Questions about Tulane

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tulane University
1

Hi I was wondering if anyone could answer some of these questions about Tulane

1 - How strong are their programs in business and psychology
2 - how strong of an influence is Greek life on the social aspects of campus
3 - even though campus is urban, does it feel like you’re right in the city or is there a traditional campus feel
4 - how liberal and accepting is the university and surrounding city
5 - is there enough to do besides get drunk at parties?

Thanks for the help!

2

@sse13000

  1. These are 2 of the 3 most popular majors at Tulane, the other being Cell and Molecular Biology. But even besides the "votes" you get from people via their choices, I can tell you that both departments are strong. I know more about the business school, which is really excellent and has many innovative and highly recognized courses and programs. The areas that I hear and see as standing out the most are finance, accounting, entrepreneurship, and energy, although I am sure there are other strengths as well.
  2. Medium. Participation is healthy at about 30% of guys and 40% of women, but the word is that it is not divisive or excluding. In other words, it not only doesn't matter if you belong to a different Greek org, is doesn't matter if you are Greek at all. Numerous posts last year and before from students mentioned that they had both Greek and non-Greek friends, and that Greek life did not dominate their social calendar even if they had decided to join. I think part of why Tulane is different in this respect is that none of the sororities have live-in facilities, and the frats have limited space. So most of the Greeks live either on campus (all for the first 2 years) or if they do move off campus after sophomore year they often have non-Greek housemates along with Greek ones.
  3. Tulane has a traditional and gorgeous campus in the very nicest part of town. There are mansions all up and down St. Charles Ave., the main street that borders the campus on the south, and where the streetcar runs all the way to downtown and the French Quarter, about 4 miles and a world away. Just to give you the general feel, Drew Brees, the QB for the New Orleans Saints football team, lives next to Tulane. Another famous football family you may have heard of, Archie, Peyton and Eli Manning lived not far from there (Archie, the father, still does I think). The whole area is known as Uptown, and it is basically divided into the Garden District and Audubon, both famous for their elegant homes, etc. Tulane is in Audubon, and other famous home owners in the Garden District area have included, over the years, Anne Rice the mystery writer, Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie, Sandra Bullock, etc.

In fact, Tulane’s campus is so classic in appearance that it is often used in movies. Most recently it is in the current release Bad Moms, and has been used as a backdrop in The Butler, 22 Jump Street, a couple of Mylie Cyrus movies, and numerous others. Also a few TV shows.

  1. Come on woman, get real. This is New Orleans!! But seriously, from your other posts I will make the assumption that you are asking about the LBGTQ (forgive me if I haven't kept up with the acronym, which keeps growing). It is EXTREMELY accepting, the head of admissions has long been openly gay. In fact, here is a blog post or two he has written. You have NOTHING to worry about in this regard, and in fact should be excited by Tulane. Also, New Orleans is very accepting, again having a long tradition of being a safe haven for drag queens, homosexuals (probably second only to San Francisco on a per capita basis), and others that for years were not considered "acceptable in polite society".

http://tuadmissionjeff.blogspot.com/2016/08/sexual-identities.html (This is the current post, in fact)
http://tuadmissionjeff.blogspot.com/2016/06/love.html (posted after the Orlando shootings)

I think there were other posts, but you get the idea.

  1. I repeat woman, this is New Orleans!! And truly this time, probably enough said. There is tons to do besides drink to the point of stupidity. My D graduated a couple of years ago and had a fabulous time without drinking at all until her senior year, and then only very mildly. There are far more like-minded people when it comes to drinking and wild partying than you might think. The trick is connecting, and admittedly that isn't always easy at first, because while they are in fact numerous, there isn't a single issue to bring them together like there is drinking and partying for those types. But within a short time, everyone finds their "tribe" or even tribes. No worries. If you are the extra-academic type and are in the Honors Program, you can choose the honors dorm, which is one of the nicer freshman dorms. This makes finding such peers somewhat easier, I think.

Let us know if you have more questions!

3

1 - How strong are their programs in business and psychology
Great. Business school here is awesome and nationally ranked. Psychology is also a popular major here, and I know the Neuroscience major is very prestigious here, which is similar to Psychology.

2 - how strong of an influence is Greek life on the social aspects of campus
Um, it’s decently prominent. But it’s not like a state school in which it dominates the social scene. It’s more like “hey I heard X house is throwing a party, wanna stop by?” and then you go hang out for a little but. Parties are generally open. But there is also the boot and the palms on campus which are where a lot of the night-life occurs.

3 - even though campus is urban, does it feel like you’re right in the city or is there a traditional campus feel
It’s definitely a campus feel. Not urban like NYU or something. Honestly, the campus could be placed in a different city and I wouldn’t know the difference, because I don’t leave campus that often.

4 - how liberal and accepting is the university and surrounding city
This is the most liberal and accepting place I’ve ever been, haha.

5 - is there enough to do besides get drunk at parties?
Plenty to do. There are always club meetings, concerts, comedians, and other events going on that people go to. Every night I say to myself “alright, tonight I’m just going to stay home” and end up going somewhere because there is always something to do.

4

@TheMosby So great that you are doing so well at Tulane. But man, be sure to get out to know the city, too! :wink: Especially some of those awesome festivals that go on all the time.

5

@fallenchemist Hi fallenchemist. I’m a student who’s EXTREMELY interested to go to Tulane for undergrad studies. I have a relatively okay ACT and SAT (34 and 2240, respectively). My Weighted GPA is a 4.25, but my UW Gpa, however is about a 3.6-3.7 (bad choices in sophomore year). I’ve taken every AP class offered at my schools sans 2 that wouldn’t fit in my schedule… totals to about 13 I think. I go to a high school that has the name of an extremely famous CV surgeon who graduated from Tulane, and while I want to be a neurosurgeon, I think it would be awesome to follow him in his footsteps.

SO. My question for you is, do you think I’ll make it, with perhaps a full scholarship or close to one? I have various things that make me somewhat desirable, such as 1000+ service hours and 3months+ research in a wet lab, and some poetry writing awards. I get that this is kind of a stupid question since compared to the applicant pool I stand out, but the issue is the money. My parents want me to be a CS major, and I want nothing more than to major in Neuro. This discrepancy means that I’ll have to pay off college on my own, with nothing more than 5-10K from my parents (we’re in the 100-150k bracket).

I apologize for the lengthy response, just trying to elucidate a more wholesome perspective. Thank you so much! I’d PM you, but I’m something of a lurker, and don’t know how to haha. Thank you!

6

Hi @Chromiumite

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. But the good news is that I think there is an answer that makes both you and your parents happy. And this solution that satisfies both your wishes might just be unique to Tulane. But first your question about merit money.

You have a very high ACT/SAT score, a very rigorous schedule that challenged you as much as possible, and an excellent GPA. True, there are people that have higher GPAs even with such a schedule, but not many and the other two factors (test scores and rigor) overall means you are extremely competitive for a lot of merit money from Tulane, including being in the running for the full tuition scholarships (DHS and Paul Tulane). Just remember that both of those scholarships require an additional application besides the one for admission, and that you must apply either ED by November 1 or EA by November 15, and those separate applications are due by Dec 5, I think it is.

Now for the other good news. If you look at Tulane’s CS major, you will see it is called a coordinate major. http://www2.tulane.edu/sse/cs/academics/undergraduate/coordinate-major.cfm

Here is the important part (for this discussion) of the summary they give from the link above

So as you and your parents can see, you can focus on your major of Neuroscience while taking coursework in CS towards that second major, and that you can use for your research and most likely apply to your honors dissertation, which I have little doubt you would want to pursue. And truth be told, in this day and age any expertise in CS and coding is a strong positive, no matter what direction you pursue.

Now you might wonder if this is going to be difficult to achieve, but with all your AP credits it will free you up to a great degree and provide the flexibility you need to complete everything without undue hardship. My D was in a position very similar to yours, with not quite as many APs. She majored in English and when she attended, her other major of Asian Studies was a coordinate major. She actually could have graduated in 3 years if she hadn’t spent her entire 3rd year in Beijing.

So I think Tulane truly sounds like the school that is ideal for you. It has strong merit money with a decent shot at full tuition, it is a strong school academically with a particularly strong neuro program that is excellent in having undergraduates do meaningful research, it has an Honors Program that is designed for scholars such as yourself to be supported to meet all your goals and graduate with highest honors, and finally it has a computer science degree that is ideally designed to support your wanting to focus on neuro and yet have a degree in CS that your parents desire you to pursue, and you all win. Frankly, and this is a bit of an aside, Tulane is talking about having a stand-alone CS major again someday, but I hope they leave it tied to other majors like this. Because to me, the main value in CS is that it is a very applied discipline, that it is always used in support of other endeavors. And to me, the more you understand that endeavor at a very deep level, the more valuable the insights on the computer side of things. But in any case, it is what it is at Tulane now and it fits you very well.

Let me know what you and your parents think about all this.

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@fallenchemist Thank you so much! This is something that both me and my parents really look forward to! I totally did not know that Tulane had something like this, and i suppose that attests to how Tulane is unique when compared to other colleges. Honestly, I cannot thank you enough. Tulane just keeps rising in the priority list, and after this, it’s probably a good idea to say that I would ED if I could.