Social Life at Tulane

An important fact. Tulane is located in New Orleans! While the school is too Greek for some students, the city itself has a wonderful history, the French Quarter, the Saints, and a million other things in town and in LA. It is truly wonderful and a national treasure. Part of attending school away from home is doing new and exciting legal things. Besides, after only one month, there is so much more to explore on campus, including finding your way around reliably.

I had a high school classmate who blew a full-ride to a wonderful school because she was homesick after a few weeks. Thought that was sad and stupid then and really sad and stupid now. If during spring semester your son is desperately unhappy, then you should talk. Until then, I don’t now how he could find a school that you and he could really guarantee wouldn’t be too Greek or too something else after only a few weeks. I think your son’s current distress is precisely that–current–and a poor reason to lose a terrific opportunity.

Wondering if my daughter goes to one the the EXPLORE programs ,does she also go to an orientation program? It looks like the orientation programs overlap quite a bit with the TOP Scholars weekend already.

The EXPLORE programs , I think, end right at move in day. Do parents arrive later for move in or do the students in EXPLORE programs get to move in early? Thanks

@X22011

Explore is completely different than Orientation. If she does Top Scholars weekend she won’t need to do Orientation but could still do one of the Explore programs. My son did one and it was fantastic. They do get to move in early. We went down with him and got him all moved in the day before the program started. Well I think it actually started that night? Sunday night they had a meeting? You will get special shipping labels to ship her stuff down and a chart of when to ship depending on where you are coming from. Then it will all be available on the day you move in. They hold the boxes for kids in Explore in the mail room and don’t load them on the Fed Ex trailer with all the other students boxes. It was really nice to not fight crowds and lines to get our son moved in. We let him alone to unpack and we ran to target to pick up things he needed. By the time we got back he had his whole room set up and was anxious for us to leave so he could go explore his new dorm and meet people. My husband and I then stayed in NOLA for the week so we could be there for Commencement activities. We ate and celebrated and even took a drive and spent the day on the beach in Pensacola.

You are asking several questions at once. First, the TOP scholars and orientation are similar and overlap. I would suggest that you pick one, it’s important because the student picks their schedule during either of these. Explore is a pre-move-in orientation. Secondly, I highly recommend doing an Explore option because they move into their actual dorm room early and begin to settle into their new home. Explore is a wonderful way to meet people of like mind. My daughters best friends were met at the Explore program (Greenie Camp!). In terms of parents and move-in. Our daughter flew down for Explore and we followed a few days later for official move-in and Convocation. As I was told, it all works out. It really does!

My post above should read CONVOCATION not Commencement!

LOL, @dolphnlvr6 putting the cart before the horse!

Well, they are commencing to start their college life. Made sense to me!! :slight_smile:

Sounds like Jed Clampett from The Beverley Hillbillies. “You about to be commencin’ to eatin’ those pork bellies, Jethro? Granny was saving those for supper. She’ll commence to give you a good whuppen.” :))

Thanks for all the advice. We went to the Top Scholars program last weekend. My daughter really loved it. The weekend just helped confirm Tulane is her top choice. So we were trying to figure out which summer programs she needed to attend. It sounds like we can just fly her down for one of the Explore programs then we can drive down and meet her at the end of the week to complete her move in and go to convocation. She registered for classes last weekend and we paid her deposit for the class, but not for Wall yet. The only other school she wanted to consider was Miami and now she doesn’t even want to visit Miami again. It is a relief to have the decision made. We are really excited about Tulane.

That’s fantastic! It really is a weight off your shoulders isn’t it? Congrats to your daughter! Wall is a great dorm, my son lived there freshman year and would go back in a heartbeat. He will be an RA in Greenbaum next year.

@X22011

That is just fantastic. So now we officially welcome your family to the Tulane family.

Totally agree that June Orientation is not needed. My D did it even though she had done the Honors Weekend (as it was called then), but that was more because her mother had not seen Tulane in over 20 years and we were able to make a little vacation out of it by extending the trip. She just skipped the advising and registration sessions since that was already done. She did get to meet classmates. That’s the biggest difference from TSW, where many students are still “maybes”.

The programs that now precede move-in and convocation have developed immensely in just 5 years and are really great. I think your plan is spot on.

Great news! @X22011 It sounds like you have a great plan. Welcome!

Welcome @X22011 and congrats to your daughter. I agree with the others who touted the pluses of EXPLORE. My son (now a freshman) did Greenie Camp last August, and his closest friends are still mostly his Greenie Camp friends, although the roster has expanded to include roommates, floormates, etc. of the Greenie campers. I think that spending nearly a week on campus without the demands of classes is a great way to ease into the first semester. I highly recommend Greenie Camp or any other EXPLORE program.