<p>I know that some city schools (namely Temple and Drexel if you are familiar with Philly) do not foster a very community-like feel.
I wondered if Tulane was the same deal? Do students share a sense of pride in their school? (Taking into account school sponsored activities, whether or not there are parties on campus, support of sports teams?)</p>
<p>Any thoughts?</p>
<p>If you want a community feel here at Temple, you can find it. It depends on you and your interests.</p>
<p>I’m curious about this as well. I was accepted for next year, and Tulane is one of my top choices. However, once in a while, I hear troubling comments about the lack of community… Not really sure what that entails, as it’s rather vague, and could mean a lot of different things, but it doesn’t sound good, does it? haha</p>
<p>All I can say is that when I was on my visit, the tour guide was very friendly and personable, but I didn’t see much interaction between students on campus. Most students I saw were walking alone, and I saw a lot of students eating alone in Bruff. Not that this means there isn’t community, but it’s just what I observed. My visit was in the morning (around 10 AM) though, so maybe that had something to do with it? </p>
<p>Nonetheless, I’m still very interested in Tulane, so I’d like to hear some opinions from those who are more knowledgeable about the school!</p>
<p>We have pride in our school, but there really are “groups” at Tulane. I haven’t quite figured out what they are or who decides them, but they are there. There is a large divide in the school on several fronts–those on scholarship, those having everything paid by their parents, those that study, those that slack off. Some kids come in being very mature, others still are freshmen in high school. I feel like you’d find it at any school, though. It’s just strange for a school with such high SAT scores–I get the feeling very, very few people take their classes seriously. </p>
<p>The situation of New Orleans is also worth mentioning. I don’t hate the city, but coming from a Midwestern town I’m consistently appalled at the rudeness of New Orleans natives. Once I’m done with my degree, I’m out of here. Tulane is like an island, in that respect.</p>
<p>Zaichev:</p>
<p>I want to make sure I understand what you are saying:</p>
<p>-You mention the divide between the students on scholarships vs. the students whose parents are paying. Also, you mention that very few students take their classes seriously. Are you saying that there is a correlation between attending on scholarship and taking classes seriously? If so, are you saying that those on scholarship are MORE likely to take their classes seriously and those whose parents are paying are LESS likely to take their classes seriously?</p>
<p>-You mention that you feel New Orleans natives are rude and that Tulane is like an island. Are you saying that the Tulane campus community is an island within the New Orleans community? Are you saying that there a lesser level of rudeness within the Tulane campus community as compared to a greater level of rudeness in the surrounding city?
Also, can you give some examples of unpleasant interactions you’ve had?</p>
<p>Thanks for clarifying and expanding on your post.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’ve never been to Tulane, but I have lived in New Orleans, and I have to say this REALLY surprises me. It’s the last complaint I would have anticipated. Heck, even the guy who robbed us one time was polite and friendly! As capandgown said, could you possibly elaborate?</p>
<p>I talked to my D about this and she agrees with part of what Zaichev is saying and disagrees with part. She thinks that there is a real pride in the school and kids wear their Tulane clothing a lot, more than what she saw visiting other campuses. But there is little support for the sports teams, so that is not a unifying factor.</p>
<p>The other divides he mentions, hard studiers vs. not, scholarship vs. non-scholarship she thinks is true to some extent, although she speculated there would be some relationship there (although she went out of her way to say she cannot usually know who is on scholarship and who isn’t, she just knows who is in the Honors Program, mostly). After all, if you studied hard enough in high school to earn a scholarship/Honors Program, that isn’t as likely to change in college. Of course we all know cases where kids go off the rails with the freedom, but in general this is probably right. But she thinks people take their classes as seriously as any of the schools where she sat in on classes and stayed overnight elsewhere, and it is a mix. These schools include WUSTL, Chicago, and Northwestern among others. She thought the sense of the campus and community at Tulane was similar to these schools, to the extent she could tell staying a couple of nights each place.</p>
<p>She then vehemently disagreed with the statement about New Orleans people being rude. She goes to Magazine Street and the French Market a lot, as well as to some shops in the Quarter like rare book shops. She said she finds everyone very nice and fun to talk with, as well as showing genuine interest in her studies at Tulane. She is also involved in some housing rehab work where there are people from the general community involved as well. Once a week they have a dinner where the locals bring the meal and she says it is the best food she gets (and she actually thinks Bruff is OK to good. Hopefully that doesn’t diminish her credibillty, lol).</p>
<p>So I guess she is saying that of course there are groups at Tulane, it has over 6,000 undergrads. All schools are like that. But she doesn’t feel that the attitude is exclusionary at all; that most people are very happy, friendly and accepting of all types. I asked her if community service was a uniting factor, and she thought for a minute. She said that she thought it was, not to the extent of the whole school feeling united by it, but that it brought people together that otherwise would probably never have met and crossed “groups”. In the end, like most schools, the biggest community factor is just being a Tulane student.</p>
<p>Although Tulane is a school in a city, there is a beautiful campus that unifies it. In that regard, it is much different from schools like Temple and Drexel and much more like Penn and even Columbia to some extent. You don’t find the homogeneity that exists on some campuses, where everyone is from the same parts and tend to look, dress and speak alike. Kids here are from ll over the country and bring their local flair. I do think the kids on scholarship tend to stick together because if you earned a merit scholarship, you are a serious student and you keep your partying in its place. So again at Tulane this is slightly different. At most schools, kids receive scholarships that are need based, and therefore tend to be from similar socioeconomic backgrounds. At Tulane, a great deal of scholarships are merit based and are therefore spread across all socioeconomic groups</p>
<p>My S (class of 2013) can’t have enough Tulane T-shirts, sweatshirts, and from what I saw during my last visit over Super Bowl weekend, now he also owns a Tulane rain jacket. There must be some school pride there. I ended up buying him (and 3 of his friends) SAINTS T-shirts during my visit, so they were also very proud to root for the SAINTS. Walking through the campus with my S, he did say hello to quite a few people. He loves his dorm (SHARP), loves most of his classes, has made quite a few friends, joined a frat, and is currently MIA (probably because this is Mardi Gras weekend). I can’t imagine him at any other school.</p>
<p>I’m pretty tired, but I’ll write.</p>
<p>In general, the kids that have parents paying for everything take things less seriously. Don’t get upset if your opinion differs from this. You have a lot of wealth at Tulane, a lot of the “New Yorkish” culture. Most of the kids here come from comfortable families. Kids with wealth, and few worries, act differently than the kids that have worked for a scholarship, applied for financial aid and have student jobs. They are the ones that think the weekend starts on a Thursday, and you aren’t having a good time until you are vomiting on your neighbor. They are prone to skipping class and blowing off tests in favor of parties. This clashes very much with kids that know their education at Tulane depends on their good grades and a work schedule. They don’t have the luxury of acting like children that are away from the scolding eye of their parents for the first time in their life. They have to act like adults or else they have no money, or are wasting their own.</p>
<p>Keep in mind, this is in general. I’m sure most of the student population would consider me coming from wealth. I don’t have to work and don’t have to think twice about going to the movies on a Saturday, buying shampoo, etc. But I’m extremely studious. The serious “privileged” kids (as my friend once called it) do exist. But with sincerity, parents, if you saw how some of your kids acted here you’d probably stop the checks. If they say they don’t drink, they probably do.</p>
<p>When I call Tulane an island, I mean that it is a cultural island. Kids feel at home and comfortable at Tulane because it is basically a Northeastern university put in the south. (Don’t expect diversity coming to this school.) Now, I’m from the Midwest. Granting the fact we are known to be generous people, I still find this city to be ruder than most. Not everyone, of course. (And yes, when you go into small shops, they smother you with kindness because they want you to buy something.) It’s just the “tendency of the people” as one of my professors put. I don’t really want to make this a laundry list of specific complaints, but in general unless you are from New Orleans, you won’t get people that have lived here their entire lives, and they frankly won’t care about you. The population of New Orleans actually really dislikes “Tulane kids”–we have a reputation for being spoiled, drunken partiers that come to the city, take what we want/need from it, and leave. And they might be right. Some of us are extremely obnoxious. Example: Tulane girl at Superbowl parade, “Oh my God, there is NO excuse for a parade being this long. I’m cold and want to go home. Jesus, walk faster people!” I mean, can you imagine? These residents have to wait how many years for a Superbowl win, and then have to listen to some whiny girl complain about people throwing her free candy and beads?</p>
<p>I’ve met notable exceptions (both with considerate Tulane kids and New Orleans residents), but still, after two years, don’t feel “apart” of this city or welcome by it as a whole, despite volunteering and being involved with the city. I think part of my problem is that I can’t even walk down Broadway Street at night without having to be afraid of being mugged at gunpoint. (Seriously, it’s happened five times.) Why anyone would choose to live in a city that’s so dangerous, even with its cultural benefits, is beyond me. </p>
<p>This is likely going to come across as being too blunt, but I’m really only being honest.</p>
<p>In response to zaichev…it seems like you like to put people into categories–rude new orlinians, cliques on campus, and “new yorkers.” i am from new york but i am here on a merit scholarship and financial aid. having said that, i still go out and have fun…it’s definitely not study like crazy 24 hours a day. also you say that there is a sharp divide between sc holarship kids and kids who have money. that could not be farther from the truth. i don’t want people reading this board to get the wrong impression. there is so much intermingling amongst students that it’s really quite hard for me to hear that. also, many of the kids who go out and party from Thursday to Saturday are actually on academic scholarship…tulane lives by the motto “work hard play hard”. and with regards to the people or nola, they are some of the nicest most polite people in the country. if you have had a bad social experience at tulane, say so so that the kids contemplating attending our fine university know that you are the exception, not the rule.</p>
<p>In reading Zaichev’s latest post, I have a few thoughts of my own. Some of what he says will be true not only at any university, but in life in general. The complaint, observation, feeling, call it what you will that people with money have different concerns and act differently is as old as civilization itself. Obviously on a micro level there are people the exemplify the character traits Zaichev points out, and there are many that are quite opposite. But there is nothing unique about Tulane in this regard, this is true everywhere, especially at any of its peer institutions such as Vandy, WUSTL, virtually any expensive private. I suppose one could argue that with its very generous merit program maybe there is more of a divide at Tulane. That would be ironic (?, probably the wrong word) if being a highly selective private that actually gives more middle to lower income students a chance to attend became a negative. As far as the kids skipping classes to party, again this is no different than any other school. It happens.</p>
<p>I think we will just have to agree to disagree about the residents of New Orleans. The comment that they are nice just because they want people to buy stuff is very cynical, and besides it flies in the face of the vast majority of comments I have heard as well as my own experience. That experience is from both when I was there and numerous visits in the years since. I cannot even begin to say how many times residents have told me how much they appreciate Tulane and like the students. As far as the crime, I understand there has been a set of muggers lately, and that is worrisome. Again though, that can and does happen at any urban campus. I recently found a web site run by the Federal Government that compares crime statistics at all campuses and surrounding areas in numerous categories. Tulane’s stats are virtually identical to or better than other urban campuses I checked such as Chicago, Temple/Penn, Harvard, and others. I was actually surprised at how low the numbers were, although no incidents are good.</p>
<p>There are a lot of kids from the east, but the number of New Yorkers is far from a majority. In fact the entire New England to mid-Atlantic is about 1/3 of the students. That is high for a southern college no doubt, but that includes kids from a wide area. It does remind me of a friend in my graduating class that was from NYC. As freshmen he would tell us constantly about how great New York was, how there was so much to do, how New Orleans was so backwards, etc. etc. After about a month or two of this we finally all told him to either go back to New York or learn to appreciate where he was. To his credit he changed his behavior and now has lived in New Orleans since graduating and has kids at Tulane!</p>
<p>We appreciate your honesty and point of view Zaichev, it is a valuable reminder that there are many elements on campus. I personally think (as do others apparently) that it is not as sharp-edged as you make it sound, but no doubt there are strong elements of truth in some of what you say. I just think you will find the same truths in most of society, and that Tulane, while not some utopian refuge from these realities, is better than most places with regard to these elements. It isn’t, however, for everyone.</p>
<p>Just saw this on my lunch break and thought I’d add to the topic. I’ve lived in New Orleans since 1992 and have two degrees from Tulane. I’m certainly biased towards the school and in many ways the city. </p>
<p>I do however have to agree with Zaichev on the locals regarding friendliness. I’ve lived in the midwest and the majority of my family are from other deep southern states. I have to say that both areas are far more friendly than those in New Orleans. I don’t really know that that is as much a strike against New Orleans as much as it is the reality of the extreme friendliness of those in deep South and Midwest. By comparison, New Orleans just does seem somewhat unfriendly.</p>
<p>When I travel to watch college football games outside of Louisiana and stop at gas stations and fast food joints, even those right across the border in Mississippi, I’m always shocked at how clean the cities and towns are as well as how courteous everyone is. </p>
<p>I just don’t think that people in New Orleans are less friendly than the rest of the nation as a whole. Keep in mind that many ‘locals’ in New Orleans surrounding the university (uptown) area are actually transplants from other places in the US that wanted to move to New Orleans. People are far less friendly when they don’t know everyone they see and if they are brought up in parts of the country that aren’t as ‘nice’ they probably carried that lack of friendliness down with them to the Big Easy. </p>
<p>I also understand the island mentality regarding Tulane. It’s one of the most expensive schools in the country located in one of the poorest states. It’s hard for the native locals to feel too connected to a school where most can’t afford to send their children. That keeps a small disconnect between the two alive.</p>
<p>Even many ‘New Orleans locals’ who are also Tulane alum are either originally from somewhere else and stayed in the city after graduation to work or are native born locals over the age of 50 years old (when Tulane was much more affordable) that cannot afford to send their own kids to Tulane. </p>
<p>So while I agree that New Orleans is not as friendly as one would expect from a Southern city, I’m not sure it’s as bad as you think or for that matter for the same reason you think. I do hope that you enjoy your time here and don’t let those that are rude ruin your stay. </p>
<p>As an aside (not really related to Zai’s comment), one of the things that I find funny regarding people’s comments on New Orleans as a city is that there are so many opinions and so many are based on such minimal experience.</p>
<p>Actually, a good way to tell how ‘local’ a New Orleanian is would be to go out to eat tonight in the city. They’ll have crosses on their heads and will be ordering fish. Obviously the trick doesn’t work with the local ‘native’ Jewish population. </p>
<p>I have feeling my fiance won’t let me order a burger despite my Lutheranism. :(</p>
<p>wow…i yet again got really off topic.</p>