<p>Suggestions for the Columns or suggestions for what else to do?</p>
<p>If you are asking where else to stay, we will be at the Omni, and you are welcome to meet us for a drink…or 2.</p>
<p>Suggestions for where else to stay and I will check out the Omni. Happy to meet for drinks also!</p>
<p>My D just verbally committed today !! So happy for her, I believe their will end up being a “wave” of kids that start coming from her HS in the coming years. Her school is a highly regarded/competitive private school in the southeast.</p>
<p>We were at destination tulane a couple weeks ago. I tell you the speech given by the head of academic advising (??? Not sure that was his title), was impressive, he nailed it! No power points, very inspiring. The discussion panel of the current students was awesome also, they were so real, impressive group of kids!</p>
<p>Very cool, westcoast. Congrats.</p>
<p>We are back from 3 days in NOLA… My son absolutely loved Tulane. For reference, within the last month we have also visited Northwestern, Loyola Chicago, Kenyon, Vanderbilt, and Loyola NOLA. At this point, I’d say that Tulane is his first choice, but we still have some schools to see.</p>
<p>The Tulane campus is beautiful and it is in a beautiful part of the city. By my son’s estimation, the campus is neither too large nor too small, but just right. Mock orange and jasmine scented the air. The gardens were in bloom. The cats were out. The grass quads were green and well tended. My son was completely captivated by the magnolia trees, but it was the live oaks that had my attention.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, our tour guide was terrible. She was poorly trained and seriously under-informed. Her presentation style was lackluster and her body language casual to the point of being sloppy. She was a very, very poor introduction to the student body. After the tour, I was ready to pack it up. </p>
<p>We went back to admissions to meet with the arts admissions counselor. Because he was running late, we were lucky enough to get to spend time with another student admissions intern. This student was a senior. He was smart, articulate, and accomplished. He erased the doubts seeded by our first tour guide and really sold us on Tulane and the opportunities available at the school. If he represents even a small percentage of the students at Tulane, I would be comfortable sending my son there.</p>
<p>Next was a meeting with Andrew Farrier, Tulane’s arts admissions counselor. Tulane has provided a full time admissions counselor to students interested in theater, dance, studio art, art history, architecture, creative writing, music or musical theater. Andrew is smart, talented, and knowledgeable. As an alumnus, he is an excellent face for the university. He made arrangements for my son to sit in on a musical theater class and later, he gave my son a personal tour of the performing arts spaces. Even though Tulane offers a BFA track, it does not have a conservatory style program. Theater, music and dance are open to all Tulane students and many BFA students double major in other subjects. As a parent, this is exactly what I’m looking for. My son saw a Tulane theater production on Friday night and he said that the performance quality was excellent. </p>
<p>I’m likely every admissions department’s nightmare because I ask pressing questions and worse, I cruise campus (and town) and talk to random students, employees, and members of the community. For better or worse, here are some of the things I heard:</p>
<p>Male. Pre-med/music student from a western state: He appreciates that he has guaranteed admission to Tulane’s med school. He wishes the music school was better funded. He said that the business school is a country club for rich New Yorkers.</p>
<p>Male. NROTC. Chemical engineering major from a southern state: The school does not have as strong a southern feel as he had hoped. He is pretty satisfied with the quality of education and the abilities of his fellow students. He likes his NROTC program.</p>
<p>Female. African American from Louisiana. She had done 2 years in Boston but transferred back to to LA. She chose Tulane because she believed it had the strongest program. She has issues with the low percentage of African Americans at Tulane (it seems to be a well known problem). Overall, she is happy with the quality of education. She did not like jock boy frat types on campus.</p>
<p>Male. Hispanic grounds keeper (20 something). He said that New Orleans is a very dangerous city. In the last week, 4 people were shot in his neighborhood and two were killed. He does not live that far from campus. He noted that the problem with the city is that there are pocket hot-spots and within a block or two, you can go from a safe neighborhood to a profoundly dangerous one. He said that all too often, students wonder unknowingly into dangerous places. In his opinion, gun violence is particularly problematic in NOLA.</p>
<p>Random observations… </p>
<ol>
<li><p>We saw tons of students wearing Tulane t-shirts. More students at Tulane wear their college gear than at any school we have been to.</p></li>
<li><p>Every student we talked to was either double or triple majoring. Many crossed disciplines, so you had students doing chemistry/music or business/theater or history/public health. </p></li>
<li><p>The coffee at PJs is terrible. Students you deserve better!!!</p></li>
<li><p>My son went to The Boot after the show Friday night. My son is 17, but he looks like he is 12. He could not get into the bar so his friends brought the beers outside and they just drank them on the bar’s patio. I don’t think drinking age means much in NOLA. </p></li>
<li><p>As though NOLA didn’t already provide tons to do, there is always something going on at Tulane: theater, concerts, speakers, art exhibits, festivals etc. One of the Loyola students was talking up her school and she mentioned that one of the benefits of Loyola NOLA was that you can go next door and take advantage of all the fun things going on at Tulane. Ok then. </p></li>
<li><p>My son spent time in the dorms with a girl he knows. He said that the dorms were spacious enough that all the furniture fit without having to loft one of the beds. This is NOT true for a number of universities we have visited. </p></li>
<li><p>The streetcar is a really cool perk. Even better, the streetcar tracks provide a nice jogging path down St Charles. I don’t know why you would need a car in NOLA.</p></li>
<li><p>Some of the campus buildings looked tired. I saw some things that made me think there was deferred maintenance going on. One maintenance guy said that new building codes made it almost impossible to rebuild new dorms at the same height as the old ones. For this reason, Tulane had chosen to only remodel the insides of some older dorms leaving the outside looking tired and dated. Speaking of dorms… I saw a broken window in a dorm room and from the condition of the cardboard covering the window, I’d say that the window had been broken for a while. </p></li>
<li><p>We heard that some of the best parties on campus are thrown by the Ultimate Frisbee team.</p></li>
<li><p>This is going to tweak some folks here, but I heard over and over again from students who had come from around the country that the behavior and attitudes of the students from the northeast was one of the negative aspects of attending Tulane. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>About our stay in NOLA…</p>
<p>Hotel: The Columns. Wonderful inn style hotel in a fabulous mansion, right on St. Charles. Friendly staff. Full southern breakfast served to order each day. Great bar… even better, you can sit on their expansive front porch with your drink and watch the world go by. </p>
<p>Meals: Red beans and rice + Pims Cup at night on the patio of the Napoleon House in the Quarter. It doesn’t get much better. Beignets and coffee at Cafe du Monde were piping hot and beyond perfect! Upperline… meh tasting menu… would not go back. Rum House on Magazine… quick, cheap and a weird but good combination of styles and food (Caribbean street tacos plus 2 southern sides? Ok, I’m in) Tulane Crawfest. Yes Virginia, Americans do eat bugs!</p>
<p>Shopping: Magazine Street is a Mecca for shoppers. Mostly independent boutiques with few chains in sight. We went into Perlis to gawk at southern men’s clothing. We had a lovely conversation with Mr. Perlis who is a Tulane alumnus. He talked about living in NOLA and gave us a little history on the different Mardi Gras krewes. I told my son that if he goes to Tulane, I’ll buy him a seersucker suit from Perlis.</p>
<p>Bourbon St… Ewwwww. Seriously? A tip for the out of town tourist, just because you can buy a fishbowl full of alcohol does not mean that you should buy a fishbowl of alcohol. My son was appalled by the behavior of the so called adults. I have no worries about him hanging out on Bourbon St.</p>
<p>Thanks for your very thorough comments! Glad you had such a good trip. As you say, not everyone will agree with all the points, including me, but so be it. Obviously two people can observe the same thing and see it the same, completely differently, or anything in-between. Only a couple of specific notes from my point of view:</p>
<p>As far as the dorms, it is a bit of an issue since Tulane is extremely limited for building space. They have recently built/are building new dorms, as you obviously saw, but replacing the two that I think are the most outdated, Monroe and Sharp, is just hard because they are two of the biggest. But I think there is a plan in place to do so over the next 10-15 years. At least I hope so. But I agree those two and a few of the “Motel 6” style dorms (Phelps, Irby) should be replaced if possible. Phelps is in fact slated to come down, it is where the new dining hall/dorm will go, and then I think the plan is to replace Bruff and Irby. We will see.</p>
<p>As far as the comment from the groundskeeper, I don’t know where he lives and without specifics it is not enough to say he lives “not far from campus”. Crossing Claiborne just to the north of campus is not far, but students never go there. It used to be “the other side of the tracks”, so to speak, although I think it has gotten better. But in any urban setting, even two blocks can make a big difference. The bottom line is that as far as I know, there has been no gun violence, knife violence or similar incident against a Tulane student in quite some time. The other bottom line is that Tulane has numerous safety measures available to students, and combined with common sense students should be just fine.</p>
<p>On our visit a few weeks ago we also heard mixed remarks concerning safety. My mom got the sense that our excitable cabdriver (eastern european immigrant) was intentionally trying to scare us with warnings of crime/danger/lack of safety in New Orleans as he drove us from the airport to campus. She thought he deliberately took us through very run down sections (compared to our ride from campus to the airport a few days later). Even once we got to Tulane, he didn’t want me to get out of the cab until my host came down from her room - I’m pretty sure at that point we were in the middle of campus. Apparently he took a much more scenic route to my mom’s hotel once I got out of the car, pointing out some excellent restaurants and the library housed in an old mansion on St. Charles, etc)
On the other hand, the bellhop (native of New Orleans) at the hotel was gushing with wonderful things to say about the city. This is not to say one shouldn’t exercise caution
We’re from PA, so compared to the neighborhoods surrounding Penn, Temple, Drexel, etc, Tulane’s neighborhood was looking quite nice! I guess everything is relative.</p>
<p>Very relative. New Orleans as a city can be quite dangerous. Same for Philly, St. Louis, Chicago, etc. But every one of those cities has large areas that are as safe as many suburbs.</p>
<p>This discussion goes on endlessly, and that is really too bad. Honestly, it is no different for Tulane and New Orleans than it is for dozens of schools and cities one can also talk about. The bottom line remains that thousands of Tulane students have come and gone over the past years with very, very few incidents that could be classified as violent. No campus, not rural ones, not suburban ones, not urban ones are 100% safe. Even the military academies have incidents sometimes, albeit very few.</p>
<p>Question about off campus retail and restaurants…besides the Boot and another pizza place next to it, we didn’t notice any places within a block or two from campus. Are there any nearby shops or diners? Or do most kids just eat lunch and grab coffee at the LBC, Bruff or PJs? D loved Magazine Street, and we spent half a day taking the bus uptown, shopping, walking around. We then walked across Audubon Park to campus. She commented that it seemed like a far walk to head over to Magazine during a free block of time in between classes. Anything nearby on Freret or Broadway? She was wondering where students go when they want to get off campus during the day for an hour…like to a coffee shop. Also, is there a nearby grocery or drug store? We saw the Whole Foods on Magazine, but nothing closer. She was just wondering, so thought I’d check with people that are familiar with the immediate area. Thanks!</p>
<p>Newstome-The closer neighborhood where kids go is on Maple Street–Several restaurants and stores over there.</p>
<p>Assuming it is still there, the Crepe Place (or some name like that) is also next to the Boot. One of my D’s favorite places. But there is not a ton of stuff right off campus because it is so residential. Besides the places on Oak and Maple Vitrac mentions, there are a few places on S. Carrollton (Camellia Grill, O’Henry’s, a yogurt shop, maybe one or two more food places, and some stores like a Walgreens) but of course these are not “right off” campus, but not too far. I think there are also a few places behind the baseball stadium on S. Claiborne, which technically is right off campus but a good 10-15 minute walk from the dorms. Assuming they are still all there, there is a Chinese place, a hot wings place, Subway, a cupcake shop, and several others.</p>
<p>Grocery stores are not very close, at least not big ones. I seem to recall a smallish one near Camillia Grill. There appears to be a decent size market near the end of the streetcar line at S. Carrollton and S. Claiborne, but I have never been there. There is also a larger Walgreens there. I think I remember saying someone delivers to campus, but that might be old info. There are 3 (at least) coffee shops on campus.</p>
<p>Crepe place is DEFINITELY still there. What a gold mine. Pizza place there too. Both owned by the Boot?</p>
<p>Not sure. I didn’t get the impression that the Crepe place was, but I never actually asked.</p>
<p>Felipe’s Taqueria is also in the group of places across the street from the baseball field. My son loves the steak quesadillas there. It’s kind of like a Moe’s Southwest Grill and probably the closest thing to campus that resembles a Chipotle, but I personally think it’s better than either of those. Also down Freret a little ways is a group of eateries that includes Dat Dog among a couple of others, but I wouldn’t consider this as a class day lunch destination unless you had a car. Most kids stay on campus for lunch during the week and venture out on the weekends. And as a parent, that is what I prefer so that they can get the most out of their meal plans. Cafe Freret is one place that I notice my son frequenting more often this semester which is a couple of blocks off of Broadway on Freret. You can use Nola Bucks there which is a bonus for students too.</p>
<p>I haven’t had time to post our full DT visit, but in regards to safety, I can say that my D and her BFF and I walked from Maple St area back to campus at 9:00 on a Friday night. We saw 20-something-ish women going for a run, other folks walking and had absolutely no concerns about safety on that walk down St. Charles St. We also walked all over the Magazine St area happily and in no way threatened. I certainly wouldn’t recommend solo adventures at night in any city, or urban suburb, but in a group with your wits about you it should be fine.</p>
<p>In the other direction are the places on Freret. That area is blossoming. My DS loves dat dog. Its an easy walk. <a href=“http://thenewfreret.com/[/url]”>http://thenewfreret.com/</a></p>
<p>Freret st has several new food options , liberty cheesesteak, Company Burger, High Hat, Midway Pizza, Ancora Pizza, a new sushi place, and Sarita’s. All are very good, the company burger is excellent and considered the best burger in the city right now by many. This ara is booming with new businesses.</p>
<p>Thanks Jammer! Forgot about Liberty. Opened by Philly Tulanians. Very excited about this one. [Liberty</a> Cheesesteaks on Freret Street | Blog of New Orleans](<a href=“http://www.bestofneworleans.com/blogofneworleans/archives/2013/03/06/liberty-cheesesteaks-on-freret-street]Liberty”>http://www.bestofneworleans.com/blogofneworleans/archives/2013/03/06/liberty-cheesesteaks-on-freret-street)</p>
<p>This is all great info - wish there was a map - it is hard to picture everything, distance from campus, etc. I am new at this but I will learn!! Someone should come out /a Tulane map that shows all these areas, how far they are from campus and also where the bad areas are in relation to everything else…</p>