much around the city. Its not that I don’t want to and would rather remain in the Tulane “bubble” but I find it time consuming and somewhat annoying. A lot of times the streetcars don’t run consistently and I get annoyed waiting too long for it. I generally just go to places near and around campus in walking distance. </p>

<p>Overall I really have felt like Tulane has been great for my freshman year and I am VERY excited to come back for the fall. </p>

<p>If you all have any questions or subject areas you want me to speak about, I’d love to. I could keep going but I didn’t want to make it too long!</p>

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<p>I think that is a great, honest and balanced post Ruffian. It is a classic example of using your freshman year, and sometimes even into sophomore year, to find what feels right to study. Congrats on righting the ship, the core sciences are not for everyone for sure. Doesn’t mean anything other than it just wasn’t you. It is also one of the great things about Tulane’s open structure, as compared to some schools that pidgeon hole you into a career from the start, with little room to explore.</p>

<p>I know what you mean about the streetcars, lol. Some things never change.</p>

<p>Thanks for the personal, insightful post.</p>

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<p>Thank you, Ruffian, for posting your experience. The ability to change majors has definitely been a factor in D’s decision. </p>

<p>Did you feel that your high school courses prepared you for the “hard” sciences at Tulane? Was it a matter of the faster pace (faster than high school), the material itself, or finding you weren’t as interested in the topics? (takes a lot of interest to want to plow through those courses!) Just trying to get a better feel for the obstacles, D is interested in hard science at this point.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>I think it’s kinda a combination. The chemistry and physics and my high school weren’t exactly stellar and APs weren’t offered in either. I took chemistry my junior year and then chose not to take physics during high school because I didn’t like the teacher that teaches it. </p>

<p>In all honesty I knew from the beginning that I wasn’t really interested in physics or chemistry, but really the eventual outcome of cell and tissue engineering (which is more biology, in my opinion). I figured I’d just take the courses and do alright in them and be okay. I found the classes to be rather fast paced and had, unfortunately, gotten the professors that weren’t very good at teaching them. I remember one student saying “Thank God I took physics in high school, otherwise I’d have no idea what I’m doing”. The class averages on physics tests were in the 30s and that was open book and open notes. The class was just terrible…</p>

<p>Does that help?</p>

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<p>Well, it’s scary, LOL! I’m intimidated looking at D’s schedule. Math is a good area for her, but not her strongest, she’s loved chem, finished the regular course and then did the advanced chem too in just over a year. She’s had no physics at all so far and it looks like she’d have to take the honors physics in the fall. I understand it’s not so much harder as faster (altho, doesn’t that make it harder?). She is really motivated, she’s already working through a calculus book and started a physics book, so she will have done some before fall. </p>

<p>I’m sorry the prof you had was not good, that really makes a huge difference. My other D is in college locally and taking college algebra/pre-calc. The prof is awful, D has always loved math and done well, but hates this. My D that’s headed to Tulane (already finished with pre-calc) went to one class with her sister and told me that even though she knew all the concepts, she left the class confused! Yuck! </p>

<p>Thank you for your comments.</p>