<p>Thanks for the info on Pitt engineering. Yes, it almost hurts thinking of turning down Rice, but D visited twice and interviewed and just didn't get that "feeling". Also, we've spent a lot of time in Houston recently and she just doesn't want to live there. The real bummer will be turning down Chicago and the "life of the mind". But after paying almost full freight, we wouldn't be left with much BUT the "mind". Pitt will be a nice compromise. Plus, D told her Chicago interviewer she couldn't decide between a place with highly intellectual student body and state u with big conference sports. Pitt has that northern urban environment and is kind of LSU on steroids. Plus, D is going to either grad school or med school and thinks she'd rather save the student loans for that.</p>
<p>Just one more note, Joe, and then I am done because it's not in the best interests of anyone to carry on like this. You could be right that my attitude might be different is my son didn't have the DSA. In fact, there is no way he would BE at Tulane without it because we could not have afforded it. Chapel Hill offered him a nice little scholarship that would have made it a very cheap in-state alternative for us. </p>
<p>However, what I saw last August at Tulane when a crisis hit opened my eyes to something I never would have known about otherwise. I went to a large public university that would have cut us loose under the same circumstaces (in Fla) for fear of legal repercussions. (And I have taught at another Fla public uni, so I know what I'm talking about.) Tulane never let go of the students. In fact, I received an immediate, personal response from upper level admins to an e-mail during the first few days about what was going on. </p>
<p>I will not have any fear for my son as long as he is a Tulane student because I know that, even if another terrible disaster does occur (God forbid), they have good plan for their people and it will be executed in such a way that no one will be hurt. I don't want to see it happen. I don't want the people down there ever to be hurt again. But I have a great deal of confidence in Tulane's willingness and ability to keep its students safe. I never would have said that of the uni I attended or the one at which I taught.</p>
<p>joemama's question about the levees is a reasonable one, I think, given that FEMA today issued a recommendation that thousands of homes and businesses in flood ravaged areas be raised three feet. The cost of the average house is $40,000 the first foot and $8k to $12k per foot for the second and third. Failure to comply may mean losing federal reconstruction aid and future flood insurance. Some see this as a positive sign, but in reality, I think it may slow things a bit due to the added expense for the average person. (I hope I'm wrong.) More importantly, I think it is a statement of risk as the flood walls are not due to be completed until 2010. I hope and pray that they are not needed, but even before Tulane eliminated my son's major, he expressed the concern that he might have to do another "hurricane semester."</p>
<p>Some may see this as no big obstacle, but some may. As I have said before, being an informed consumer is a good thing. My son still has friends in Tulane that he is in touch with regularly. He misses them, no doubt. And, there are no sour grapes here either. Son is happy at his new school and it looks like he may get some scholarship help to take the sting out of not having the DSA. There are always hard questions asked. There were before Katrina, only it was about the crime rate in NOLA, just as there are questions about safety at any urban school.</p>
<p>Along, I am VERY happy to hear that your son is happy at his new school and that he may receive some help there. I'm sure we have all thought of you.</p>
<p>Thanks citymom... Life does work out!</p>
<p>Regarding those new FEMA elevations, they are seen as a good sign in the sense that people with damaged houses need to know what to do with them - repair as is, tear down, raise and how high to raise. These people have been in limbo all these many months and now they can get started. So I don't think this will slow things down - just the opposite. As for the three feet, it is my understanding from the local news that the repairs ACE is doing involve floodgates at the ends of the drainage canals that will be closed off during a direct hit situation in order to keep out the storm surge. However, this will mean greatly reduced ability to pump out rain water (you get a lot of rain with hurricanes), so they are expecting some areas to get anywhere from a few inches to a foot or so of backed up rain water. When the storm passes, the gates are opened and the rain water pumped out. No catastrophic flooding, no water hanging around for three weeks. However, a slab house flush to the ground would get maybe a foot of water in it, so the raising is focused mostly on that type of construction.</p>
<p>None of this is safety concern, and most of the older homes uptown near Tulane are already built to this elevation, so basically it doesn't concern them at all. You would probably have to move your car, but if there is another direct hit, you'd be evacuating and moving your car anyway. Also, the gates would only be closed for a direct hit and the last time that happened preKatrina was Betsy in 1965. This is all more of an insurance headache for the locals than anything for people sending kids off to college to worry about.</p>
<p>Yes, mercy, though many, many of those college kids are very involved with the local area now, so it's good news for them, too. My son was helping to gut Ninth Ward houses until he contracted a fungal infection doing so (!), and so this is important news for him as well as others who are doing similar work. I'm sure they sometimes wondered whether their work would be for naught.</p>
<p>(And don't worry, those who have similarly invincible sons who may be similarly careless with protective gear--there's plenty to do OTHER than such work. He's now teaching an EC in one of Tulane's "adopted" schools.)</p>
<p>I am a Tulane upperclassmen and I can tell you right now that most students are NOT transferrring. Most of the profs are not leaving unless their departments were cut. Trust me, most people are more than happy to be here and don't want to leave. The area around campus has pretty much been back to normal for months. There is "Tulane bubble" in New Orleans and this area has seemed fine since school started. There were even kids in some of my classes that didn't understand how bad the hurricane was because everything around campus seemed like normal. If anything the city is much safer now than it was before and thats about the only serious difference. I'm from Baton Rouge so I'm pretty familiar with the area.</p>