so... Whats the REAL deal with Tulane now? +'s -'s?

<p>I haven't heard anything other than from an (obviously and rightfully so) biased admission staff member about how next year is going down and what the quality of the undergrad eduction is going to be.</p>

<p>What seems factual.... they've dropped some engineering stuff and cut back their graduate program extensively and really want to focus on undergraduate work.</p>

<p>Am i right?</p>

<p>I'm looking to major in Biology and being premed, so do you think i'd end up benefitting from the changes that have taken place? Anything i should be concerned about? To be completley honest I applied to Tulane just for fun(the no fee no essay, partially filled out for you thing) not realizing it was actually a decent college(atleast before the hurricanes) so i'm actually considering it now. So can someone PLEASE give me some advice on how Tulane would be for me or point me to somewhere with reliable information? I'm planning to visit sometime mid-april when i have a chance. I just am wanting other people's thoughts on this as i'm sure many other people are.</p>

<p>All I can tell you is that my son is a freshman doubling in neuroscience and biomedical engineering, a pair of majors which the faculty told him would have been difficult to do together before the changes, and he's taking premed sciences this semester very happily after spending the Fall at Cornell. He wouldn't want to be anywhere else.</p>

<p>His social life seems to be going very well, and that's proably all I need to know about it!</p>

<p>We were there yesterday to visit. Tulane is one of my daughter's finalists. We visited 2 weeks before the storm (but before the students came back for the fall). We saw no major impacts.</p>

<p>The Provost came in to talk about the changes in the academic stucture. They really seemed to have a good plan and rationale for the changes underway. There is a lot of postive energy (except in engineering).</p>

<p>I really think the best plan is to visit. A lot of the kids yesterday went to a class in the afternoon....I would look on the website and find one of interest and go to one. Stop and ask the kids...and wander through the buildings that support your major and talk to people and just look in the windows and see what's happening.</p>

<p>I had two Tulane sophmores at my house on Sunday. One is transfering because her major is being dropped and the other is staying. The one staying is in the student senate and is happily entrenched at Tulane. They both said that things are going great there. They said that stores and restaurants/bars are open at more "pre Katrina" hours than a few months ago. They also said that they feel safer walking to and from the bars and restaurants than before. There is still a lot of trash and debris in certain parts of town, but not near the campus. The girl in the senate said that Tulane is trying to downsize the campus to make the numbers more in line with other small privates which, to her, meant more intimate class settings and closer relationships with professors. She said that although the number of applications has increased, there is some concern over the number of actual freshman that will be there in the fall, and that there may be a drop in the stats of the kids that actually come. They both said, of their friends, about 1/3 to a 1/2 have applied for transfer, either because of dropped majors or just wanting out of NO. They said that the physical structures at Tulane are in great shape and that the new student center is well on the way to completion.
That's about all I remember...</p>