<p>I am just curious as to what this forum has to say about my situation. I am an intended English major with plans to take up either a double major or a minor in political science or philosophy. I have already been admitted into the University of Pittsburgh and Tulane University, and I will (hopefully) be accepted into American University in March. I am an aspiring writer and I want to know YOUR (Yes, you there!) thoughts about the three aforementioned schools. Thanks in advance for any feedback you may have!</p>
<p>Tulane. Look at their program and amazing professors. And right next door at Loyola University New Orleans some incredible faculty. Its a no brainer. </p>
<p>American U is for the Washington Wannabes. </p>
<p>Pitt is fine…but its not a bastion of english majors.</p>
<p>I’m in a very similar situation (accepted to Pitt and Tulane, expecting admission to American), and I think that if money is not a factor Tulane is by far the best school, especially for humanities. Even in political science, my prospective major, Tulane outclasses American. Pitt is known more for pre-med and science majors.</p>
<p>I believe Pitt also has a world class philosophy program (don’t quote me). Merit aid is fairly easy to come by at Pitt (well, that depends on your stats) and it’s the cheapest of the three.</p>
<p>Tulane and Pitt sound like the best options here. And applicannot, you’re right, Pitt has one of the top philosophy departments in the country (Congratulations on Stanford, btw!) :).</p>
<p>Pittsburgh seems to have some nice opportunities for writers:</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.pitt.edu/~wcafe/]Writers”>Writers' Café]Writers</a>’ Caf</p>
<p>Tulane tulane tulane :d</p>
<p>If you’re an aspiring writer, New Orleans might be more inspiring than Pittsburgh or DC. I don’t know about Pitt for political science but being in DC would be great. Being in New Orleans, or really just Louisiana in general, to see how the political mess operates in LA, would be fun as well. You really can’t go wrong here. I’d just be sure to visit all three and go by ‘feel.’ What type of writing do you want to pursue? That might make one school stand out.</p>
<p>I’m primarily interested in writing fiction in general, though I may delve into non-fiction at times, I derive the most enjoyment from writing my own stories.</p>
<p>On another note, is there a noticeably large disparity between English programs at these three schools? Is one (Tulane, most likely) significantly better than the other two? Is one much worse?</p>
<p>John Kennedy Toole went to Tulane :)</p>
<p>I have never heard that the English program at American is strong. I know they focus on other areas. My D (Creative Writing and Asian Studies double major) picked Tulane. She had tons of options being a top student: 2330 SAT one sitting, all 5’s on AP’s , or maybe there was one 4, 3.8+ UW GPA, helped build a church and school in Dominican Republic, etc. etc. She chose Tulane partly because she got a full tuition scholarship, but also because of the English department and the uniqueness of New Orleans. Now that she is home from her first semester, she is quite pleased with her choice. Pitt and American are both fine schools, but I always think of American more for poli sci type of majors (maybe unfair), and Pitt (where I lived for 11 years) is not quite as academically selective as Tulane. American’s stats are similar to Pitt’s.</p>
<p>Pitt:
SAT:
Reading Middle 50%: 570 - 680
Math Middle 50%: 590 - 680
Writing Middle 50%: 560 - 660
ACT Middle 50%:25 - 30</p>
<p>Tulane:
SAT:
Reading Middle 50%: 630 - 720
Math Middle 50%: 620 - 700
Writing Middle 50%: 640 - 720
ACT Middle 50%: 29 - 32</p>
<p>If you isolate the students in the school of Liberal Arts i.e. eliminate the kids from the business school, Architecture school, and Science and Engineering, the stats go up except for math. Not surprising, but you start to get into the ranges you find at top 10 schools. In fact, if you just went by CR for all of Tulane, eliminating nobody, it would rank 23rd in the country, and CR and math together it would rank #30. The thing that drags it down in USNWR rankings is the 25% weighting they give to peer assessment, and that I believe represents misconceptions about the effects of Katrina and New Orleans in general. There is a huge NE and California bias in peer review. Anyway, my point is that Tulane is the most selective of these schools, getting stronger every year, and has a first rate English department in a fantastic city. Personally I think Pittsburgh is fascinating also, but not in the same way. I am not sure a student would think so either.</p>
<p>fallen: the business, architecture and engineering schools at Tulane bring the SAT averages down? first school I’ve ever heard that said about…most find that those specialized schools are more selective, not less…good to know…</p>
<p>rodney - The business school SAT averages are indeed lower overall than the school averages. Just a fact, they aren’t really low, just lower. The others I specifically excluded math. Yes, for CR and writing, the students that pick liberal arts majors have higher SAT’s than the overall average. Does that really surprise you? At least that is what I was told by a faculty member when I was there for move-in weekend. The business school stat comes from their own site and knowing the overall Tulane average of 1370 CR + M.</p>
<p>And reading your post again, I should point out you don’t get admitted to Tulane for any of these schools, you are slotted into them when you pick a major. Everyone is admitted to Newcomb-Tulane College. Tulane is very general in the way it approaches these things as opposed to some schools that you get accepted based on your proposed major. And BTW, I didn’t mean to imply the difference in CR and W SAT scores between students that end up in these other schools and the Liberal Arts school was huge. I don’t know the size of it, it was a general comment made by the faculty member as part of a wider ranging discussion. I only know the business school because they publish it. I suspect the difference is in fact not huge, but it must be noticeable.</p>
<p>iseephonies: Frankly, I have no idea what your post means.</p>
<p>I don’t even like Pittsburgh (more the city than the university), but I cannot see how anyone in good conscience can recommend Tulane or American over Pitt.</p>
<p>Pitt has a top 40 English department; the others rank outside the top 80.</p>
<p>Pitt has a top 5 philosophy program and Pitt is the only one of the three that has a top 50 program in political science.</p>
<p>Honestly, some of the statements in this thread would be laughable if they weren’t doing such a disservice to the OP.</p>
<p>Are those for undergrads? No, they are for grad schools. I get the impression from your other posts that you are either in high school still or maybe in college. Take it from someone that has done both undergrad and grad school, they are very different. Grad school is more like having a job, you are very focused on one thing. There are many schools that provide a much better undergrad experience than a school that has a top rated grad school in that same subject. I would say focusing on rankings that are for grad schools and not citing it as such is the real disservice to the OP.</p>
<p>Besides, if you are so hung up on rankings (which are just BS anyway) then how come Pitt not in the top 50 overall? Look, Pitt is a great school as are the others. But a lot of what an undergraduate experience is about is the quality of your peers and how much they challenge you. The stats speak for themselves in that regard.</p>
<p>I’m not going to get involved in a big debate with you. The real bottom line is that any of these schools will provide the OP with outstanding undergraduate academics. The real question is which one will provide him (her?) with the best undergraduate experience. That can only be ascertained by researching the schools and visiting. Then whichever one feels right will probably be the best choice, everything else (i.e. money) being equal.</p>
<p>fc: ah, yes, I do remember from the info session I attended that you do not apply to a specific school until declaring; that explains the discrepency you note…surprising though that architecture is not an “impacted” major though; most schools require a portfolio prior to admission…thanks for the clarification…</p>
<p>Hi rodney - no problem. Also, I won’t absolutely swear architecture doesn’t have specific requirements, but I do remember seeing someone else’s post on another thread that Tulane was one of a small handful of highly rated architectural programs that did not require one. I just have never dug into it personally, so always worth checking.</p>