<p>I would definitely write a quick e-mail to admissions mentioning all this. Clearly, while the students need to take some responsibility for their own mess even in common areas that are cleaned by the university, this is not the impression any school wants to leave people with. I thought the bathrooms in non-suite dorms were cleaned daily, but not on weekends. Hmmm, I guess that could have been the issue here. If you saw it after a weekend before they got cleaned, that would be the worst. Still, sounds gross.</p>
<p>I think of all the complaints I have heard at Tulane (and some other schools also to be sure), the most frequent is when common areas, bathrooms and elevators are trashed, puked in, etc. and not cleaned up quickly enough. While it is easy (and correct) to stay the students should be more responsible, the reality is what it is and hopefully the school can do something about it. Appearances are definitely important, and as beautiful as the campus is, it becomes even more jarring when visitors see dorms looking that bad.</p>
<p>My daughter and husband are visiting Tulane this weekend. It is their second trip, as she is trying to decide between Tulane and another college that offered a little more money. We are from Chicago and sometimes I worry that there won’t be enough Midwestern folks like us for her to feel comfortable. A self described nerd, loves Harry Potter, Fan Fiction, GSA and anything alternative. Have heard this school has lots of flashy, sophisticated folks from both coasts. What can she visit on campus to help her see some like minded students?</p>
<p>Totally forgot to mention the McAlister Auditorium visit. After hearing the presentations, went to the bathroom to discover that there were only 2 stalls, so there was a line going out of the door. After leaving the stall, discovered that the one and only sink was covered up in plastic. No hand sanitizers in sight. Only hand towels. lots of people were complaining about this, so I’m sure this part got back to administration. I’m not a neat/germ freak, but some details were overlooked on this weekend visit. </p>
<p>May send admission an email -thanks for the suggestion fc. Hope they really do.make changes for anyone visiting in the future.</p>
<p>"- 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"</p>
<p>Your tour probably didn’t show you any of the Loyola dining locations (all of which are integrated into the Tulane meal plans). From a dorm room in Monroe quad or a classroom in Gibson quad, the Loyola locations are as close (or closer) than the Tulane locations. My kid eats at Loyola frequently, especially at the sushi place and the gelato place.</p>
<p>Bruff is scheduled to be replaced by a new 2X-sized dining hall in Fall 2015.</p>
<p>“We are from Chicago and sometimes I worry that there won’t be enough Midwestern folks like us for her to feel comfortable.”</p>
<p>The top five states (in order) for Tulane students are LA, NY, CA, IL, NJ. TX and FL send a lot of kids too. TU’s geographic distribution, except for LA, pretty much tracks the national population distribution.</p>
<p>bellarid - While the coasts are well represented, I can tell you absolutely that Chicago, St. Louis, and other Midwestern cities are there in healthy numbers. Plus even though Pennsylvania and New York are counted with the East, of course, kids from Pittsburgh, Upstate New York and many other parts of these large states are much more Midwestern in their character than Eastern, in general. In addition, students that post on here are constantly saying that Tulane is anything but snobby in character. Given the emphasis on public service and the kind of student that attracts, that isn’t too surprising.</p>
<p>Thanks for the timing on the new dining hall, northwesty. I had not seen a firm date on that yet. That will be great for the students, I am sure.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info, NWy and FC. Overall, I loved Tulane and New Orleans. The grunginess I observed in some of the dorm common areas was no worse than what I’ve seen in dorms on virtually every other campus I’ve visited. My mom attributes it to the relatively large number of people per square foot living in the dorms, combined with the age of the dwellers, lol.
I totally agree every tour guide is not created equal, and I certainly wouldn’t let that be a deciding factor. I just had the feeling ours didn’t do justice to all the offerings of Tulane. However, we met lots of other Tulanians (not sure that’s a word) who filledinthe gaps.
Re nerds, if the students attending last weekend’s gig are any reflection, I met a broad range of different types from all over the country, from Maine and RI, Chicago (several), OR, CA, Atlanta, NYC, NC, PA, etc - with just one person from Louisiana. Definitely some hipsters, intellectuals, nerds, artsy types, but no one who came off as snobby or flashy. And, fyi, they have a quidditch club, so there must be some Harry Potter fans.</p>
<p>Thanks all, what you say is very assuring. Especially the info about the Quiddich Club, Candles :). I’m sure there have to be a few Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans at Tulane.</p>
I can state that as a fact. When my daughter was a freshman, they would have Buffy nights where they would watch the old episodes.</p>
<p>Candles - good to know Tulane isn’t any different in regard to cleanliness, at least. But mostly I wanted to let you know that not only is Tulanian a real word, it was the name of a very popular music group on campus for many years. It finally disbanded some time after the long-time director of the group, Leland Bennet, retired from that duty. Leland just very recently died, after being director of the LBC for many years. Besides directing the Tulanians, he was also a local musician (sax). I could go on for hours about the Tulanians, including some of the very successful people in the entertainment field that came out of the group. In case you couldn’t guess, I was in the group, for 3 years. Not one of the entertainment success stories, however.</p>
<p>Thanks for indulging me in this walk down memory lane. Although I have to say, with all the talent at Tulane I would love to see the Tulanians started up again.</p>
<p>Trumpet player. And no, I could not make it in 2005, I didn’t learn about it until it was too late. They only directly reached out to those living fairly close to New Orleans, and by the time another former Tulanian mentioned to me I had made other plans.</p>
<p>Wow, FC, thanks for sharing about the Tulanians and the link to Leland Bennett’s obituary. What an amazing human being he was – I can only hope someone will write something half as nice about my life when I pass on to the other side! I’m sorry I won’t get a chance to meet Leland, if I go to Tulane. He must have been a fixture there.</p>
<p>We went on our long-awaited visit to Tulane over the past week, which coincided with spring break, so we could put in a full week for our first visit to NOLA. I want to highly recommend our bed and breakfast, Terrell House, which is on Magazine street, just a few blocks from where all the cool stuff starts. Our family of four stayed in their adjacent house, called Creole House, and it couldn’t have been more perfect! We had a two bedroom, one bath apartment, complete with living room and full kitchen! And wonderful southern breakfasts (heard her cheesy grits are to die for, but they weren’t my thing) which I brought to our apartment every morning from the main house. She gave us a 10% discount for being there for Tulane and another 10% for staying more than three nights…It came to $240 a night, which is a real bargain! Our favorite meal was the Chicken Under a Brick at Dante’s Kitchen, but Domenica’s pizza at the Roosevelt Hotel was a close second! Joey K’s red beans and rice, as well as their fried green tomatoes is recommended, and just a few blocks from Terrell House. Also loved the shrimp (and the waiter!) at Pascal’s Manale. Did the Confederacy of Cruisers bike tour with Jeff, which was really fun and informative. Lots of other stuff, but those are the highlights.</p>
<p>As for Tulane, after about four months of my pouring everything learned on College Confidential into my poor daughter’s head (I was the butt of many jokes in our house,) she loved it but we actually had to tell her we couldn’t afford it! She was so excited to get a Founders Scholarship, and we got a bit more aid on top of that, but meeting with her financial aid counselor, with our “real income tax data,” not the estimate, our award was substantially reduced! We are a bit miffed with the Estimated Financial Aid calculator which started us down this path, as that preliminary “estimate” was many thousands less than what we were offered. We hated to break our daughter’s heart, but UC Berkeley is her second choice and we wont have to go into debt!</p>
<p>I want to thank all of your for many hours of entertaining and informative information and wish you and your kids all the best.</p>
<p>So glad you had a great New Orleans vacation, and so sad that Tulane didn’t work out, but that of course is the reality more and more these days. You all are making the wise decision, IMO, and Berkeley is such an interesting place to be as well. I am sure I have mentioned on here several times that my niece is just finishing her freshman year there and thinks it is fantastic. Best of luck to her and your family.</p>
<p>FWIW, Pascal’s Manale is one of my favorite places from back when I was an undergrad, and those that have been on here awhile know I used to recommend it all the time, but a few people came back saying it had gone downhill somewhat. Now it seems to be coming back again, you are the third person recently that has a positive report. I know that neighborhood (Freret) is on the rise again as well. So I will put it back on my recommend list. Thanks for that info, and about Terrell House. Having a nice place on Magazine is a real find. Glad you liked Dante’s also, I have been playing that up for the last couple of years.</p>
<p>Hi Everyone,
Haven’t been here in a while, but daughter now officially enrolled and planning visits to NOLA! Planning on staying at the Columns–anybody have any info about it? Looks very cool…</p>
<p>One of my D’s favorite places. She had a friend visit over spring break and that was one of the places she took her for brunch, and I assume it is also a great place to stay. Congrats on her enrollment!</p>
<p>Thanks for the quick replies Vitrac and FC! Is she wasn’t sure about Tulane already (which she really was) she spent a week in NOLA on a service trip with her high school in March so…I’m not sure she will ever leave New Orleans!</p>