Honors dorm questions

<p>If you are in the Honors Program are you guaranteed honors dorm housing every year? The acceptance letter said something about honors housing in Butler. It would be difficult to have to find rental apartments and move because I'm going to be flying there and back. Also, is there any place to store your stuff over the summer in the dorm or on the campus? If not, what do people do when they leave for the summer? </p>

<p>I'm social but don't drink, and if Butler is not a party dorm, that would be good. Tulane has a party school reputation so I'd want to know that I wouldn't be the only nondrinker where every get together involves a keg or a bottle or a joint.</p>

<p>Tulane’s reputation in the party category is a bit overblown. Do the students party? Of course, but about the same as at virtually every other school. There are tons of serious students at Tulane that don’t drink or do any drugs, and have lots of fun in clubs and sports and other activities. You have nothing to worry about in that regard. Butler is a better atmosphere for you though, for sure. You will find more like-minded people.</p>

<p>Just to be clear on your housing question, Tulane students are required to live on campus freshman and sophomore years. Butler is freshman only, unless you become an RA. There is no specific honors housing past freshman year, but it really isn’t as important then because you will pick your own roommate, and non-freshman housing tends to be a bit quieter anyway. As you may have seen posted, the new dorm will be for sophomores and is Residential College format, so that will be a good option.</p>

<p>Finally, there are numerous storage companies, and Tulane works directly with 2 or 3 and will disseminate the information in plenty of time for you to arrange to store your stuff. The ones Tulane works with come right to the room and take it away, and deliver it back to your new location in the fall, be it on campus or off.</p>

<p>Thanks FC. What percent of the juniors and seniors move off-campus, and do they get help from Tulane to find off-campus housing if they lose out on however on-campus housing is assigned (is it by a lottery)? My parents won’t want to have to pay 12 months rent if I leave for the summer. Is off campus rent typically cheaper or more expensive than dorms?</p>

<p>Maybe jym can speak to this also, her S is living off campus this year (he is a junior). As far as cost, it really depends on how many housemates you have and where you are in relation to campus. As far as percentage, I am not sure. It will change some anyway because of the new dorm opening up more spaces, but that will be countered a little by the larger class that entered this year. We will just have to wait and see how successful Tulane is in limiting the next class (your class) to 1400 as they hope to do. These factors all play a role in the availability of on-campus housing.</p>

<p>it’s roughly a 50/50 split on students who move off-campus when you factor out those students who go abroad during their junior year. housing prices on the broadway side of campus usually run a bit more expensive that room fees for tulane, while living on the calhoun side of campus can prove cheaper than room fees. Lots of students look for summer sublets - it’s usually not difficult to have someone sublet your room or sublet if you’re looking to just stay for the summer</p>

<p>No upperclassmen are guaranteed housing, so it is done completely by lottery. If you are at the bottom of the lottery and housing runs out, you are put on a waitlist and have to wait until late summer to find out if you are able to get on campus housing (at that point, most people I know who ran into this problem had to get off-campus housing because most had to sign leases before they found out). Some places around campus offer 9 month leases, but most are 12. Subletting can be difficult to do last minute, but if you coordinate it early, it’s not too bad.</p>

<p>I don’t drink and have found many other people with more similar interests. I’m not saying to avoid Butler, but a LARGE population of Butler kids party on a regular basis. My friend’s theory is that all the honors kids have been under their parent’s wing for so long that when they get to Tulane they just go wild. </p>

<p>I’m an honors student, but I’m living in JL. I wouldn’t say its awesome, but I’d say our dorm is about 50/50 in terms of drinkers vs. non-drinkers. It is nice to be able to go to sleep in JL at 9 or 10pm without having to deal with a lot of noise.</p>

<p>Whatever you do, if just don’t apply to be in Sharp or Monroe-that’s where the parties really go down. I stayed with a friend in Monroe over fall break and I didn’t sleep at all because kids were coming in drunk ALL night.</p>

<p>Hi Tulane14,
Thank you for your dorm tips, but I was wondering which dorm is known as JL.</p>

<p>I will butt in (of course). JL is Josephine Louise, Tulane’s only single sex (female) dorm. It is a very nice and interesting building, historic, and lots of people love being in it. I cannot even count the number of students that have told me before moving in their freshman year they were so disappointed they got JL and by Christmas Break they are raving about how wonderful it is to be there. Just a couple of weeks ago I was at a store and a guy comes over and says “aren’t you the guy we flew down to New Orleans with?” His D is a freshman, while mine is a sophomore, but they went to the same high school. Anyway, his D was moaning about it too, and now he tells me she is so thrilled she got JL, that it is nice to have a place where it is “just the girls”. My D has a single at JL this year after being in Butler last year, and she likes it very much.</p>

<p>Sorry for the long answer to a simple question, thought you might like the details.</p>

<p>Tulane14,
Funny, my DD made a similar comment about Butler. She is a freshman and lives on the third floor of Butler. She told me she is so thankful to be in Butler where she can go to sleep and not be woken up at all hours by kids coming home drunk. She does not seem to have crazy partiers on her floor. She does however have some girls who appear to want to go to bed “super early” (her words) like 10:30pm and complain alot about noise. LOL
I do see one benifit to living in Butler and that is the close proximity to Bruff. We know another freshman who is living in JL and she seems to eat in her room a bit more than my DD does. My thoughts are that with JL being a bit farther away, when it comes to meal time, if no one is around to go she may stay in her room instead of walking by herself. If my DD doesnt have a friend to go with, she can always dash over and get Bruff to go.</p>

<p>Iowama- isnt your DD already in Butler? I could have sworn I ate dinner with you on Parents weekend. Anyway, alot of Butler freshman are anticipating going on to the new dorm being built next door. I wouldnt be surprised if our girls were suitemates.</p>

<p>spring162-That’s not what I hear about But 3 on the weekends!!</p>

<p>I agree that JL is really far from everything. It is nice, though, when I can just roll out of bed for an 8am class and be at Newcomb in 2 minutes.</p>

<p>There are +s and -s to living in all the dorms. </p>

<p>I guess I just wanted to let the OP know that pretty much all the dorms here are party dorms in a sense. We are in college, after all. But I can say that if you don’t drink you will still be able to have a social life and can get the most sleep in probably Wall, Butler, or JL (girl’s dorm) out of all the freshman dorms.</p>

<p>Iowama, I sent you a private message</p>

<p>Hi spring162!</p>

<p>Yep, its me! Hope all is well with your D. Since they have to leave Butler next year, I’m just looking around for a new home to suggest.</p>

<p>I suspect the competition to get into the new dorm will be fierce, but if she likes the idea of the Residential College style (like Wall), might be a good choice. My D got a single in JL and really likes that.</p>

<p>I am sure you are right FC. DD is just hoping that if Butler kids have first dibbs(which is what they are being told) she might stand a chance. </p>

<p>Iowama- I thought that was you after your review of Pascales! If they dont get into the new place not sure where they think they will go. I know my D is fearful that she wont get any housing and be forced off campus. She says she is not ready for that!</p>

<p>Spring162 - with the new housing, that seems very unlikely. They would kick out juniors and seniors first, because of their policy of having students be on campus for two years. That is really smart I think if they give HP students first crack at the new dorm. As far as rising sophomores being shut out of on-campus housing, my understanding is that they offered a few that wanted to live off campus permission to do so this year because of the large incoming freshman class, but I have not heard of any rising sophomores that wanted to live on campus that could not, especially if they registered for housing when they were supposed to. I know some forgot and got their names in late, so I am not sure about them.</p>

<p>Spring162 - Are you hearing that Butler residents are getting first dibbs or honor programs kids?</p>

<p>Gabby, my D said that Butler students (honors and non-honors)had first crack at it because they have had to put up with the construction. Dont know who, if anyone, would be given next preference after Butler. Were you thinking of trying to live there next year?</p>

<p>DaVinci92,
If you don’t drink, then I would say Butler is definitely a good choice. I live in Butler now. I don’t drink much and I like to go to sleep sort of early (normally around 12), and I rarely get woken up by drunk girls coming back… some of my friends in Sharp and Monroe have told me that they get woken up often. In Butler I think it would be easier for you to find other students who don’t drink.
One more thing: Paterson is ‘the wellness community’, but I have friends there who say it’s really loud. They also go out and drink a lot. It’s a suprisingly social dorm.</p>

<p>Fallenchemist,
I’ve never written to thank you for your information on JL. Please forgive the tardiness. The Tulane forum has been a great help to our family since I first started browsing it about a year ago, but you in particular have given us great guidance. Thanks!
Iowama</p>