Can anyone give some insight on the dorm situation? Have any dorms been updated lately? Do people think they will accept less to alleviate the crowding and 3 to a room?
In the future, I heard that there are a lot of apartments around campus. Are they nice? Expensive? Gross?
Thanks.
Dorm situation will depend a lot on if you’re in the honors program - the freshman honors dorm and sophmore honors dorms are very nice suite style while the other freshman dorms are older and not suite style. Air quality can be an issue in all of them so I recommend an air purifier regardless of where you end up.
Housing on campus after sophomore year is not guaranteed so most students live off campus. Tulane has overenrolled the last two years so there is a little more competition, if you will, for housing near campus , especially in the gold zone. If you are planning to study abroad and can live missing Marti Gras, I would recommend studying abroad in the spring semester because fall sublets are easy to get (most kids don’t want to miss Marti Gras and so they study abroad in the Fall but have a year long lease). I think the housing is very expensive in the gold zone but I am from a low cost of living area so almost everything in NOLA seems expensive - but very very worth it!
@threebeans thank you. My D will not be in honors, so it sounds as if the non-honors dorms are not very nice. I suppose everyone survives. What do you mean about the air quality? In NO, or mold in the dorms themselves?
What is the gold zone - I am assuming nice housing near school? How expensive is expensive? What’s a typical range for a nice apartment?
Thanks.
Air quality is tricky there because of the humidity - most kids I know benefit greatly from a room air purifier. For instance - if you’re not from the area they may have different allergens that you’re not used to so an air purifier helps a lot. Also of course mildew etc. that comes with humid climates. The gold zone is the area right around campus that has extra police patrols. It’s the safest housing for students. You can get less expensive housing within a mile but in less desirable neighborhoods. I know kids paying between $750 - $1100/month per bedroom plus utilities when they move off campus. If your student is in a frat or sorority they may have
the option of lodging there as well (no price savings but some have better meal service than on campus) Quality of housing seems to be directly proportionate to the price being charged. If your student attends there are active facebook groups that inform you about landlords (good and bad) and almost everything NOLA.
@threebeans Very helpful - thank you.
Agree with what @threebeans has said. The kids don’t complain about the conditions of the dorms as much as the parents do. My S is a senior and is currently paying $685/month plus utilities. I think he’s just outside the gold zone, but safe area. Last year he paid less because he sublet in the fall and somewhere else in the spring(his choice because he’s so money conscious). Lots of fall sublets available because that’s when most students go abroad. Finding a spring sublet is not as easy
Hi – I’m a current freshman. The quality of the dorms is definitely going to vary, with freshmen dorms being in a little rougher of shape. Assuming the honors dorm (Wall) isn’t an option, the big freshman dorms you’ll hear about are Sharp and Monroe. These are the biggest dorms on campus, and generally considered the most social. However, they’re also known for being pretty grimy all around, so I would avoid if you’re looking for a clean living situation. Other dorms include Butler, Paterson, Josephine Louise, and Warren. If you have a daughter, I would recommend Josephine Louise. That’s where I live right now, and while it gets a lot of hate for being all girls, the rooms tend to be bigger, and it’s quieter and cleaner (though, in the grand scheme, it’s still a college dorm, so). Butler, Warren, and Paterson are somewhere in the middle in terms of size, cleanliness, etc. None of the dorms are a palace, but they’re a lot better than people make them out to be, I think. As you said, everyone survives. I haven’t had any issues with air quality, but I would recommend investing in a Brita water pitcher, because the tap water is pretty questionable. Can’t comment on the over-enrollment, but for what it’s worth, the forced triples were only in the honors dorm.
Regarding tap water, almost everybody in the dorms signs up for the water supplier (Kentwood) which delivers directly to each student’s room a large gallonage cylinder every two weeks or month, and the cost is only about $120 for the semester (split amongst the roommates). I believe the cost is subsidized for the University students. The water apparatus has a heater element so the kids can make tea or coffee also. They will have a booth on campus during movein weekend to sign up. My daughter has been happy having the bottled water in her room. The reason bottled water is preferable to tap water or a Brita filter is that during frequent rains and flooding there are often water alerts issued for NOLA and it is advised to refrain from using or have to boil water for a short period of time (usually not more than a few days). Having or buying bottled water avoids worrying about that. I echo the commenter above about the need for having an air filter in the room, for the allergens and mildew due to the humidity in the tropical climate. There are plenty of good relatively inexpensive air filters one can buy on Amazon or at Costco. And they have worked well!
We just came back from honors weekend and the question about housing and triples came up a lot (from the parents). Regarding dorms, only Wall can turn a single into double, and a double into a triple. The other dorm rooms cannot accommodate and extra bed. One of the kids impacted by the triple situation told us a funny story of how he picked Tulane because they did NOT do triples, and when he was assigned a triple he was very angry. But then the moved in and he said there was plenty of room, and they went out of their way to be nice to the triple people, Tulane gave them a lot of extra perks and he wouldn’t have traded his triple experience for anything. One of the professors also said they were really trying to keep the numbers down this year so they do not have to do that again, because having too many people create a lot of challenges across campus, so they did not want that to be the new norm.
Also, starting with the class of 2023, freshman AND sophomores are required to live on campus. I’m assuming that in order to put this requirement in place, they have had to have planned on available housing capacity.
I agree with MJMAMA; the parents are much more concerned about dorms than the students. In every Q&A session, it was the parents asking about the dorm conditions and not the students. Even students in the older dorms say they enjoyed living there, and while they joke about some of the conditions of a communal bathroom (which will be a problem anywhere), I never heard anyone say “you don’t want to live at XYZ dorm”. Current and incoming students seem are a lot more flexible – ah, to be young.
I think crappy dorms are a rite of passage, and also agree that the students (as opposed to parents) are less inclined to obsess or prioritize that single factor over others on the “quality of life” spectrum such as food quality and options on campus. In addition, finding the “right” roommate with some common interests and compatibility (clean vs. messy, quiet vs loud, up late vs up early) are far more important that the dimensions or exact location of a dorm room.
@AH1310 Freshmen and Sophomores have always been required to live on campus at Tulane, that’s not new. The past 2-3 years have been tough because of over enrollment of freshmen and Tulane could not provide housing for all sophomores.
Three years ago Sharp & Monroe, two of the freshman dorms were is need of a major overhaul. Both buildings were tired and dated looking. I would strongly recommend anyone placed there purchase an air filter as the AC units there are never cleaned. Search on the Tulane parents Facebook group and you will see multiple posting about ‘freshman cough’. With that my daughter loved her time in Monroe, said she would live there again if Tulane allowed it. Sophomore year she lived in Aron, which I have to say was very impressive.