<p>My son is going on his own to Honors Weekend next week. Any advice for the best/easiest/cheapest way to get to and from the airport?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>If he is alone the cheapest is a shuttle that takes him right to Tulane. If there is someone he can share a ride with, I think the taxi turns out to be a little cheaper, and of course 3 in a cab is definitely cheaper. Here is a link where you can make a reservation.</p>
<p>[Tulane</a> University - Airport Shuttle, Inc.](<a href=“http://tulane.edu/universityservices/airport-shuttle.cfm]Tulane”>http://tulane.edu/universityservices/airport-shuttle.cfm)</p>
<p>Thanks FC - also, do you know if he would be allowed into the Maple Leaf?</p>
<p>Hmmmm, I really am not sure at this point. By which I mean a year ago I would have said yes, no problem, but there was some news that New Orleans was going to try and make it so that only those of legal age could go into places where serving alcohol was the primary business. [New</a> Orleans bars should keep out everyone under 21, councilwoman says | NOLA.com](<a href=“http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/02/new_orleans_councilwoman_sugge.html]New”>http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/02/new_orleans_councilwoman_sugge.html)</p>
<p>But I cannot find any reference that says this ever passed, and even if it did I would have a hard time believing that the places near Tulane and Loyola really enforce it. But hopefully some current students can bring us up to date on this situation.</p>
<p>there is a open facebook page called Tulane airport cabsharing </p>
<p><a href=“Tulane-Airport Cabsharing | Facebook”>Tulane-Airport Cabsharing | Facebook;
<p>where students arrange to share cabs between the airport and Tulane ahead of time. As it is open, I would imagine your student could join it, at least temporarily, for this trip. He could always cancel his “like” of the page if he doesn’t end up attending.</p>
<p>I have found that the cheapest transportation is a rental car through Priceline name your price. I have paid as low as $11 per day and a high (as recently as last weekend) of $20 (full size car).</p>
<p>idad - that might be cheaper (depending on gas, parking, etc.) but this is a 17-18 year old and so a rental car is not possible.</p>
<p>do tell, alexmarie- where’d you stay???</p>
<p>Where to stay ? Creole Gardens in Garden district, one block off St Charles. Great central location. Street car to Tulane. Explore Garden District, they have bikes.</p>
<p>Lunch - Juans Burrito (incredible Mexican food) on Magazine by all the cool shopping boutiques.</p>
<p>Dinner - UpperLine Garden District (one of my favs in the world.)</p>
<p>Go Tulane class of 2017!!! … we will be there in next couple of weekends. Down to final 3 schools, need to make decision in next couple of weeks.</p>
<p>Have fun!! If you don’t mind sharing, which are the other 2 schools?</p>
<p>FC: I missed that he would be going on his own.</p>
<p>Honors Scholarships SMU and Alabama.</p>
<p>Westcoast - nice! Those two schools always compete a lot with Tulane for students. Well, Bama mostly when Honors College is offered, less so for general admission. Good luck with the decision.</p>
<p>westcoast11 - those are all new recommendations (to me, anyway) so thanks for those!</p>
<p>Hello everybody! Just wanted to thank you all for your suggestions about food, transportation, etc to New Orleans/Tulane for Honors Weekend, which I attended this past weekend with my mom. We had a terrific visit – loved both Tulane and New Orleans, although we didn’t have any where near enough time to do or eat all that we’d planned.</p>
<p>First, my compliments to Tulane’s admissions office for their spectacular job in thoughtfully organizing the whole event, including a scrumptious catered lunch at which we could sit at small round tables pre-designated according to potential areas of study. Each table had a professor from the specific department, allowing for a nice intimate discussion of programs, courses, general advice, etc. while we ate.</p>
<p>Some Pros of Tulane:
- friendly, engaged students who seemed very excited about Tulane as well as their areas of study who were willing to talk at length and answer questions
- the 2 classes (math and psych) I attended were interesting and well-taught
- honors program director and freshman seminar professor (Luongo) inspires a lot of confidence
- excellent study abroad options
- beautiful, well-maintained campus - spectacular oak trees! - with immaculate facilities (with the exception of some of the dorm common spaces)
- streetcar makes downtown/arts/french quarter/ etc easily accessible
- online registering very easy, convenient and straightforward
- lots of clubs, groups to get involved with
- New Orleans
- friendly, friendly, friendly people throughout the city</p>
<p>Not so great:
- our campus tour guide was mediocre - skipped sections of the school, such as performing and visual arts buildings; we left with no sense of theater productions, TV and radio stations, musical and a capela ensembles, art studios, etc, yet I presume they exist since I met some potential music majors
- cafeteria seemed very poorly organized, i.e, had to go from one end to the other to gather up cutlery (e.g., cereal bar only had spoons, salad bar had the forks, way over in a corner I found sugar), plus there are no trays, so we made multiple trips back and forth to our table
- food was fair (except for the wonderful catered lunch on the first day)
- didn’t seem to have as many options for places on campus to grab food, as compared to other schools
- the course advisor I met with did not seem very knowledgeable, for example, didn’t mention/suggest the freshman colloquium and gave what seemed to be inaccurate info regarding premed courses (to another person in my group)
- there seemed to be an absence of the usual posters, pamphlets, signage, etc I’ve seen posted in public places on most other campuses announcing upcoming speakers, plays, rallies, events, etc, so it was difficult to get a sense of the enthusiasm/liveliness and political engagement of students
- saw little racial diversity</p>
<p>Ate beignets from Cafe du Monde, po’ boys, seafood, rode the streetcars, walked all over downtown, uptown, arts district, Frenchman Street, French Quarter; heard lots of music. Went to the Boot. Never made it to Magazine Street, art museum sculpture garden, cemeteries…</p>
<p>
THinking maybe because they just returned from spring breaak, this might have been more scarce. Just a thought</p>
<p>Another possibility is that Tulane has had a push to be as environmentally friendly as possible, and all that info is transmitted through several electronic means, including Tulane apps for smartphones.</p>
<p>I have found that our experience with tour guides have been very hit or miss on the many campuses we have toured (this being child #3 in the college search process). Sadly, that can have an impact on the impression that a school makes on a perspective student. That being said, I don’t recall being shown the theater and performing arts facilities on any other campuses, other than to perhaps occupy a theater to receive the “Welcome to Our University” speech when attending a larger admissions gathering. That was the case at Tulane when we attended a Campus Preview Day in the fall, but I imagine the Destination Tulane dates are more heavily attended and McAlister Auditorium was used instead. It was a very nice facility by the way. 
Remember, these tours are geared to the general population of perspective students: dorms, academic facilities, cafeterias, and recreational facilities that will be used by all. If there was something specific you wanted to see, I am sure Tulane would have been glad to arrange that for you. </p>
<p>I agree that Bruff seems a bit scattered in it’s layout and I also had trouble locating the silverware when I ate there at Honors Weekend. But I have been similarly overwhelmed at other campus dining facilities trying to figure out what was there to eat and how to locate it with the widely popular layout of different food “stations” that has emerged as the new standard in campus dining facilities. The students seemed to have no trouble finding what they needed, so I think maybe it’s just a matter of orienting to the new surroundings. Maybe it’s just me, but I experience a similar frustration when I am in a strange kitchen on vacation! There are plans for a new dining facility that will replace Bruff, but I am not sure of the timing on that.</p>
<p>FC is correct that the information about campus events is widely circulated electronically. My son says he has to “hunt” through his inbox for important emails because his inbox is so full of other “unnecessary” information, but maybe that’s just his excuse for not replying to mine! :)</p>
<p>Candles - Glad you had a good visit. That’s a shame you didn’t have a great tour guide of the campus, but it happens occasionally. Most people seem pleased with their tours, but to respond to part of your comment Tulane has extremely active programs in all those areas except TV, including on of the premiere glass art programs in the country. I think that facility is just off campus? It used to be, I can’t remember if they moved it back to campus. But WTUL radio has been around forever, although I am not aware of any television facilities. There are several a capela groups, along with numerous other musical entities, numerous theater productions, and exhibits of university created (both student and faculty) and other art all the time. It is a shame that wasn’t pointed out better.</p>
<p>Also, be aware that construction on a new cafeteria is slated to begin sometime relatively soon, not sure of the exact time frame. It will go in the spot where Phelps dorm is currently, right next to Bruff where you ate. That should result in numerous improvements.</p>
<p>No excuse for the inadequate advising, other than to say that I know they hired several new advisors within the last few months. Still, there is no reason for incomplete and/or inaccurate information. You should definitely point this out to the university, or maybe in this case to Dr. Luongo since this was part of the Honors Weekend. Feedback is always a good thing if presented constructively.</p>
<p>Finally, those oak and magnolia trees really are something, aren’t they? Don’t know if you got to Audubon Park, but they are present throughout there as well.</p>
<p>Went to April Honors Weekend. Had a great visit. What surprised me were the dorm conditions. Some of the common areas/study rooms in the dorms were filthy. Things like food wrappings and trash were left on tables. I got one student to let me see the communal bathroom in one dorm. It was smelly with tissue on the ground (girls bathroom). Laundry room also had trash on ground and unclaimed clothing. Bathroom in one suite-style dorm room was also smelly- guess that is the fault of those residents. Otherwise, campus was beautiful. Lots of studying going on. Send your student with lots of antibacterial wipes, febreeze, etc.</p>