<p>I certainly cannot say if Tulane is the right fit for you, although you seem to have decided already that it pretty much is in many respects. But I think I can address your concerns.</p>
<p>Regarding safety, there have been numerous threads on this topic posted previously on this Tulane forum, but I know they can be hard to find. Bottom line is that the campus is extremely safe, and the area around campus is at least as safe as most other universities and safer than many. Tulane is in the Audubon area of New Orleans, also know as Uptown. Huge homes border one side of the campus, and in general it is very nice. Of course common sense needs to prevail as far as not walking alone at night off campus. Tulane also runs an escort service. LOL, sorry couldn’t resist. But in fact they do provide the option of calling TUPD and having someone come to escort you from A to B at night, even within a mile radius of campus, I think it is. You would have to check on the details. There are also numerous other safety options, such as SafeRide, and an app where you alert TUPD that you are leaving point A and expect to be at point B in X minutes. If you don’t alert them you arrived safely they check on you. Something like that.</p>
<p>The point is that Tulane does a lot to insure the campus and the area around campus is as safe as possible, and the track record is very good. I get a crime report for a 2 mile radius around campus every day (left over from when my D was there, I just keep it for info) and there has been nothing significant within a mile of campus for some time. And what I see outside that mile is almost always in one area called Hollygrove where you would just not go anyway. I would also point out that the undergraduate students are about 58-60% female. I don’t think that many young women would be attending, nor would many parents allow it, if there were a major issue here. Even rural campuses require diligence by the individual.</p>
<p>As far as walking around New Orleans in general, like all cities this is area specific. You pretty quickly learn where is OK and where is not, and again there is more safety in numbers, During the day it is fine to walk down St. Charles, Broadway, and other well traveled streets alone. My D did it all the time, sometimes for miles. Magazine Street, for example, has a lot of shops and restaurants and is very popular with the students. So are the Oak and Maple Street areas. So there are a lot of places that are considered safe, which are within walking distance of campus. Of course people go downtown often as well, to places like the French Quarter, Frenchtown, and other areas. Some areas have regentrified, such as parts of Freret, also near campus. There is variety that can be enjoyed without undue worry.</p>
<p>Regarding sports, it has traditionally (meaning the last two decades or so) not been a major rallying point for the school, with one or two years that were exceptions. Sure there has been some tailgating outside the Superdome, but parties are easy to come by in any case. However, now that the football team is playing much better (and it continues to look positive), and most importantly that starting this year we will be playing in a brand new stadium on campus, I think this will get much better. So while attendance has been so-so to lousy when they were at the Superdome, I think it will improve markedly with the games being on campus now. The men’s basketball team is very uneven in its level of play for a few years now, but the women’s team has been quite good for some time. Not UConn good, but very strong within the conference and a heavily winning record for the past few years.</p>
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Honestly, if I had a dollar for every Tulane student that told me they don’t want to party, I would fund a full scholarship. Well, that might be overstating it, but there really are a lot of students that are looking to enjoy New Orleans and Tulane without large amounts of alcohol. As I have told a number of others in your situation, the key is to be proactive in finding these other students. It is a bit harder than the opposite situation, since to find fellow students that want to party, you only have to go to a party. In your case you need to join a few clubs, talk to people in your classes and dorms, and be proactive. There are a lot of you out there. The party scene is far more public, so it seems to dominate. And hey, this is college. To a large degree it does dominate, but that is, as you say, true pretty much everywhere. You just have to make your own experience, not wait for it to come to you. But there is plenty to do besides the heavy party scene. There are always concerts, plays, movies, games, galleries to visit, and people interested in the same things you are as far as more “mundane”, for lack of better word, hobbies and interests.</p>
<p>I cannot say if the sorority scene = party scene. Obviously that is part of it. Someone more familiar with Greek life at Tulane would have to weigh in on this.</p>
<p>I hope this helps you make up your mind. If I may ask, what is the other school you are focused on?</p>