<p>D just got the big envelope with acceptance, Presidential Scholar Award, and Honors Program invitation. We're all very happy!</p>
<p>The letter says that freshmen and sophomores are required to live on campus. I've heard that housing is not guaranteed thereafter. I've also heard that there is an honors dorm (Butler). My main question: Are those in the Honor's Program are ALSO not guaranteed housing after the sophomore year?</p>
<p>Assuming that ALL Tulane students are not guaranteed housing after the sophomore year, what percentage of the juniors and seniors actually still live on campus? Does the number of students who want to continue to live on campus exceed then number of available on-campus accommodations? Also, do the juniors and seniors live in any particular dorms? I read that Aron is mostly for this group. Are there any other dorms with mostly upper division students?</p>
<p>Regarding off campus living, does Tulane itself own any off campus housing or are all of the properties in private hands? Also, does Tulane set any standards for private off campus housing (e.g. in order for the properties to qualify to be ApartmentSource, which is Tulane's off campus housing locator)?</p>
<p>Your answers will help us get the most out of our visit to Tulane this spring. Thanks so much.</p>
<p>I am also interested in the answers you get, because my D just finished her first semester and who knows what she will want to do in 1.5 years. Congrats on the scholarship and HP invite, btw. My D likes it in Butler. They are adding housing at Tulane, there is a new dorm being built next to Butler as we “speak”. So that should bode well for the future regarding the ability of juniors and seniors to live on campus should they choose.</p>
<p>However, what I really wanted to say that I am very familiar with the area around Tulane, being an alum myself. I did not live off campus, but a lot of my friends did. There are tons of really nice choices in all directions from the campus. There are homes all up and down St. Charles, to the east of campus (no, I am not talking about the mansions, lol) but behind the mansions there are lovely homes that are often for rent that 4-6 students can share. There are more modest homes for rent around Audubon Park and off the Magazine Street area to the south of campus that 2-4 students could rent. These numbers are generalizations of course. The houses are quite varied in style and size. The ones on the other side of Audubon Park are mostly within walking distance if you give yourself some time, but biking would be more practical. The ones off St. Charles are either walkable or you pick up the streetcar.</p>
<p>Finally there are a number of mostly older, modest homes west of the campus towards Broadway and onto Carrollton on the tree streets (Maple, Willow, Oak, etc.) A lot of students rent there. Very walkable in most cases.</p>
<p>To get more specific and to get answers to your statistics questions, I recommend either writing to the housing dept. at Tulane or making an appointment to meet with them for when you are visiting. They seem pretty organized and I think they can give you definitive answers. If you do get those answers, please share.</p>
<p>C&G - To the best of my knowledge Tulane does not own or manage off-campus housing. As fallenchemist said, the houses around campus are older and are reasonable to rent. My D and her roommate had a flat on Pine Street, just across Broadway. Her landlord, who owns many rental units near Tulane, was flat wonderful. If you stop at the housing office and ask about off-campus rentals, I’m sure they’ll confirm what I’ve said.</p>
<p>BTW, my D found the rental through Craigslist, rather than through the Tulane housing office.</p>
<p>PS, I’d recommend visiting in mid-January if you can … or early March. Avoid Mardi Gras season … for many reasons.</p>
<p>Thanks to both of you, fallenchemist and NewHope33.</p>
<p>We’ll be sure to look at the streets and neighborhoods you mentioned, fallenchemist. I take it from your answer that when it comes to upper division housing, the same rules apply regardless of whether or not the student is in the Honors Program. Is that your impression? If I learn anything else, I’ll share.</p>
<p>Would you guys rule out visiting just AFTER the actual day of Mardi Gras (February 16)? We had been thinking about later that week (e.g. February 18 or 19), when Tulane is back in session. But perhaps things would not be back to normal for longer than that?</p>
<p>I just asked my D, and while she never asked the question, she doesn’t think that HP students get any preference for housing the last 2 years. But that is hardly gospel.</p>
<p>Frankly, I would wait until the next week if you can. It just isn’t a normal week, but if it is the only time you can go, that Thursday and Friday won’t be that different than normal. There will just be a huge number of beads still hanging from the trees, the stands probably still set up on the streets of New Orleans, clean-up still going on, and a somewhat higher number of out-of-towners still straggling. As long as you know that, it should be OK. But it really takes that next weekend for everyone to fully recover and feel like things are back to normal.</p>
<p>C&P - I believe some RA’s are Seniors, if your D is interested in going that route. And I know a couple of my D’s friends who were Seniors lived in Aron’s. I don’t believe there is any housing preference for Honors Program kids (my D was in Honors). But I think housing preference works out for most students. FWIW housing was always a non-issue for my D. At some point in a conversation she’d say “Oh BTW I’m going to be living in XXX next year.” </p>
<p>Mardi Gras … ugh. It’s wonderful for businesses and out-of-towners, but it’s the bane of NOLA residents. The crowds, the congestion, the trash, the high prices … my D had a taste of it during her freshman year, and after that she elected to spend her time off (Tulane closes for a couple days during Mardi Gras) with friends in Texas or Alabama. Bottom Line: I agree with fallenchemist … you’d get a “more normal” picture if you waited until March 1.</p>
<p>I think we’ll wait to visit until March/April. There’s an Honors weekend in each of those months, so we’ll try for one of those.</p>
<p>The RA idea is interesting, but I’m not sure if it’s worth the headaches associated with the position. We’ll check out Arons when we visit, as well as the other neighborhoods you guys mentioned.</p>
<p>We went to the Honors weekend last March. I think it is very worthwhile, and has the advantage that your D will stay overnight with another student in dorm (although probably not Butler, but not sure. Mine was in JL. She stayed in Butler during orientation in June). If you want/need suggestions on hotels, restaurants, etc. please feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>I don’t know if it is still the case, but both my sons’ scholarships included a housing stipend of $2000 which they would give up by moving off campus. That being said, they so preferred to live off campus by junior year that we decided to forgo the stipend. S2 currently lives a few blocks off campus in a very nice apartment on Oak that he shares with another student. He lives just as far from the academic quad as he did before in the dorms. OTOH he’s much closer to the Newcombe buildings.</p>
<p>Also, according to my son, if any junior or senior wants to live on campus - it’s not an issue.</p>
<p>My son is a sophomore and he just started exploring the options for next year’s housing. His preliminary research seems to indicate that more kids want to move off campus after sophomore year so he believes that getting a spot on campus should not be a problem. He is thinking about either Mayer or Aron.</p>
<p>My soph. son currently lives in Mayer. He’s been equivocating about living on/off campus next year. He Likes the convenience of being on campus, but he also wants to live with friends, and it may depend what they want to do. Also, if he chooses to take a semester aborad, that may affect housing decision. The only concern I’ve had is that if, heaven forbid, there is a weather issue again, the school has no responsibility to assure the safety of posessions, etc or for those living off campus. Its a minor issue, I know, but one that I do think about.</p>
<p>I believe the housing allowance incentive was offered a year or 2 after Katrina. Is that correct, altmom? It wasn’t offered, to my knowledge, to members of my s’s incoming fresh. cclass.</p>
<p>The merit scholarships no longer have a requirement for on-campus living, all of the money is applied to the tuition. So living off campus does not diminish the award. My DS lived in Sharp as a freshman and Irby as a sophomore and is now off campus in the area described above. He is in a house on Audubon which is near Broadway. He doesn’t have a car and everything is walkable. He had a car for a while but parking was a bit of a challenge so he brought it home. Moving off campus offers freedom from the meal plan, after two years he was tired of Bruff food. As a junior he is spending a semester overseas and he split the lease with another guy who was going overseas the other semester. They just crammed both of their stuff in their shared room and it has worked out fine. The housing office is pretty arms-length about off-campus options, they will tell you landlords that students have had trouble with but don’t endorse any landlords. There are 2-3 companies that control the majority of the student rental market so it’s pretty straightforward to find out what’s available. My son found his rental on craiglist as well. I would say that the rent plus utilities is about $600 a semester higher than what he paid for on-campus housing, and he certainly isn’t living in a great place. But he has a private room, not shared, which increases the cost. On campus housing is available for juniors/seniors but I don’t know anything about the selection process and my impression from DS is there isn’t a lot of demand for it. I believe the upperclassman live in the trailers near Reilly.</p>
<p>jym626: You mentioned that Tulane would not have a responsibility to assure the safety of a student’s possessions, if the student lived off campus. I understand this. But would Tulane be responsible to assure the safety of a student’s possessions, even if they lived on campus? I seem to recall (with my older daughter, at another college) buying dorm insurance. Would that still be necessary at Tulane?</p>
<p>roamingcooks: I’ll have to keep an eye out for the trailers near Reilly when we visit in March or April. Hopefully, they are only temporary, pending completion of permanent buildings. I’d be a little nervous about having a child live in a trailer in the event of a major storm.</p>
<p>capandgown: the trailers behind Reilly are in fact permanent. they are actually some of the nicer dorms on campus. id assume they’d be safe enough seeing how the survived Gustav</p>
<p>I actually laughed when you guys called them the trailers. We call them the “mods,” probably trying to make them sound less like trailers than they actually are. Nobody wants to live back there, believe me. About 30% of juniors and 15% of seniors live on-campus. It’s also funny that I definitely have to say no, honors students do not get priority for housing. I’m actually in the honors program and a Dean’s Honor Scholar, and I had the last pick at housing last year. I’ll be living off-campus next year, thank goodness. The housing office here is full of past RAs who couldn’t get jobs anywhere else and are overly power-happy. They’re definitely not helpful is the best way to put it. There are really good off-campus apartments, though, so don’t be worried!</p>
<p>Thanks, trackie10x, for this info. Did you get any priority as a freshman (e.g. for Butler) on account of being in the Honors Program? Did you get any priority as a sophomore, for Butler or anywhere else? How did you find Butler (assuming you lived there)? Thanks.</p>
<p>I actually lived in JL my freshman year, but i would’ve had priority for Butler if I’d wanted it. Basically if you’re a freshman in the honors program and you want Butler, you’ll get it. As a sophomore, no, I didn’t get any priority. And pretty much zero sophomores live in Butler, so you wouldn’t really want to live there anyway as a sophomore.</p>