I am a prospective CS major and Tulane has offered a fee waiver / scholarship consideration for my application. I’m not sure if I should take advantage of it or not, since the undergrad CS program is VERY new. I don’t know what the quality of the program will be and if it is even worth applying to. Some guidance would be much appreciated!
Actually Tulane has a free application for everyone!
I think it depends on if you are in sync with the approach Tulane has taken in rebuilding this area with some great new talent. Rather than having students approach their CS education in a relative vacuum, they have you coordinate with another field so that you have an experience more like what you will face after graduation. In other words, by choosing to major in Finance or Economics or Public Health or Music, etc. you can apply your CS skills to real world problems within an area with which you are also highly familiar. Even if you don’t end up in that coordinate major in your work world, it’s great experience. After all, except for academic CS research itself, it is a field that is applied to solve the problems in other fields. Tulane has invested in top level resources as well. http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/121514_big-data_cypress-supercomputer_high-performance-computing.cfm If that approach resonates with you, then you should keep looking at the school, because there is more to a good fit than just if you like what they offer in your major.
I think you need to see if Tulane overall (location, size, the general vibe you get from this site and other sources) seems like a good fit for you. If so, great! If you still are not sure, probably better to focus on the schools where you have already applied.
@fallenchemist Thank you so much, this was very helpful!