<p>By popular demand. Please include how long the total visit to New Orleans was, where you stayed, where you ate, where you are from, and then of course details on the campus visit and the surrounding area, as well as any tourist outings you made such a trip to see the plantations/bayous, walking/bike tour of New Orleans, Cemetery tours, whatever.</p>
<p>Ok, I’ll start. We visited back in April, so my memory may be kind of fuzzy on some details. we stayed at the Roosevelt Hotel (a Walorf Astoria), which was just off Canal Street across from Bourbon Street. The hotel was in an excellent location for touring the city itself, but it was about a 20 minute cab ride to the school. The hotel itself is beautiful and we were given a special “Tulane rate” when we told them we were coming down to visit the school. The hotel had a very nice pool, which was relaxing after touring each day.
We did a lot of touristy things and a lot of walking. We walked the French Quarter both during the day and at night, took a 3 hour bus tour of the city (on a rainy day) which was pretty worthwhile (it stopped at one of the cemeteries), did the boat ride on the Mississippi (not so worthwhile). On the day of our tour and info session, we gave ourselves lots of time and took the cable car down Canal Street to the school (pretty cool, took about 40 minutes).
On the day of our Tour, we met with our Admissions Counselor (Rachel Kohn) which I had arranged ahead of time. I highly recommend arranging this. This allowed DS the ability to establish a relationship with Adcom. (After we got home, he sent her a thank you email and then emailed her a few other times with questions). I really believe that this helped in showing his demonstrated interest and subsequent admission.
I don’t remember all of the places we ate, some were: Arnouds (very good), Emerils (pricey) and Acme Oyster House (for lunch- yummy!)</p>
<p>Hi, All! Sorry I couldnt post sooner. We got back to our hotel late last night and had to get up at 4 am to catch our early flight home; then I had a busy day at home today. Happy to see that fallenchemist started this thread. So here goes my longest post on CC ever .</p>
<p>DS and I spent all day on campus yesterday - from about 9:15 am - 4:30 pm. It was a sunny beautiful day. I couldnt have planned that part better! </p>
<p>Here is a rundown of what we did on campus:</p>
<p>9:15 Stopped at admissions to get a campus map and chat with the students in the admissions office (they were there for the tour at 10 am, we were doing the tour later in the day). Student at the desk asked if any of them were in engineering; one student who had been in engineering (was a double major, switched to just a single after he walked on the football team and didnt have time) gave DS a lot of good information. Picked up lunch passes there for Bruff (main student dining hall).</p>
<p>10:00 DS wanted to sit in on an engineering class. Full list of classes you can sit in on is on the Tulane website. I had checked ahead to make sure the two he might be interested in were still ok and got a response that they were. But when we got there, found out that, in the class he was most interested in, the students were taking an exam. But a student in that class told DS he should come back at 11 because the biochemistry class was great. Anyway, at 10, he went into a BME design class (found out later that it was a senior level class). Prof was late, chatted with some students, then he went in and I went downstairs and sat at PJs, enjoying a latte in the beautiful warm sunshine (had to keep reminding myself it was the last day of November!). DS came out at about 11 (decided against sitting in on another class). One of the students he met in the class, a senior BME major, came out to talk to him and chatted with us for about 20 or 25 minutes. She talked about how close the BME majors, how supportive they are of each other, and how collaborative the program is. She was a runner too and DS liked hearing about running in Audobon Park (across the street from campus) and the different races around New Orleans. She also told him about the TIDES class, Running Conversations, which sounded really great too (learning about the city via different runs with the prof). In addition, she was a trumpet player and had played in the marching band. DS not interested in the marching band, but he is a saxophone player and she told him about some music opportunities for non-music majors.</p>
<p>11:30 Headed over to meet the Chabad rabbi at the Chabad house on Freret (had pre-arranged this). Nice guy. Just wanted DS to hear about Jewish opportunities on campus in case he was interested.</p>
<p>12:15 Back over to PJs to meet Peyton, a Green Wave Ambassador I had emailed with when I was arranging the trip. She had tried to arrange for DS to have lunch with an engineering student, but it didnt work out so she said she would come and chat with us. (Ended up ok since we met so many engineering students during every other part of the day.) She was also wonderful. We just kept asking her various questions and she was great. Insisted on walking us over to Broadway to see the new Hillel building shes not Jewish but says she hangs out there all the time. Broadway was also where there were some Greek houses side note: I did not see a lot of Greek-wear on campus, but tons of students wearing Tulane t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc.</p>
<p>1:00 DS and I went over to Bruff for lunch. Nice and open and airy. Friendly servers. Lots of options. DS had veggie burger, hummus (hummus bar!), salad, fries. I had catfish (When in Rome…) So many choices.</p>
<p>2:00 Back to Admissions for the info session (short) and tour. Talk was no big deal as we had already been to a local info session and we didnt need to hear about how to apply and what they are looking for (so nice not to worry about that!). Went on a tour with a soph from Boston area who was in the sciences and worked in a lab. Plus about a thousand other activities. There were several other new tour guides shadowing. We chatted with one, a freshman from Louisiana who was in BME. She provided some good insights about class selection. Tour guide was very articulate and friendly. Saw the academic buildings, dorm room (although they should show you a dorm room in Monroe or Sharpe, where most of the freshmen live; still the dorm room they show you is just like those in Monroe and Sharpe, we were told). Recreation facility was really nice. Library was a library. Back outside, we saw them setting up for Fridays on the Quad (food and music), which is every Friday from 4-6. While the campus was very quiet when we arrived in the morning, all afternoon, there were kids playing frisbee on every quad we walked by.</p>
<p>3:45 When tour ended in the student center (LBC), DS headed for the bookstore (he wanted a sweatshirt - good sign!). I texted a student we know who went to DS HS. We were going to have her show us around but we had ben walking around all day. So she met us at LBC and we chatted with her for about a half-hour. Finally left campus around 4:30.</p>
<p>The best part of the day was the interaction with the Tulane students. They seemed intelligent, ambitious, generous and down-to-earth. Several told us how that picked Tulane over Dartmouth, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, UVA. Extended themselves to us to share information and promote their school. Even those who were not Green Wave Ambassadors.</p>
<p>Other details:</p>
<p>Where we stayed: Hampton Inn in the Garden District. $33 cab ride (set fee) from the airport. Easy streetcar ride to Tulane ($1.25 each way or $3 for all day pass). Hotel stay includes breakfast buffet, which was very convenient. I was going to stay at an airport hotel because we arrived so late on Thursday night and had to leave so early today, but Im glad I didnt (thank you, Vitrac).</p>
<p>Where we ate: I have a friend from Metairie who came with her DD (also a HS senior) and took us to dinner last night. She was going to take us to Superior Grill (by our hotel) or Rum House (on Magazine), but DS is happiest at Italian so we went to Venezia. Casual restaurant with really good food. Then, went to Sucre on Magazine Street for dessert (famous dessert chef Tariq do not miss this place). My friend also decided we needed to see celebrity houses so she drove us by Drew Brees house (right by Tulane) and Sandra Bullocks house. Really fun night.</p>
<p>I had been to New Orleans several times before always in or near the French Quarter. You have to do that once, but I loved seeing other parts of the city (and not being in the Quarter). My friend pointed out blocks that werent so good, but there were plenty of places that seemed to have great shopping (DS wouldnt care about this) and restaurants.</p>
<p>So here we are now. I think DS would be very happy at Tulane. But now he has to wait to hear from the other schools, especially Miami. DS is anxious to sit in on a class there when we go back in February. I am anxious to hear from the engineering students there and see how they compare to those at Tulane. I dont know how hes going to decide. Vitrac, I told him today that he and your DD will go to accepted students days together at the two schools and figure it out. He laughed. Also mentioned that you and I might go down with them, but just to hang out together, not go to the school. LOL.</p>
<p>I don’t think that I left anything out, but if anyone wants to know anything else about our day, ask away!</p>
<p>Liny…I want to hang out with you and Vitrac too!</p>
<p>Looking for the “like” button again…</p>
<p>My mom and I are in the process of planning a visit. When would you recommend visiting, what are the best times of the year to go so i don’t visit during finals or some other time when campus is dull and boring. Also, im not sure if i would be able to, but would you recommend visiting for 2 days or would 1 be enough?</p>
<p>I would say that anytime from now until the start of the semester on January 14 is not a good time. Everyone getting ready for finals, then in finals, then the campus gets very quiet. January 21 is MLK Day, so no school then. You just have to check the academic calendar [Office</a> of the Registrar | Tulane University - New Orleans, LA](<a href=“http://registrar.tulane.edu/academic_calendars/academic_calendar_201310]Office”>http://registrar.tulane.edu/academic_calendars/academic_calendar_201310) to avoid breaks and you don’t want to go too close to Mardi Gras anyway. New Orleans is not “typical” at that time. Mardi Gras quite early this year. But other than that, you should be fine. As far as weather, it usually is very nice in pretty much all of March and early April. Late April it can start getting pretty warm already.</p>
<p>Personally I say 2 days, one for Tulane and one for New Orleans. Be interesting to see what others think.</p>
<p>Would you say Mardi Gras is a good time to go or is it to crazy there to get a real sense of what NOLA is like?</p>
<p>There are three problems with going during Mardi Gras itself.</p>
<p>1) Rooms are hard to get and expensive</p>
<p>2) As I mentioned above, you really won’t get a feel for “typical” life around New Orleans. True, there are lots of festivals in New Orleans throughout the year, and there are always a lot of tourists for sports, conventions and other events. But Mardi Gras is something else entirely. Don’t get me wrong, it can be incredible fun, but the purpose of this trip is to see if on a more normal day-in and day-out basis Tulane and New Orleans is the place for you. Which leads to:</p>
<p>3) Tulane gets off that Monday and Tuesday of Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras is always on a Tuesday if you didn’t know, it means “Fat Tuesday” and is always the day before Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. Don’t mean to state the obvious but just to be thorough.</p>
<p>So I really cannot see how it is useful to try and go down at that exact time. Now to be clear, there are good parades starting around 2 weeks before, so if you wanted to go down about two weeks or so before and get a feel for it, then sure you should do it, as long as you can get rooms and it isn’t too outrageous. Here is a schedule: [2013</a> Mardi Gras Parade Schedule](<a href=“http://www.mardigrasparadeschedule.com/schedule/]2013”>Mardi Gras Parade Schedule 2023 New Orleans) Anything marked Uptown should be accessible from the campus area and the Garden District.</p>
<p>So it’s up to you, just keep in mind those couple of weeks are not particularly “normal” for New Orleans, although life on campus will be fairly normal until maybe the Thursday or so before the Mardi Gras break. And actually even New Orleans itself won’t be too different that week of January 28-February 1 except you will see the bleachers and everything set up for the parades, and they normally wouldn’t be there. But starting that week before Mardi Gras itself, the city will start to fill up with more crazies than usual.</p>
<p>LINY- Great report! In answer or some questions raised, here is my 2 cents:
- Do not visit Tulane during Mardi Gras
- One day is not long enough, even 2 will leave you wanting more
- Fun extra stuff is seeing the city by bike (Confederacy of Cruisers Tours), visiting the World War II museum (and i am not a museum person) plus lunch at its restaurant and a swamp tour.</p>
<p>Wuhandrummer - I’ve done so many college visits with both my kids. What made the full day at Tulane so valuable was planning ahead to do as much as possible in addition to the info session and tour. I would recommend:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Sit in on a class of interest - talk to the prof and the other students.</p></li>
<li><p>Talk to as many students as possible - not just when you eat in the dining hall but pre-arrange. Plan ahead to meet with students in clubs or other things you are interested in (not just chatting with students for a minute or two in the dining hall). For example, when I took DD to Hartford, we emailed ahead of time to Hillel, and met with a couple of students from there when we were on campus. Key point: plan ahead. In addition, do any students from your HS go there? Pre-arrange to meet with them too.</p></li>
<li><p>If you’ve never been to New Orleans before, plan a day to see that. But realize that is NOT Tulane. The Quarter is cool, but that’s the touristy area. The students we talked to said they rarely if ever went there. Here’s my analogy: If you went to school in Orlando, you wouldn’t be hanging out at Disney World all the time; if you went to Stanford, you wouldn’t be hanging out at Fisherman’s Wharf all the time; if you go to school in Boston, you don’t hang out at Fanuel Hall.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Flights are booked from Jan. 16-20th! Woo hoo!</p>
<p>Mav that’s around when I was planning on going. I think the 18th of January is when I will fly in. As long as that works out with the bowling coach.</p>
<p>My son and I visited last July. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and just stayed one night at Flo and Jo’s hostel in the Treme neighborhood. Couldn’t beat the price ($50 for our own room) and location, although I am sure the place is not everyone’s cup of tea. Plenty clean and comfortable, and we felt safe making the walk (10-15 min) to and from the French Quarter, even at night. But the Hilton it is not.</p>
<p>We went to the quarter for the afternoon - wandered the French Market, ate beignets at Cafe DuMonde, then spent about an hour listening to an excellent R&B band at a club on Frenchman Street (maybe D.B.A.). We then walked over to Rampart Street and went to see Kermit Ruffins (local New Orleans legend, kind of a modern day Armstrong playing trumpet and singing) at his restaurant, Kermit’s Treme Speakeasy. He performs for free on Sunday and Monday nights, and it is classic NOLA. When that ended around 9 we went to eat at the Old Coffeepot (I think on St. Peter St.) Outstanding food, and didn’t break the bank. We then wandered the quarter a bit more, stopping at many windows to briefly listen to bands. Son is hoping to major in jazz studies if he goes to Tulane, so he was in heaven. Had to stop at DuMonde for one more round of beignets before heading to bed.</p>
<p>Got up Monday morning and drove to Tulane for the Info Session and tour. Really got a good feel for the place and liked it a lot. Jeff did the info session and really stressed making sure that any college needs to be a good fit for the individual student. Of course with no classes going on it was not ideal, but it was the only time we could visit.</p>
<p>Hopped in the car after that and were off to Nashville as we continued our 11 day, 14 college adventure of the east, midwest, and south. We live in San Diego and put over 4000 miles on a rental car - love those unlimited miles.</p>
<p>Now we wait for EA results while my son prepares his project for DHS.</p>
<p>Wow! Mdndad, that is one amazing (and stamina testing) trip. And I thought my trip with my D a few years back (Arizona, New Mexico, Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans) was a big one. But yours beats that! Fun though, aren’t they? We did another northeast one (Montreal, Vermont, Upstate New York, Boston) but being in Rhode Island that was easy. Although it was February, so we did navigate some icy roads. Anyway, I am babbling.</p>
<p>Glad you had such an interesting trip to NOLA. Kermit is fantastic, absolutely. I will have to try the Old Coffeepot next time, that one I have never tried. Good luck with all the applications and scholarships. How many schools did he end up applying to?</p>
<p>Mdndad–if your son is a jazz musician, he’ll love Tulane! My son, a jazz, pianist, is a very happy freshman. During our visit last year, Andrew Farrier, the admissions rep for music majors, actually met us on Canal street and walked about a mile with us to the restaurant where we were having dinner, filling my S in not only on Tulane’s music program, but also where to hear the best jazz. The next day, he took him for a tour of the music facilities, where my S was impressed with all of the Steinway grands in the practice rooms. Fast forward one year–he’s taking jazz theory, musicianship, participating in a great jazz ensemble with some very talented kids, studying piano with Jesse McBride (ask fallenchemist about him!), and goes down to the Quarter with friends at least once a week to hear great music. He’s gotten to sit in at a couple of clubs, and has gotten a couple of gigs both on and off campus. Oh yeah–he’s also making lots of friends and enjoying his academic classes. He’s considering a double major in music and social sciences, but right now is just exploring his options. If your S would like to talk with him, send me a PM–I’m sure he’d be happy to do so.</p>
<p>For all of you who wrote such wonderful reports, if you haven’t done so already, I’d encourage you to also post your reports in the “College visit reports” section of CC. Look for it under your profile. The reports will get additional readership from the cc community there. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/vibe/tulane-university/[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/vibe/tulane-university/</a></p>
<p>FC - Including west coast schools that were not on that trip, he “narrowed” it to 15 applications. A lot, but with most of them having acceptance rates of 20% or less, needing to pass music auditions at some schools, and needing financial aid to go most anywhere, he wanted to cast a bit of a wide net. </p>
<p>Mom - Andrew was not there when we visited, but he has been very helpful via email in terms of requirements for submitting musical recordings and other such issues. My son plans to double major in math, and Tulane is one of the few places where he can fit in all the units required for that and a jazz studies major - most jazz majors are of the B.M. variety that require so many units that double majors are all but impossible. The music scene of the city is definitely a big draw for him, so we’ll see how it all plays out.</p>
<p>Going to NOLA tomorrow to visit Tulane and Loyola. My son is sold on Tulane sight unseen, but accepted at both so we’ll see once we get there!</p>
<p>Glad I found this thread again because I needed to print out the suggestions. :)</p>
<p>Will post my visit report when we return (but I’ll take copious notes).</p>
<p>I’ll be visiting Loyola and Tulane this weekend as well!</p>