<p>Hi, does anyone have any thoughts/info on Tulane's English program...strengths, weaknesses, popularity, whatever. D got accepted and is thinking English/Poli Sci majors with a view towards law school, possibly. It's so hard to tell by looking at the courses, they all look the same. thanks</p>
<p>Full disclosure, my D is an English major at Tulane, along with China studies.</p>
<p>I think you hit it right on the head, they are all very similar. Pretty much within the top 75 or even top 100 schools as ranked by USNWR (just a convenience for this discussion, FWIW I think trying to rank undergraduate institutions is a travesty), you will get a fine education for both of these majors, which tend to be very popular. Therefore picking a school based on prospesctive major, or even factoring it in much, doesn’t make a lot of sense. Besides which fully 75% of students change their major at least once from what they thought going in, so it would only be a coincidence that they ended up at a school with a good department in their major (I assume the new major’s department is good, otherwise they probably wouldn’t change).</p>
<p>It is better, I think, to focus on the atmosphere in which they will take these courses. Is the school the size they are looking for? Is it in a location they enjoy? Are the professors accessable and engaged with the undergrads? On this point I think Tulane is very strong. Are their peers intellectually challenging to them? To me, at least, it makes sense to go to a school where there are a lot of students that are smarter than you and keep you on your toes. Do they like big time college sports? These and other factors, including finances if that is an issue for your family, should determine the choice of undergraduate institution.</p>
<p>Grad school is different, then you want to look more at the fine details and see where the schools separate at the micro level. Grad school is closer to a job. For undergrad, after looking at the kinds of factors above, the best thing is to visit the top 4-6 choices for a couple of days each if possible and try and get the feel of the school overall. Then hopefully a decision becomes clearer.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>thanks, good thoughts there. Does your daughter feel intellectually challanged and stimulated at Tulane? My daughter is competitive academically and wants to go to a college where she has lots of kids like her…academic, but still liking to have fun. I am taking her to the Honors Weekend, I believe, vs. Destination Tulane. Maybe she will fall in love! (got a scholarship, so would love to see her love it!)</p>
<p>My D also in Honors Program, so that is great that yours is invited. I think that is a very good decision to do the Honors weekend instead of Destination Tulane. Much more geared toward your D.</p>
<p>Yes, in virtually all of her classes she feels that there are high expectations and a lot(!!) of work. She skipped most of the intro classes because of her AP scores, and that helped a lot I am sure. Like most schools, kids liking to have fun is not a problem at Tulane. And it absolutely doesn’t have to involve drinking and wild partying, although that’s an option of course. With the generally warm weather and tons of things to do, there are a lot of alternatives.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you both!</p>
<p>Hi! I just thought I might have some insight on this because I’m kind of in the same situation. I came into Tulane in the Honors Program intending to be a Poli Sci major, but switched to double majoring in Anthropology and English. I’m also planning on going to law school. One thing that really struck me about the English program was that it is very literature-heavy. That’s not my thing, so I actually dropped down to an English minor and added a history major. If your daughter is really into writing, make sure she knows she’s going to have to be reading a LOT of literature to be an English major - there aren’t a lot of options for writing classes.</p>
<p>I don’t know, but wouldn’t creative writing be the major to pursue if writing was more your forte? Or perhaps even journalism? I’m not really surprised that english would be literature heavy.</p>
<p>Creative Writing is an area of concentration within the English major. But as most, if not all successful writers seem to say, to be a great writer you have to be a great reader first.</p>
<p>What you’re both saying is really good, and completely true. But if you’re an English major/minor looking at the course offerings like I have, it’s either a literature course, a creative writing course, or two classes that focus on non-creative writing. Once you take those, you have to basically write poetry, which sucks, or read books and talk about them with people who think they know everything. I guess if you’re one of those people who loves to read those books and thinks they know everything, it’s a great major.</p>
<p>Well, I think the comment about thinking they know everything is a bit harsh, although I have no doubt there are people that think that, or at least come across like they do. But the very nature of discussing the meaning of literature involves having opinions and defending them, no? Unfortunately sometimes people that are really into this come across as if everyone that doesn’t see what they see must be stupid, and that is unfortunate. I can tell you that is true in science and history and … well, you get the idea. People are people.</p>
<p>Anyway, it seems to me that undergrad is exactly the time to have a heavy concentration on how the masters do it, and afterwards is the time to focus on doing it yourself. That is why programs like the Iowa workshops and the Middlebury programs are so important and competitive to get into. People that love to write are going to write, they don’t need too many classes for that. Professors that really love literature will always work with students on their craft. Generally speaking it is difficult to write meaningful works before you have really experienced much of life. There are exceptions, but usually this is true.</p>
<p>Having said all that, It seems to me Tulane offers a similar number or even more courses than other schools I looked at such as Chicago, Duke, and Harvard although I will admit that not being familiar with their course catalogs I might have missed something. But it looks to me like Tulane offers 361 (Intro Creative Writing, there were eight sections of this offered this semester so it must be very popular), 362 (Workshop in Creative Writing), 364 (Screenwriting), 461 (Advanced Fiction Writing), 462 (Advanced Poetry Writing) and 466 (Topics in Advanced Creative Writing), and I see an offering for a 330 this semester (Writing for Children). There is also a 388 (Writing Intensive Practicum) listed in the course catalog, but I am not sure what that is and if it relates to Creative Writing. So given that there are only 8 semesters in the typical undergraduate career and there are lots of requirements to fill, it seems to me there are plenty of offerings for the student that loves to write in nearly any genre. And of course there are always independent studies (491-492) or a senior thesis type of project (H499-H500). I would be willing to bet one can write a significant creative work as a thesis project. I could be wrong, but still the independent study would be an option.</p>
<p>Not picking a fight with you trackie. In fact, I find your comments on all the topics you have weighed in on to be extremely useful and love having the perspective. I just think in this case there is more out there at Tulane than you gave it credit for.</p>
<p>FallenChemist–You should’ve been a lawyer!</p>
<p>Wow, LOL. My research prof told me the exact same thing right before I graduated.Very funny story there. Maybe I should have listened!</p>
<p>Definitely really great comments, fallenchemist, and definitely thanks for the input. I’m just someone who loathes creative writing and looking for writing courses here, they’re pretty much all creative writing except for Expository and Persuasive, which I think are 263 and 363, and I’ve taken them both :(</p>
<p>Hi trackie - Yeah, I read your second comment wrong, or still had your first one in mind. I thought you were saying there were NOT a lot of creative writing courses. Your original comment (#5) only said there were not a lot of writing classes, so that was wrong. But you meant there are not a lot that aren’t creative writing, which you did say in your second comment (#8). My mistake. I guess there is a Technical Writing course (367). It sounds kind of dry to me, but to each their own.</p>
<p>You got me curious as to why there are not courses in writing biographies and history, so I looked in the History department. Nothing I could find, but every different area of history (European, African, Asian, etc, etc.) has these Writing Intensive Practicum courses. Can you tell me what these are? There is no real description, the handbook only says
</p>
<p>You should really approach the English and History departments and suggest there should be one, if not two new courses, one for writing non-fiction history and one for writing biographies. I am assuming this is more what you had in mind. Hey, often it is up to the students to make things happen!</p>