<p>So my cousin is considering an offer of admission from Tulane and I was wondering about how bad crime is in New Orleans.*** We keep hearing such scary stories!*** So I did a little research and wanted to share it in case someone else is in the same situation, as well as ask for advice. (She only applied because Tulane sent her a free "personal" application.... apparently they send out over 100,000 of these!!)</p>
<p>Anyways, I'm sort of wondering how to advise her. Apparently New Orleans is "Murder Capital" by a wide margin.</p>
<p>"New Orleans remains the nation's most murderous city by a wide margin"</p>
<p>"Regardless of which estimate is used, New Orleans has by far the nation's highest per-capita murder rate."</p>
<p>"Using the highest of those population estimates, the city last year recorded 55 murders per 100,000 residents. The number used by the FBI notches that up to 64 murders per 100,000 people.</p>
<p>St. Louis has the nation's second-highest rate, about 47 murders per 100,000 people. Baton Rouge, meanwhile, has the seventh-highest rate, with about 30 murders per 100,000.</p>
<p>This has been asked ansd answered several times on this forum. Take a look at some of the links below for info on this. Most of the crime listed in NOLA statistics are not in the area around Tulane. Tulane is in a city. There can be crime. Tons of safety issues are addressed at orientation and other presentations. The links you posted in your first post are not relevant to TU. </p>
<p>And as an aside, deposits for acceptances were due to the school by May 1. If your “cousin” is “considering an acceptance” he/she is too late. Tulane is overenrolled this year, and except for maybe a sports admit or two, their acceptances are done.</p>
<p>I just copied and pasted this from a previous post of mine regarding crime. I certainly understand the concern. It’s one of the reasons that I’m glad New Orleans just appointed a new police chief today. Here’s my previous post:
As a (somewhat) native New Orleanian, I think there has been a huge misconception about how bad the crime is in the city of New Orleans and around Tulane in general. Is it too much? Yes. Is it worse than most US cities? No. I came across this today on Forbes.com</p>
<p>America’s Most Dangerous Cities (from Forbes Magazine 2009)</p>
<p>15) Philadelphia, PA ----University of Pennsylvania and Temple and Drexel
14)Charlotte, NC ----Davidson College
13)West Palm Beach, Fla
12)Baton Rouge, La ----LSU
11)New Orleans, La ----Tulane University and Loyola New Orleans
10)Baltimore, Md ----Johns Hopkins University
9) Nashville, Tenn ----Vanderbilt University
8)Charleston, SC ----College of Charleston and The Citadel
7)Little Rock, Ark
6)Orlando, Fla ----University of Central Florida
5)Stockton, Cali
4)Las Vegas, Nev ----UNLV
3)Miami, Fla ----University of Miami
2)Memphis, Tenn ----Rhodes College
1)Detroit, Mich</p>
<p>*The stats used were defined as Violent Crimes by the FBI (murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault) </p>
<p>I placed the names of schools located in those cities to show that Tulane is no more dangerous than a lot of other universities in urban areas. Keep in mind that Forbes was not ranking the most dangerous college cities/towns but instead just the most dangerous cities in general. If you wouldn’t send your kid to Penn or Vandy or Johns Hopkins due to crime then I understand avoiding New Orleans. Otherwise, I think this puts the city into perspective and shows that New Orleans, for all its problems, is sadly only following a national trend. New Orleans did not even make their top 10. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>As some people had pointed out to me when I originally posted this, some of these schools are not in the bad areas mentioned or concerned with in the article. I just added schools in the cities listed for reference. Tulane isn’t in a bad section of New Orleans either. I hope this adds some perspective.</p>
<p>As an aside, I’ve lived in Uptown New Orleans for 20 years and have never been so much as mugged or had my apartment or house broken into.</p>
<p>I must admit, a brand new poster pulling up old NOLA news articles from Jan 2008 and June 2009, asking for info for a cousin who is reportedly considering a TU acceptance, when the deadline for acceptance responses to be sent has already passed… sorry for being a doubting Thomas, but it just seems a tad suspect.</p>
<p>And thanks to the student body they caught that rapist of about 1 1/2 ys ago pretty quickly (I assume thats what you are referring to-- your link doesnt work). Think Tulane is the only college that has has an issue with rape? Think again.</p>
<p>Don’t know who said “howd they let it get out?” Thats ridiculous. It was well publicized, and shared with parents and alums as well. Lots of alerts went out. The university publicity is how they caught the guy. Sheesh. Maybe (just guessing, if in fact this really happened) they kept it out of the local media until they had more info to catch the guy, rather than to blast some info in the media and scare hism away to attack elsewhere. They handled it , and caught the creep.</p>
<p>… and if your cuz sent in her deposit, then she isnt considering Tulane, she has committed to Tulane. Unless she is on another school waitlist or has double deposited (bad thing to do) she will be en route to NOLA in August. Congrats!</p>
<p>Yeah, I remember reading that. It was certainly shocking, even by New Orleans standards. Thanks for posting. If your cousin is afraid of crime, perhaps she should go to school in the country (e.g. a state school or LAC) far removed from a metropolitan area. College towns where the whole town is the college tend to be safer. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Caroline99, might I ask where you live? I bet I can Google and find dozens of scary news stories to post from your home town paper too.</p>
<p>Benetode posted the rankings. The detailed crime statistics are out there if you Google, and there are several detailed threads concerning Tulane and safety/crime on this forum if you spend a few minutes searching. </p>
<p>If, on the other hand, we’re just going to post random crime stories, let’s build a campfire and roast some marshmallows while we try to scare each other-- it’s so much more fun that way.</p>
<p>I’d like to add that it’s required by law that colleges and universities report crimes to parents. So I’m not sure how ANY university sweeps them under the rug.</p>
<p>However, building an open fire pit without a permit regardless of your marshmallow situation is also a crime. I think we’ve all learned a valuable lesson here.</p>
<p>Thanks, I really appreciate the ridicule & being called a liar. Is that how you treat everyone who’s questions you don’t like?? I didn’t sat that tulane was the only college with a rape problem, I only asked about it, and if u want u can deny that New Orleans is Murder Capital all u like. I’d say it has more problems than that.</p>
<p>Caroline,
Perhaps you would have received a different response if you’d simply inquired about safety on campus. Gee, posting in the TU forum all the awful, terrible, no good, very bad things you dug up about NOLA (and I am sure you could have found plenty more if you tried) and taking a swipe at the personal application while you are at it-- lends one to be oh so warmly received here. Your sudden appearance here immediately followed some posts by troublemakers in some other threads where they tried to pick fights with TU posters. This thread had that “eau de ■■■■■” smell to it. Sorry if it was a different bouquet. Still suggest you consider posting an objective question rather than a confrontational charge, and see if you might get a more warmly received response. JMO</p>