<p>Hello All! My mom and I are coming down for Honors Weekend in a few days, and it will be our first time in New Orleans. We've done a lot of reading on this forum (thanks to all of you for the informative posts!), but nonetheless have a few questions.</p>
<p>We were late in firming up our plans, so we'll be staying at a Marriott near the Convention Center. Using google maps we've worked out the streetcar and walking routes to Tulane, French Quarter, Art Museum/sculpture garden, St. Louis Cemetery No.1, etc. We'll have Friday evening and all day Saturday, as well as time on Sunday to check out parts of New Orleans.</p>
<p>Does anyone know whether it's safe to walk around the vicinity of the Convention Center in the evening? For example, if we went on one of the 7pm walking tours of the French Quarter, would it be foolish to walk back to the Convention Center area? Saturday I'll be staying overnight in one of the dorms, so our plan is to take my host (Tulane student who is daughter of an acquaintance) to dinner, and then have my mom take the streetcar back to the downtown area. Do you know whether it'll be safe for my mom to walk from the stop to the hotel? We'd rather not rent a car, but should we be taking cabs?</p>
<p>Also, does anyone have a sense of the cab fare from the airport to downtown and from Tulane to the airport? I saw prices of $33/person for a shuttle from Tulane to the airport, so I imagine it would make more sense for us to take a cab, yes?</p>
<p>I'm still deciding whether to go to Tulane, but I nonetheless plan to register for Fall courses this weekend. Should I spend time before I come down figuring out which courses to sign up for?</p>
<p>Taking the streetcar from the FQ out to campus is a totally cool introduction to Tulane and Nola. Unfortunately, the city has been rehab-ing the streetcar tracks in sections over the past year. So you may not be able to ride the streetcar all the way from downtown out to TU’s campus. If a section is out, you have to transfer to a bus. </p>
<p>While I like the streetcar, my wife usually makes us take a cab. Other than for move-in day, we don’t rent a car.</p>
<p>Candles- you will be fine walking in the warehouse district from the quarter. Harrah’s casino is on the corner of canal and convention center blvd. I recommend Fulton st. There are several restaurants in the area and normally has plenty of pedestrian traffic.<br>
Your mother can purchase a transfer from the st charles streetcar and take the canal streetcar to Fulton/convention center blvd or she could use a pedicab which has become popular in the area.
Enjoy your visit. Jammer</p>
<p>Bikes are a very good way to get around that part of town thru the warehouse district and upper garden district. </p>
<p>That is a very good Marriott to stay in and very central to get everywhere.</p>
<p>Too far to bike to Tulane from Convention center unless you have some time on your hands.</p>
<p>If you are taking cabs back and forth from Tulane, make sure to not only go via St. Charles, but also go at least once down Coliseum Street and Magazine Street as your going back and forth. Especially for your first trip to NOLA, will give you a feel for the Garden District.</p>
<p>Colesium has some amazing houses/architecture (arguably one of the finest streets in the US) and Magazine has many different sections with shops/restaurants. It is really an amazing place.</p>
<p>If you are there for a quick weekend, hard to believe but you can even skip the French Quarter on your first trip, plenty to see and do in the Garden/Warehouse District.</p>
<p>Best of luck, we will be there this weekend also, working on final college decision what an exciting time !</p>
<p>Thanks, westcoast. We were thinking of taking one of those garden district tours to check out some of the architectural beauties, and definitely a stroll along magazine street - have to admit I’ve been spending a lot of time reading up on the wonders of New Orleans.</p>
<p>I’m in the same position of making a final decision as to a school.</p>
<p>Our B&B told me today, that there are small buses that are waiting where the tram ends to take you down St Charles towards Tulane… He said the buses are waiting where the trams end, so you don’t need to wait for the bus to arrive, so very easy.</p>
<p>You will be able to change the courses you are registered for if you decide you would prefer another time, teacher or totally different class at any time after your initial registration.</p>
<p>Have a great trip! And definitely allow extra time for travel if you are taking the streetcar.</p>
<p>I would say if you are likely to place out of a lot of intro courses, it is worth looking at the next level of courses to see what interests you since your options will be more wide-ranging. It would make more difference if you were sure about Tulane, but still it is fun to look at what is offered and make some choices. How many AP credits do you already have and how many more are you likely to get after these upcoming tests? Do you have a sense of what major(s) you are likely to pursue? Finally, since you are in Honors, take a look at the Honors Colloquium and see if that interests you. [Tulane</a> University Honors Program / Courses](<a href=“http://honors.tulane.edu/web/courses.asp?id=Colq1010FreshmanSeminarCommunityPolityAndCitizenship2.txt]Tulane”>http://honors.tulane.edu/web/courses.asp?id=Colq1010FreshmanSeminarCommunityPolityAndCitizenship2.txt)</p>
<p>But if you don’t have time the advisors will definitely be able to help and as kreative says, you can always make changes.</p>
<p>Thanks, fallenchemist. I smiled when I read your post, as I’ve already done what you suggest, including checked out that description of the freshman colloquium and the TIDES courses. I can’t make a final decision until I visit campus, but, based on everything I’ve read here and on Tulane’s website, I have a feeling I’m going to absolutely love Tulane and New Orleans. </p>
<p>My school offers few APs, so I’ll probably only place out of French, Lit, Calc BC, Psych, USHist, and Stat. I’m planning on majoring in applied mathematics/statistics/economics as well as continuing with French or starting on a new foreign language (goal is to become fluent).</p>
<p>Do you know whether Tulane has a comprehensive course catalog that lists all of the course descriptions in one place? Also, can one take courses from the business school without being a business major, per se?</p>
<p>I noticed some interesting graduate courses - are these open to undergrads, assuming prerequisites are met? </p>
<p>Is the freshman seminar taught jointly by all three of those professors, or just one professor per section? Also, do you know whether the seminar is a lot of work - looks very interesting, but may entail a lot of reading?</p>
<p>Again, thanks to everyone for all your information. Can’t wait to see Tulane!</p>
Only?? LOL, now it is my turn to smile. That is 19-20 hours you would get credit for, over a semester already under your belt before you even move a pillowcase into your dorm room. I know some people on CC have so many AP courses it feels like they are done with college before they start, but they are few and far between. You are well ahead of 99% of freshmen. In any case, Tulane is considered very strong in foreign languages and econ, and while I haven’t kept up with the math dept. as much as I probably should have, the math and physics majors (since physics majors typically take a boatload of advanced math) have had good things to say in general. The one exception was some of the math profs having heavy accents, but I hear that complaint at most high level universities.</p>
<p>French and Spanish have long been strong language areas for Tulane. My D was also a French student in high school, and has continued with it at Tulane as a minor, while majoring in China Studies (and taking her fourth year of Mandarin now after spending two semesters in Beijing last year) and English/Creative Writing. The China Studies area is undergoing a fairly major upgrade as well, with Tulane opening a Confucius Institute this semester and hosting a year long series of lectures regarding issues involving China. I believe the plan is to add even more faculty in this area and create a full major for it. Right now it is considered a coordinate major, where you actually major in History or Sociology or some other more established area and emphasize course work in China, for example, and learn the language.</p>
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That also made me smile with nostalgia. Back when those of us that rode dinosaurs to class were in college, the course catalog was something we anticipated and devoured. It was so convenient to have all the courses in a book like that. Sadly, I think they have eliminated this due to costs, as have many colleges. Maybe I am wrong about this and someone will correct me, but I think that is the case. Of course online does have advantages in terms of searching and sorting, but you lose a lot too. Anyway, if you go here [Course</a> Descriptions - Tulane University - Acalog ACMS?](<a href=“http://catalog.tulane.edu/content.php?catoid=40&navoid=1521]Course”>http://catalog.tulane.edu/content.php?catoid=40&navoid=1521) I think this is as close as it gets to the old paper course catalogs. I assume you already found the Class Schedule portion of the web site. [Tulane</a> University - Class Schedule](<a href=“http://classschedule.tulane.edu/Search.aspx]Tulane”>Tulane University Schedule of Classes)</p>
<p>Re: Business courses and graduate level courses. The answer is an emphatic yes. This is a really strong feature of the way Tulane is structured. There is no additional acceptance to any individual School or major within Newcomb-Tulane College except for architecture, and even with that you can take any intro course you want without being a major. I took several graduate level courses when I was at Tulane, and nothing has changed with respect to that openness as far as I know.</p>
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I am pretty sure each section is taught just by that professor, as opposed to team teaching. It does entail a lot of reading, that is true. But the reading list is readily available because it has been taught for a few years now (my D took it her freshman year, and I think that was at least the second year it had been taught) so you could easily get a jump on it and read a bit over the summer. She thought the effort was extremely worthwhile because the material is pretty fundamental to Western thought.</p>
<p>Hope that helps, just hit us up with any other questions you have, and be sure to let us know how the trip goes.</p>
<p>Bloomy: I am sure that if there are still seats available at registration during your son’s orientation, then he will be able to sign up if he wishes.</p>
<p>Wow! Thanks for all the info, FC. That online course catalog was exactly what I was looking for, to cross-reference with course requirements and suggestions for different majors. </p>
<p>How did your daughter find the English department? Lit and reading were my first true loves - kinda like oxygen to the rest of the world - so I’ll definitely be exploring lots of those courses.</p>
<p>Do you have a sense of the general level of course rigor at Tulane?</p>
<p>Also, I’ve seen earlier posts on the rebuilding of the CS department. Coming in as an applied math major, I’m a bit concerned about limitations in that area, given the overlap of math and CS. In the catalog, I noticed some programming/computing courses offered through the continuing studies program. Do you know whether these classes are open to students enrolled full-time?</p>
<p>Wow! Thanks for all the info, FC. That online course catalog was exactly what I was looking for, to cross-reference with course requirements and suggestions for different majors. </p>
<p>How did your daughter find the English department? Lit and reading were my first true loves - kinda like oxygen to the rest of the world - so I’ll definitely be exploring lots of those courses.</p>
<p>Do you have a sense of the general level of course rigor at Tulane?</p>
<p>Also, I’ve seen earlier posts on the rebuilding of the CS department. Coming in as an applied math major, I’m a bit concerned about limitations in that area, given the overlap of math and CS. In the catalog, I noticed some programming/computing courses offered through the continuing studies program. Do you know whether these classes are open to students enrolled full-time?</p>
<p>Bloomy - I wrote to the Director of the Honors Program, Dr. Luongo, a couple of years ago about this, and without quoting exactly he said they would never turn down a student that wanted to take any course as long as they had the course prerequisites. Of course Honors students get preference as far as space, but that is usually not an issue. So no worries there. In fact, I always encourage students who think they want to get into the HP after showing they can make the grades to take at least one section of an honors course. There is a requirement that people in the program take a minimum number of these courses. I think if you come into the program later the requirement is adjusted accordingly, but I think it is still a good idea.</p>