Is Tulane still worth it?

Applying to College
1

<p>I keep getting really desperate sounding letters from Tulane University. Now, they're offering free applications, and sound like they're trying to get whatever's left of the talented academic pool. </p>

<p>I can't really find out how bad the devastation of Katrina affected the university because they probably try to ameliorate the situation through their descriptions. Of the draw fills of college letters, Tulane seems to reflect that they're anxious about their admissions: "your outstanding academic performance has made you one of the few talented students I am asking to apply with the Personal Application." The difference is subtle, but I haven't read a college letter that tried so hard b/c the rest of the letter is all about free application fee this, automatic scholarship consideration that. </p>

<p>Would any of you still consider Tulane?</p>

2

<p>"Is Tulane still worth it?"</p>

<p>was it ever?</p>

<p>...hehe...
everything i've heard about tulane itself is that its really in good shape. the hurricane didn't really affect the school that much - just a little flooding which i'm sure is all taken care of by now. However, the social life could be substantially crummier than before - being as N.O. is still a dump - and that was the main draw to the school imo.</p>

3

<p>i have no idea what tulane is like...all i know is that it was up on the charts and still is</p>

4

<p>For many recent years (pre-Katrina), Tulane sent out personal applications that waived the fee. It doesn't mean you'll get accepted. It doesn't mean they're desperate. It's still a very good school that gives out a decent amount of merit aid.</p>

5

<p>My dad was a professor at Tulane and we live near the campus. It seems to me that Tulane is doing pretty well, although they are having problems retaining faculty. They had to shut down the Engineering Department I believe. Plus I think their application numbers are down. That being said, they've cleaned up all the flood damage save for one or two of the graduate housing buildings that haven't reopened, and they're still giving out good scholarships. The neighborhood around the campus is coming back too. It's not like you'll be living everyday in some post-Katrina hellhole (of course there are areas farther away from the university that are still devastated). I'd say that if your interested then you should apply. At the very least, Bourbon Street is back.</p>

6

<p>tulane is in the rich part of town so they were at a higher elevation, decreasing the damage by flooding. if you go you will be rebuilding new orleans for 4 years. if you like that, go for it.</p>

7

<p>"tulane is in the rich part of town so they were at a higher elevation"</p>

<p>Uh, what?</p>

8

<p>I would personally consider Tulane just because of the opportunity you have to make a difference while there in cleaning up and restoring New Orleans after Katrina. Sure, there may not be as many internship opportunities or something. But it's kinda like joining the Peace Corps part-time for four years. I think it'd be an incredible experience. My sister volunteered there for a week and was totally moved by the experience. Imagine doing that for four years?</p>

9

<p>I'm going to apply to Tulane EA anyway. I did call the admissions people and asked about how Tulane's conditions were post Katrina. They said they were in perfect condition and running. I'm still a little skeptical though... New Orleans needs a lot of work and I'm not sure if it's the best place for me during these critical years. We'll see... thus far the plan is to still apply.</p>

10

<p>Tulane's application numbers were up for last year and they accepted 35% of the applicants. The average SAT for the class of 2010 is 1310 down slightly from previous years. </p>

<p>Tulane eliminated a large part of the engineering program as part of their restructuring last year. </p>

<p>They are very generous with merit aid and there are many students attending who were accepted to Emory, Rice, WashU, UNC-CH and Cornell.</p>

<p>The campus looks great and the surrounding neighborhood is in great shape.</p>

11

<p>I too received the invitation to apply. I will do it since there is no application fee anyway and the university is ranked high. Also, gives merit aid. The website <a href="http://www.tulane.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.tulane.edu&lt;/a> returns an error for me. So I can't check which engineering programs are shutdown. However the EECS program seems to be still on.</p>

12

<p>
[quote]
"tulane is in the rich part of town so they were at a higher elevation"</p>

<p>Uh, what?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>That's more or less true. The areas near the Mississippi River didn't flood, because the ground is higher there. They are the old, historical sections of the city, including the French Quarter, Garden District, and the Uptown area where Tulane is. Land values are higher there for obvious reasons. Uptown in particular is one of the richest areas of town and has a lot of "old money." </p>

<p>Tulane has about 85% of the students it did pre-K. From Wikipedia
[quote]
Tulane eliminated six undergraduate and graduate programs in the Engineering School: mechanical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering, computer engineering, environmental engineering, and computer science, and also a bachelor's degree in exercise science.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Basically, they down-sized to adapt to the reduction in student population, so that within the programs that are left, program quality can pretty much stay the same. Their endowment is about $800 million, so they have some cushion to help them cope. They managed to recover from being shut down for 3 years during the Civil War, so likely they will do OK from this.</p>

<p>I guess your real question is how will Tulane be thought of, in 4 years or so, when you are applying for jobs or graduate school. I don't think this will hurt Tulane much in the rankings. Any faculty that are still there, after all our area has been through, are likely to stay. </p>

<p>The other big area that affects ranking is selectivity. So far, that doesn't seem to have changed much either. I think the stats for this freshman class are about the same as they've been--though it is fair to say that Tulane is a harder sell to some parents. I read an interview with a Tulane official who said that during orientation, one parent from out-of-state said he was surprised the standing water had been drained. The official thought, something like, "If this is what parents who DO send their children imagine, what were the parents who DIDN'T send their children picturing?" But by the time you graduate, I think people will have a better understanding of Tulane's recovery, so parental-misinformation won't have much influence on the number of applications and therefore, the selectivity.</p>

<p>Add to this, that you have what I hope will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to participate in the rebuilding of a major city. Whatever your field, you will have the opportunity to participate in ground-breaking research and amazing community service ECs. Even as an undergraduate, you should be able to get something publishable out of it.</p>

<p>With all that said, I did some time in grad school at Tulane in the late 80s, and wasn't happy there. In those days, the majority of the student body was from wealthy and privileged backgrounds, and there was a TREMENDOUS amount of partying. Those things don't seem to have changed much either. It's up to you to decide if they're a draw or a turnoff.</p>

<p>You might enjoy this site: <a href="http://www.thehullabaloo.com/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.thehullabaloo.com/&lt;/a>
It's the student newspaper.</p>

13

<p>My son's HS used to send a fair amount of kids to Tulane.</p>

<p>Now it is referred to as "Atlantis". It gets almost no kid to consider it. Whether that is shortsighted is hard to say. </p>

<p>One more hurricane and the entire city may never recover. It would appear that local and state politics are playing a huge role in the slow start to rebuild. But then again, Louisiana is probably famous for its legendary grafting of politicians.</p>

<p>I think it would be a great opportunity to help rebuild.</p>

<p>What always concerned me pre Katrina was the crime surrounding the area. Drive up vandalism, battery, etc were on the increase right before the storm. The French Quarter, even tho fun, was filthy with litter and puking drunks.</p>

<p>I would think that after the first 60 days of visiting the bars, the kids would finally get bored and tired of being hung over. But who knows?</p>

<p>Is it worth it? Good question. Are any of these schools really worth almost $50,000 per year?</p>

14

<p>
[quote]
What always concerned me pre Katrina was the crime surrounding the area. Drive up vandalism, battery, etc were on the increase right before the storm.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>You raise a legitimate point; Uptown did attract more than its share of crooks because in the words of Willie Sutton, "that's where the money is." It's hard to get a fix on what crime statistics are like now. Most crime seems to be down, except murder. Murder is up, but mainly in the surrounding communities (Jefferson Parish, St. Tammany), and inner-city areas where a Tulane student would be unlikely to be. </p>

<p>As someone who spends most of her time in New Orleans, I feel much safer Uptown, in the CBD and the Garden District than I did before. For example, my sister has had a storage pod with some of her things in it on the street outside her house for months now, and no has tampered with it. (It's got a flimsy lock on it, and pods aren't very secure to begin with; you could easily cut through the sides or top). Before Katrina, things disappeared even from her yard; she once discovered a homeless guy living in her garage, and she was held up at gunpoint going from car to house. Recently I wasn't watching the clock and ended up not leaving work till 11 pm. I had to walk 5 blocks to my car, but felt perfectly safe. Pre-K, this would have been unthinkable; I would have needed building security to call me a cab, watch me while I got in it, then the cabbie to watch till I started my car.</p>

<p>As for one more storm finishing us; I don't think so. The areas that would be finished off by another storm, are already gone. Major parts of the city and the surrounding areas likely will not come back in the next decade, and we've learned to deal with that. Emotionally, the impact of another major storm would be devastating, but from a practical standpoint, it would be hard to hurt us more than we've already been. </p>

<p>Anyhow, if you would have strongly considered Tulane before Katrina, I'd suggest a visit. This is a unique situation, and I am not sure you can assess it well from a distance or from traditional sources like published rankings. Come here and meet the current students, especially the ones from out of state, and get their take on the pros and cons.</p>

15

<p>I'm a freshman at Tulane, and personally my opinion regarding the crime situation is that I've never felt unsafe on campus. Sure, there are some reports of armed robberies, but as to my knowledge, they all happen off campus. Yet I'm sure that if you stay alert you should be fine.</p>

<p>I'll be very blunt about what I think of Tulane's social life: If you drink, you're really going to enjoy it. I don't drink personally, so there's not a lot of new things to do. But that's my honest opinion.</p>

<p>The best way for you to figure out whether or not you want to be at Tulane is to visit the campus. As for academics, it really depends on what you want to study. I've heard complaints from classmates and peers about some of the profs from the Math Department (esp. the calc teachers!), and we all know where the Engineering Dept. has been headed these past few years...
Personally, I think the Economics and History professors are geniuses, but regardless, the academics at Tulane are difficult. They give A-minuses here, so it's especially difficult to get that "4.0 GPA", perhaps even more so than a public school.</p>