My son is pretty serious about eating healthy, proper food choices, and exercising/working out. The quality, convenience, and availability of dining and rec center facilities are important considerations to him.
I understand Tulane will have a new, and I suspect very modern in many ways, dining facility opening fall 2017. How certain are we of a new dining hall for fall 2017?
What do guys think about Reily rec center - machines, free weights, dressing room, smoothie/energy snack bar?
For the dining facility Fall 2017 looks unlikely. There was a delay due at least in part to controversy over destroying the building (a house, really) that is currently there. I am not sure what the time table is now, but I suspect it is more likely we are looking at sometime in 2018. I know with the current facilities Tulane has tried to expand healthier eating options. Perhaps more useful is to aim to live in Greenbaum, if that works out. They have a teaching kitchen http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/022714_chefs_teach_gourmet_cooking.cfm and it will also be the host dorm for the Brain Wave Residential Learning Community, which focuses exactly on your son’s interests http://tuadmissionjeff.blogspot.com/2016/01/all-about-housing.html You will see Brain Wave part way down and the fact that it is in Greenbaum further down from that, in the dorm descriptions.
Reilly is an excellent facility for working out from everything I hear, but hopefully a current student that uses it can comment further.
I can’t speak for Reilly, but my S has been very pleased with the healthy food offerings at Bruff. I had heard a lot of complaints about the food, but when I asked my S about it, he was very surprised. He likes the food and eats much healthier now than he ever has before. He recently decided to become a vegetarian and said that it was a very easy transition for him given all of the good food choices there. YMMV.
I found out from the food service director that Bruff is entirely nut free. It may not matter to most people, but that is a huge plus to my son who has a (very serious) nut allergy. He won’t have to read every label or worry about cross-contamination if the entire dining hall is nut free.
My son was very happy with Reilly but not with the dining. There are very few choices at Tulane for the dining plan and everyone he knows has gotten sick from the food. It also gets very boring. He and his friends ordered out a lot and ate off campus almost constantly after the first couple months.
DD really likes Reilly.
DD likes Bruff okay, she says it is fine but gets a bit repetitive, particularly for breakfast. I think the repetitive thing is common at all campuses. She’s a freshman, and next year will likely do one of the plans with more money in the non-Bruff options, so she can just grab something quick for breakfast or just eat something in her room. She also has a tree nut allergy, and zero issues with that at Bruff.
Don’t count on a “new” Bruff anytime soon, either. The location is just a grass field now, they moved the old house, but there is no construction fencing.
@WineDrinker, our DD is a freshman and also very serious about eating well and working out. We had done all our research (as you are doing) and were excited about the smoothie bar @ Reilly too! Unfortunately, we asked about it on our tour and were told it was a thing of the past…we were so sad LOL! We would LOVE for them to bring it back!
Reilly is great. The free weight area can get quite congested I’m told, but like all university gyms, it’s about timing your workout. The lap pool, workout classes, machines & sun deck are great! They even have a program where a student can learn and become a fitness instructor/trainer.
Our daughter is pretty anti-Bruff because it’s uber repetitive when you have as many food allergies/restrictions as she does. She does eat eat at “Luff”, Hillel and the LBC food court often (much healthier choices in her opinion-including a smoothie place). Loyola has a Smoothie King. Mid-Campus has Le Gourmet which has fantastic options and there is a Farmers’ Market that comes to campus on Fridays (can use wavebucks). Finally, the Food Trucks are a fun option. We were pleasantly surprised at the number of restaurants near campus with extremely healthy/clean options (many accept NOLA bucks). And of course, Whole Foods is approx a $7 Uber ride (which of course can be split with friends).