LSU versus LA Tech

<p>We've been told that you have to apply to a LA school to get TOPS if you decide against your OOS choice or come back to the state for any reason.</p>

<p>Because we're looking at Biomed Engineering, interested in Tech, but a friend visited and said the campus was "rough around the edges" and the dorms were gross.</p>

<p>In perusing the LSU website, noticed nice housing for the Honors College. </p>

<p>Interested in any info on the honors college, particularly with regard to housing and course selection.</p>

<p>Do Honors get guaranteed on campus housing at Acadian and Laveille? Do they get guaranteed on campus at all? Do they get first "dibs" at registering for classes?</p>

<p>Also, any thoughts on majoring in biomed engineering and being in the Honors college?</p>

<p>Son is in a rigorous program at the local Catholic HS, and I'd rather him be in regular curriculum, non Honors, but I'm afraid LSU will be too big for him, so hoping the Honors experience will give him a smaller college feel.</p>

<p>Anyone who had Tech as a choice and decided on LSU? What made you pick one over the other?</p>

<p>PS. We are not interested in sports or fraternities, so that won't factor into the decision.
Son will not have a car, so looking for a campus with lots to do, even on the weekends. Not looking for a suitcase college, where everyone goes home on the weekend.</p>

<p>You should get guaranteed housing if you apply early enough. I know that LSU has been filling up lately, but they usually do well to put Honors College kids in the honors housing first then use what's left over for non-honors kids. There's always a chance that if you apply absurdly late in the process that you will not get housing. Honestly, as far as housing goes, if you are looking for a nice place for him to live the new Engineering/Business Residential college (Graham) is the newest and nicest residential halls on campus. Though, I never lived there so I don't know how their community is. </p>

<p>My freshman year, I lived in the Honors housing (East Laville). The rooms are pretty big, imo, but they are outdated (which is why West Laville is currently undergoing renovations). They do look like they are from the 60s or so. It has hall baths (as opposed to graham's suite baths). While I never considered the Honors housing bad, it's definitely not the nicest the campus has to offer. However, I will say that I didn't regret living there. Usually the community council and the RA's there put on great programs and the lobby is usually full of kids. So there's plenty of people to meet in the halls. I think I've only been to Acadian once, so I can't really comment on what it's like. </p>

<p>Yup, the honors college kids get early scheduling. I've enjoyed it the entire I've been here. I've gotten into all the classes that I've wanted. Most people will "drop" out of the honors college when they get to their junior/senior year, because you get almost the same scheduling time and since you take upper division classes there's not as much competition for most of those classes. Of course they do that if they don't plan on graduating with honors and such.</p>

<p>As far as engineering and honors college, there's really not a particular perk. There aren't any specific engineering courses that are designated as honors-only courses. The honors college will offer some of the basic departmental courses as honors course, such as, the first two Chemistry courses have honors-only courses. The advantages are smaller classes (i.e. 50 people instead of 300 in the general "everybody" courses). And if you live in the honors housing, you'll meet a lot people who will also have the same class as you.</p>

<p>However, the advantages of honors courses are not tied to any particular major. The honors college will tend to offer unique "special-topic" humanities courses that you can take for general education requirements or for fun as opposed to other larger run-of-the-mill general education classes. These topics will vary from semester to semester. Such as I took "Literature of Modern Warfare", which covered literature based around various military engagements as opposed to taking a regular english class that would have focused on more famous and traditional novels. I also took "Modern Moral Philosophy" as opposed to a general philosophy class on ethics. These classes are small, usually having no more than 15 people in them. The two times I've taken these type of classes, we all sit around a big table, the professor lectures and then we have class discussions. Quite fun if you like that sort of thing. </p>

<p>You can check out the Fall 2009 Honors course offering here: <a href="http://www.honors.lsu.edu/HonorsCoursesFall2009.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.honors.lsu.edu/HonorsCoursesFall2009.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>When you start taking courses that are more non-general education or are specific for your major, there will usually not be an honors-alternative to it. However, the honors college does do what's called "honors option". This means that whatever class you are interested in performing the honors option for, you will meet with the professor of that course and discuss additional work to be performed in addition to taking the regular class. I did this last semester with two of my upper division biology classes. For both, I needed to write a 8-page paper on a topic that related to the course I was taking and it needed to be turned in by a certain date. While this isn't exactly fun, it does give you the opportunity to learn something more about a topic you are interested in. It's usually at this point that people start dropping out of the Honors college.</p>

<p>I, too, also came from a small Catholic high school in north LA (class size was 67 and that was the biggest). I would say that the Honors courses (specifically the ones I mentioned that had class sizes of 15) are nice and more personal. But I've also taken large gen-ed courses that had classes sizes ranging from 150 to 300 kids. I've never felt like a class was too big. In reality, it's usually only your gen-ed classes that are big. Though I can't speak for engineering courses, my upper-level biology classes usually range from 40-80 people in them, which I feel is a pretty decent class size (not too big and not too small). As far as LSU as a whole, I think the bigness of LSU is something you get used to. For me, it was amazing to be in a classroom that had more people in it than my entire high school had enrolled. But the big-ness of LSU provided many other benefits. Going to a large school means you'll have more student organizations, a more active campus, and lots of different people to meet. </p>

<p>When I applied for college (I was originally interested in engineering), I applied to these four schools and was accepted: (ordered from first choice to what I considered at the time last choice)
University of Southern California
Virginia Tech
Louisiana Tech
LSU</p>

<p>I ended choosing an instate school due to financial reasons. I had LSU as a last choice school because all I really knew about LSU was that it was football school and it was huge. At the time, I wasn't interested in the athletics side of college life. </p>

<p>When it came down to a choice between LSU and La tech, I chose LSU on the basis that I knew I would not enjoy living in Ruston (I live about 45 mins from Ruston). I had been there several times for various school functions and while it wasn't bad, it just wasn't great. I thought that maybe LSU could provide a better college experience. I haven't regretted the choice at all. I've loved LSU the entire time I've been here. And though, I didn't think I would like the athletics side of football (I didn't even buy season tickets my freshman year), I did end up buying a couple tickets during my freshman year and was amazed how much fun LSU football games really are when you are in the student section with a bunch of friends. There's no experience like it, imo.</p>

<p>For what's it's worth though, I have numerous friends who chose to go to LA Tech and they've loved the time they've been there and I have had at least two friends who didn't like LSU and transferred back to either LA tech or ULM. </p>

<p>I can't comment on how the weekends are like tech, but at LSU they can vary. During football season, the campus is packed on gamedays, and on away games the campus can become a mini-ghost town. I think that's just because people go for weeks without leaving campus because of the football games and then once the first available away game comes everybody takes the opportunity to go home before the next few weekends of home games. During the spring semester it's not as bad, but a significant portion of people do leave campus on the weekend. My time here, I've always had friends who stayed around, so it was never a problem. But I never expect for there to be a ton of people on campus on the weekends.</p>

<p>Baton Rouge itself is spread out. So while there a few things just north of campus (bars, blockbuster, fast food, and a couple of other things) that are walking distance, and some things south of campus (neighbor hood wal-mart, and other things) within biking distance, a lot of major stuff (movie theater and mall is notable) is a good distance from LSU requiring some other form of transportation. Public transportation sucks for the most part in Baton Rouge. My roommate my first semester was a guy from Michigan, who didn't have a car. He seemed to do alright for himself. I'd sometimes give him a lift or offer to take him to Wal-mart if I was going. Other times, he catch rides with other friends to hang out with them. So in point, your son at some point will want to meet and befriend someone with a car. </p>

<p>I probably have given you too much information, but I hope it helps in some way. Feel free to ask anymore questions.</p>

<p>EDIT:
Oh and meant to mention, that if your son is planning on doing engineering I would think there would be a labs he would take. Labs tend to be very small and you can meet a good number of people in them. Though they are usually taught by graduate or doctoral students, so it's not a "meet-the-professor" type class. One of the upper division labs I'm in right now has 12 people in it. My freshman year, I also worked in an Environmental engineering lab which would host a upper division lab on certain days, and if I remember correctly, it had something like 4 or 5 people in the class.</p>

<p>Thank you so much for the post. You've been very helpful.</p>

<p>My son is interested in an urban setting. Do you think Tech would offer that to him?</p>

<p>Oh, my gosh, accepted at USC. I wanted to go there so bad when I graduated 30 years ago, but didn't even apply because of finances. </p>

<p>Good luck to you and thank you for your help.</p>

<p>I'm so glad you're having a good experience at LSU. I think if I went there, I'd spend all day visiting with Mike. Whenever we go for a swim meet, we have to stop by and see him. Have gotten to see two of them now.</p>

<p>Tech is far from an urban setting. It is located in a small town of about 20,000 in a rural area. The nearest city of decent size is an hour away in Shreveport, which has a population of 200,000.</p>

<p>Honestly, not really. Ruston is solely a college town (similar in ways to Blacksburg, Virignia with VT). I think it has a population of around 20k. Most of the city is based around the college and the students within it (which isn't a bad thing). The nearest "real" urban setting is Shreveport (pop. 200k) which is about 1 hour away. Shreveport has all the casinos, a boardwalk for entertainment and restaurants, etc. But since Ruston is catered towards college kids, it has plenty of typical college kid activities, movie theaters, decent restaurants, etc. But there's no mall. The nearest mall is actually in Monroe, LA, which is about 20-30mins away. If your son is into anything outdoor, Ruston has plenty of things to offer from hiking, lakes, bike trails, etc.</p>

<p>As far as the USC decision it was an easy one. I visited there (brother was living in l.a. at the time) and loved it. But the difference between leaving undergrad college 100k+ debt and here around 7k in debt was a big enough difference since I had plans for graduate or professional school anyway.</p>

<p>Wait, you're from LA. You are going to have debt when you graduate? I thought TOPS paid for everything. At least, that's what they're pushing at my high school, anyway.</p>

<p>But seriously, I'm not being nosy, well, maybe I am, but not in a belittling sort of way.</p>

<p>Really, many people choose LSU because they want NO debt. Why are you going to have debt? If you're in honors, I'm assuming you got the highest TOPS award. Am I wrong?</p>

<p>Also, thanks for the info about Ruston.</p>

<p>TOPS pays for tuition at an in-state public university. You still have to pay room and board and other fees. It gives students a full ride if they commute and live at home.</p>

<p>No, I mean it's a good question. Sleepy answered it correctly.</p>

<p>I do get the highest TOPS award which is tuition paid plus I think a $400 stipend each semester. So that takes care of my tuition and some fees. I still have to pay for room and board ($6000+ a year, I live in on-campus housing), food for me to eat, books (I average around $500 in books a semester), gas, and other things since I would like to have extra money for fun. I do hold an on-campus job, which I work enough to get paid close to $1500 year as well. My parents are not in a position to help me out financially with school either.</p>

<p>To be honest, I incurred most of my debt my freshman and sophomore year. Since the beginning of this past Fall semester, I've actually had my schooling paid in full via working, TOPS, Centennial Award, Pell Grant, SMART Grant, and a few other awards. I actually get extra money out of it, which I will be using to pay off some of my loans. But I also need the extra money to help pay for the cost of applying to medical school (which can be expensive depending on how many schools I choose to apply to). Whatever money I have left over from applying to medical, I will put back into paying off loans, so I may be able to whittle that 7k figure down to around 3-4k.</p>

<p>I will have incurred somewhere between $150k - 250k in debt when I finish medical school, so an extra 3-7k in debt from undergrad doesn't seem too bad.</p>

<p>my son was offered a national scholar award for full tuition and fees for 4 years. we are new yorkers. i graduated from lsu in 1973(new orleans native).</p>

<p>if not honors housing(waiting to hear --applied into honors late) what is the best freshman dorm? is the freshman residential college, hergert, a good dorm? poly sci major/pre-law
thanks...</p>

<p>Blieux, you are an amazing kid. Thank you for answering me so honestly. You wouldn't believe the BS propaganda that lazy GCs push on our kids. </p>

<p>Your story reminds me how all of us who have graduated from college, no matter our major, what school, have truly accomplished something we should be proud of.</p>

<p>Don't give up on your dream. Believe in yourself. You can do it!</p>

<p>Thanks for all your help, and you'll be in my prayers.</p>

<p>dse,</p>

<p>I've only been in Herget a few times and it's not bad as far as rooms and such. Though I think it's toned down a bit, Herget used to be somewhat crazy a few years back. Kids were always pulling fire alarms causing the entire building to evacuate. I swear I used to see the fire trucks heading over there almost every week for that reason. But like I said, that was a few years ago and I think ResLife got a handle on that situation. The good thing about Herget is that it's an all freshman dorm, so there's plenty people to meet and hang out with while you transition to college. The RHA community council usually does a good job with programs and they have a few popular ones that hold every year. So, I think there's a little more active lifestyle at Herget than at the honors housing. </p>

<p>Monte,</p>

<p>No problem. While I'm a diehard LSU guy now, I realize that it's not the best-college ever, nor does it suit everyone. I just hope that I'm able to give some information in a personal "been-there-done-that" or "here's what I know..." and let the person choose what they think is best for them.</p>

<p>Thanks for your support! I start applying for med school come June, so I'll need of the positive support that I can get. :)</p>

<p>To blieux, med school advice. My brother attended UT Austin on NMF award, and attended LSU Med School. He did a surgery residency at Baylor in Houston. Then he did a vascular surgery fellowship at UArkansas Little Rock. He finally settled on the Gulf Coast and got to be a "real doctor", I used to joke with him. He was about 32 by that time. He got a beautiful house on the water, had four beautiful children, and after a few years, thought he might be able to start paying off that debt. I'm only saying this because he didn't go for the big ticket colleges anywhere along the way. But he did start a family while in med school, so that contributed to his debt, I'm sure. Anyway, I can appreciate someone wanting to save on undergrad with that long road ahead of them. </p>

<p>I graduated UMiami with a biology degree and attended many classes with premeds. I worked as a lab tech at Tulane Med for a few years after trying teaching, which wasn't for me at the time, and many of my coworkers were people waiting to get into med school. Passing this on to give advice as to what you can do if you don't get into med school at first, which I'm sure won't be the case with you, or if you want to work a few years to save money for med school. It doesn't pay very well, but you'll get great experience and recommendations for med school. </p>

<p>My godchild graduated from LSU with a double major in zoology and microbiology. She got her masters at UABirmingham. I was impressed at her LSU graduation with how many kids got into medical school. There were some LSU Shreveport rather than LSUNO, but now, after Katrina, I think Shreveport might be a better choice for med school, with Charity being closed. My brother worked a lot at Charity and the VA when he was at LSU Med, but that was in the early 90s.</p>

<p>Glad you're getting to enjoy college and even have a girlfriend as well. Good luck to you, and like I said before, I'll keep you in my prayers.</p>

<p>Thanks for the advice. I have considered that if I didn't get into medical school during the next application cycle, then I would work as a technician of some sort and reapply again. I think a lot of the tech jobs are very interesting.</p>

<p>Don't know how it is now, but back when I was a medical research technician at Tulane Med School, it only required a BS in a science, like biology. However, it paid less than a teacher. Since you're from LA, you know that's not much.</p>

<p>If you became a Medical Technologist, you would be a certified position, which, back in my day, required some sort of internship, or clinicals, like nurses. </p>

<p>I don't know if LSU Baton Rouge offers this program, but I would highly recommend it. It would be working in a hospital, doing blood work, et al, but the pay back then was double what I was making as a research tech.</p>

<p>If you want to work and sock away money while you're waiting to go to med school, this might be a financially better way to go.</p>

<p>I don't know if you'd get the research experience and professor recommendations that you'd get from a research position, but you would get clinical experience and a chance to network with MDs that might help you along in the app process as well.</p>

<p>I’m a freshman in LSU in honors, majoring in biological engineering (there is no biomed engr) for premed.</p>

<p>From what I’ve experienced so far, the program seems good. The biological engineering classes I’ve taken so far are quite small (around 20-30 people). I think BE is the only engineering program there that lets freshman actually take engineering courses. There are some general courses that you can take in honors, like English, Psychology, Biology, Chemistry, Org Chem I, and Calculus. </p>

<p>There are no honors engineering courses though, so being in honors really doesn’t affect the curriculum. And if the son doesn’t want to be in honors anymore (junior year), then he can just drop out of it. It’s not a big deal. The honors classes are basically smaller, and depending on the teacher, you might have to do more work than regular classes (but since your son is coming from Catholic High, it REALLY shouldn’t be a problem). In the big classes, everyone sits in the same place anyway, so if the son does that too, he’ll definitely meet someone. Being in the honors program is good in freshman/sophomore year, because then he can schedule at the same time the seniors schedule (first dibs!)</p>

<p>I’m curious. I received 20k/yr to Tulane, and was accepted to Drexel’s Honors and Emory University, yet LSU not only didn’t offer me honors, but only offered me 2k a year in aid (WITH WORK STUDY)…</p>

<p>What the hell is up?</p>

<p>I got 24k at Tulane w/ honors as well as a full tuition at two other schools. LSU gave me a 1k merit scholarship and the chancellor’s student aide job. </p>

<p>Are you in-state or out of state? Nearly all in-state students qualify for TOPS, including me. All my tuition is paid for and I get a $800 stipend. What I do have to pay is room and board, however, which after my 1k scholarship and student aide job will be around $6500 a year.</p>

<p>The reason why LSU doesn’t give out a lot of aid is because of TOPS.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>When did you apply? If you applied late (after November), then you won’t get as much aid. I had a friend who didn’t apply very early and she barely got any scholarships there. There’s an application deadline for the honors college (sometime in September I think) too.</p>

<p>November 15th I believe, and I applied before the date. (for Honors).</p>

<p>And yes I’m instate, got the student aide job as well. </p>

<p>Sleepy, JW why go to LSU if you got into Tulane.</p>

<p>LSU would be about 6k for me with no loans, Tulane would be 15k a year with another 23k in loans. Tulane is not worth that price in my opinion, especially considering that LSU has a better ranked program for my major, business.</p>