Fall Break

I was wondering if anyone knows what most of the kids do over Tulane Fall Break. Our school system has a week long Fall Break and it overlaps the Tulane break. My daughter thinks she might want to meet her parents and siblings on vacation, but we are not sure if she will need to stay on campus to study or if most of the Tulane students go somewhere with their new friends? I guess it probably varies a lot. We are thinking of just booking her a Southwest flight and then if she does something else we can change it later. I hope this doesn’t sound too crazy, we just tend to plan ahead. Thanks

My son has always stayed on campus for fall break. It’s a really short break and he always has tons of work to do. It’s also a great opportunity to get off campus and enjoy the city a bit.

Welcome to the TU family X22011! My son is a junior and has never come home during fall break. It’s only 4 days, so a lot of students stay at school and just have a long weekend. I’m sure that some kids go home too. So, either is fine. I do not think that many kids go on a trip together (like during spring break). If it overlaps with your family’s break and she doesn’t mind flying home, then book it (especially if you can do Southwest).

@X22011

As you guessed, it varies a lot. But to me the bottom line, more or less, is that if the rest of the family is going to be somewhere on vacation and she can fairly easily get to that location (i.e. it doesn’t take 12 hours of travel just to get there and another 12 back), then why not? Because usually after freshman year they don’t want to leave campus, they are so involved with friends and activities. And by knowing ahead of time that she can’t use that time to catch up on work she was assigned, she won’t put it off but will get it done. Besides, it isn’t like she can’t bring a book or two with her and do some reading on the plane, as opposed to work that might require using the library or other outside materials.

Worst case? You book the flight and she tells you a week before that she wants to stay on campus. Unless you bought the fully refundable tickets, you won’t get your money back but you can apply the money to one of her flights home or back to campus later. Unless they have changed the rules, I think you get to use the credit for 12 months.

this year my Freshman daughter stayed on campus but quite a few of her east coast friends went home. A few of her classes cancelled for Wed so some kids flew out Tuesday afternoon or Wed to extend the break.

Thanks for the advice and the welcome . We found a Southwest flight from New Orleans that pretty closely coincides with the flight the rest of us are taking. So, we went ahead and booked it. Not to promote Southwest, but they sure are great. Looks like we are going to be getting a lot of frequent flyer miles to and from New Orleans. As an aside, we flew down for Top Scholars weekend in March and were really impressed with Tulane and New Orleans. The weekend just confirmed our daughter’s decision to attend Tulane. We have stayed in the French Quarter before, but never uptown. We stayed in the Park View bed and breakfast and it was like staying in a different city. It’s amazing how relaxing and beautiful uptown is compared to the sometimes insane vibe of the French Quarter. Not to say the French Quarter isn’t beautiful too, just this was a really different and pleasant experience. Where else can you sit on a balcony drinking wine and coffee in 70 degree weather with streetcars rolling by in February? We read a lot of negative reviews about Bruff so our expectations may have been low, but it was actually really good and had a lot of choices. Daughter commented it’s a whole lot better than the food at her high school . We also ate at Shaya for dinner and can highly recommend eating there. My daughter is a little disappointed two of her high school friends with really good stats- 33 and 34 ACT scores 4.0 gpa’s have been put on the waitlist. We feel really lucky she was admitted and received a generous scholarship when many other great kids have not been admitted. It looks like Tulane maybe getting as selective as some other privates like Vandy and Duke. It’ll be interesting to see what the final stats are for the new class. Anyway, I’m rambling, but it’s a crummy winter day here…thanks again.

@X22011

You have already experienced just one of the things we old-timers love about NOLA. You are 100+% right about uptown vs. the Quarter (and vs. the CBD, what most people would call downtown). For that matter, it is amazing how quickly the Quarter loses the insanity of Bourbon Street just going over one block to Royal, and progressively from there as one approaches the river.

As to Bruff, I think the main complaint these days is not the quality, but is more about getting tired of the repetitive nature of eating there all the time, which is understandable no matter how much variety they try to bring to it. That is why it is so good to have readily available breaks from it such as the LBC, the food trucks that are apparently now a big hit on campus, and of course the plethora of choices on Oak, Maple, Freret, Magazine, and all over NOLA, accessible by streetcar or a cheap Uber ride.

I think you might be right about admissions going forward. Hard to say as of yet, but the next couple of years should be very interesting.

I’ve never had a lot of work during fall break but I usually stay on campus & party (as most people do). Some people visit other schools/ have visitors as well