<p>After having narrowed his college choices down to 4, 2 public, 2 private, 2 in-state and 2 OOS, my son, then narrowed his choices down to SMU and Tulane, and decided on Tulane this weekend. It was a difficult decision complicated by the fact, that making choices is always hard for my son. Both schools had much of what he was looking for and in the end it came down to the fact that New Orleans is much more interesting and historic than Texas and that ambiguous word fit. He solicited opinions from his friends, his Facebook group, plus sought the advice of his guidance counselor and Improv club sponsor. His guidance counselor said she is very familiar with the student body of both schools and felt he would fit better at Tulane, and his Improv sponsor has always told him he needs to go out of Texas and she feels that SMU is a stuffy campus. Both agree that he is the kind of guy that would find a place to fit in anywhere he went, but that Tulane would allow him to have a completely different kind of experience and as his guidance counselor told me, hes level-headed enough she has no worries about him running amok once hes down there, which is more than she can say for some of his classmates.
The biggest area that gave him pause was the academics, (not the quality, but the type of); he is a math/science guy whose intended field of study has always been engineering. Tulane has several engineering programs but not the ones he was interested in. (Hes been undecided on which but has ruled out several types), so it looks like he will be majoring in engineering physics. He had a long visit with one of the physics professors who told him that the engineering physics program is up for ABET accreditation this fall and gave him enough information on the major that coupled with the research he did when we came back, leads him to believe that is a major with a fair amount of potential, and physics is a great interest for him. But at the same time its safe to say that Tulanes math and hard science programs are not as extensive as their programs in other areas. Of course hes still 18, but he thinks hes leaning toward R&D and a doctorate.
SMU is very upfront and enthusiastic about their COOP and internship programs and the opportunities for undergrad research, in fact he spent a lot of time on his overnight visit there with a professor who takes a group of students, mostly grad students, but she will take quality undergrads, during the summer to do some work on the supercollider, which my son thinks is beyond cool. He is aware that there is undergrad research available in the engineering physics program and has checked out the professors and their research areas and found some of interest (though none quite as cool as the supercollider), we know internships are available, though how many in the hard sciences Im not sure. We are aware of the dual degree programs with John Hopkins and Vanderbilt in case the engineering physics isnt quite what he thinks, (though this would be a last resort option).
But before I send the deposit in, any thoughts on the availability of internships, research and the prospects for a good grad school (assuming he keeps up his end) in engineering and/or physics. I have no concerns about the quality of a Tulane education in general and I think he should be fine for the sciences as well, but wanted to hear some thoughts, since this is not a little thing like a sports team, or climate, or Greek life etc..
Thanks</p>
<p>Scribbulus:</p>
<p>My son is also a math/science kid. He bounces back and forth between engineering and just pure bio as a major. He too would like to do R&D and go for his doctorate eventually. Although, he tends to like the biomedical research. In any case we, too, have done a lot of digging. My son was accepted to all the schools he applied to (12) and narrowed it down to Tulane (dean’s scholar), Stanford and Duke. He also got into Notre Dame, Vandy, Rice and Dartmouth. I only mention the schools because interestingly he was accepted to Tulane in October and has never stopped loving it since. All the other schools have to compete with Tulane. He has just announced that he officially is taking Duke out of the running and we leave tomorrow for the Stanford admit weekend. He will return home on May 1 to make his final decision. (Thank God. We can’t take this anymore. And like your son, my son doesn’t love making decsions like this.) In any case, the reason for writing to you is to state that my husband and I were also equally concerned about the internship and research opportunities at Tulane. Like you, we were very comfortable with the overall level of academics but the research/interships were tougher for us to wrap our minds around. Interesting, as we speak to people who are in the field of science research they all have nothing but great things to say about Tulane. We just came back from Disney and on the plane my husband sat next to a nuerologist. He teaches at Cornell Med School and his wife, also a nuerologist teaches at Columbia. Without even asking, they thought Tulane and Duke (Duke was still in the running at this point.) were very equal. They thought the research/internships were both the same and that the chances of getting into a very good grad school were equal. Stanford they felt was only better in that people seem to love Stanford graduates. But not because they truly came out any better prepared than someone from Tulane. These doctors were very familiar with Tulane because New Orleans has an annual nuerology convention and they had family in NO. However, they were originally from California. I truly love Tulane as does my husband. We are excited to see which school my son chooses and we feel that he can’t go wrong with either choice. The doctors told us the same thing, as have several other individuals. Tulane is truly up there with the best of them!!! Good Luck!</p>