@jototo
You ask a lot of good questions, although your view of the south is a little bit outdated. But that is understandable given the slanted publicity of the press. Just as an aside, I have lived about 1/3 of my life in the south, 1/3 in the north, and 1/3 in middle border states. My experience was that when it comes to race and tolerance of others, people are people, and that there are just as many narrow-minded bigots in each area, just as there are about an equal number of progressive, fair minded people in each area, and that these days the latter far outweigh the former. The former are just more spectacular in their ignorance, and the South has the burden of history that makes it an excellent story for the press. I say all this for a few reasons that actually relate to your question. New Orleans has never really been like the rest of the South. Look up the history of the Treme neighborhood, for example. It is a very unique city since before the founding of the United States. Of course I am not trying to paste over its racial issues from long ago, but that was just what it was, long ago.
Now to really get to your question (thank you for putting up with my little partial detour), Tulane itself is not a particularly southern school in its character, being private and having a student population that draws less than half from the south. In fact, the only southern state in the top 5 of where Tulane students come from is Louisiana. Otherwise you have NY, California (yes, Tulane has become a very hot school throughout California, especially I think in the LA and SF areas), IL, and I think TX is next. I guess it is up to you if you want to call TX “southern”. Tulane is very conscious of the need to keep expanding the enrollment of people of color. They work closely with the Posse Foundation, especially the Los Angeles branch, and similar groups. Like a lot of private universities, there remains an imbalance. Tulane also does not draw as much from the Asian population as some other schools, perhaps because of the more limited engineering offerings compared to some, and of course also due to the local demographics as compared to the UC schools. I think one can say the same about the Hispanic population to some degree, as compared to TX and FL. So Tulane has some work to do in that area and they know it as far as increasing minority enrollment.
However, that shouldn’t be taken to mean that Tulane is not extremely progressive when it comes to treating all as equals. Again, like any school of 7000 undergrads or so, you will have a few idiots that have more narrow views regarding race. But you will have that at any school, I don’t care how progressive it appears. Tulane is certainly trying to be active in dealing with these issues, and recent events elsewhere no doubt spurs that on. But the vast majority of students are extremely tuned into the idea of everyone working together to make a better world, it is one of the signature themes of getting a Tulane education. 2 full semester courses of community learning and assisting are required, and many students go beyond that. I will also add that Tulane is one of the most LGBT friendly schools there is, and I think that openness just naturally carries over to most aspects of viewing your fellow students and all people. I don’t mean to make it sound like it is Utopia in these aspects, of course there are some of the same problems that are perpetuated in society in general. But I see a true desire among most Tulane students to work past all that and reach new or deeper understandings.
As far as comparing it to UCD, UCB and UCLA, I would say that Tulane is probably more well known than the first, and less known than the last two. But of course Berkeley and UCLA are two of the most famous universities in the world. I think what it really comes down to is what kind of educational experience your D is looking for. UCB and UCLA are huge, of course, and we all know some of the issues throughout the UC system in terms of cutbacks. class sizes, finishing late because you cannot get required classes when you need them, etc. But they have amazing resources and a lot to offer of course. UCD is different than all of them, being rural and for a long time focused mainly on agricultural majors. The others are all urban, so…
Is the expense worth it? That is a very personal question. If you are worth $20 million, then it is probably a moot point. If you are solidly middle class, it is a very big question indeed. Value is not an absolute, but it is relative to your means and how much what Tulane offers as compared to these other schools means to you and your D, especially your D. If you/she would have to take on a lot of debt in order to attend Tulane, then I would say almost certainly it is not worth it. If the debt after 4 years would be none, or relatively small, then as I say only you and she can decide how those things balance out. I can only say that for me Tulane was an amazing experience that completely changed my life, and while some of these life-changing events would have probably happened at most schools, even more of them I think would not have. My D, who attended Tulane 35 years later, also found it to be a wonderful place to go to school and is very glad she selected it over several others, but she does not have quite the extreme feeling I do. That is not surprising, she had far more college-like experiences before going than I had by a long shot. In fact, she had a lot and I had none. Even so, now that she is at Stanford and after meeting many people from dozens of other schools and countries, both at Stanford and while working with the Department of State, she agrees that Tulane offers some truly unique aspects to how they approach an undergraduate education, that it is an excellent education in the traditional ways as well, and that NOLA is one of the most unique places to get that education.
Well, who knew I was going to write a book??? (
Chew on that and see what you think, and please come back with any thoughts or more questions. There are many on this forum from all over the country and I think you can get various perspectives.
