If you are a student or parent, please provide your experience thus far with Tulane’s online classes. If online classes continue into the fall, do you feel that students still receive a better, more personalized experience online at Tulane (assume smaller class sizes and continued accessibility of faculty) versus a larger public school? If this only lasts one semester, would you feel that Tulane is worth the extra costs?
My D is a freshman at Tulane right now. The online classes are going well so far. What I like is that she has to be “in” class during normal class hours and the professors are teaching the class live through zoom. For my high schoolers the teachers are just listing the tasks for the day on google classroom and they can do them at their own pace. I prefer the Tulane set up of live classes.
D said people can get around really paying attention by signing in and somehow making their video screen blank. They can still see and hear the professor but the teacher can’t see them, some kids have been doing it in larger classes.
The only issue would be kids in very different timezones, I hear about kids overseas who have to get up in the middle of the night to get to their early morning classes! D doesn’t know any personally so not sure if they were able to make better arrangements with the professors.
I don’t know what to say about the value of the online classes, it will be a big decision if Tulane has to go online for the fall.
As a senior who is highly considering Tulane, do you think at the price point tulne is at it is worth it if classes will be online for the fall semester? @momtogkc
My answer is based on the assumption that your senior eventually wants to come to Tulane (perhaps Spring of 2021) and intends to get their degree from Tulane. I’m also assuming Tulane will be back to normal by Spring and everyone will return to campus.
Obviously it would be a lot cheaper to take online classes at a community college in the fall, but you have to consider what is transferable in terms of pre-requisites and credits. Tulane generally does not accept community college for either of those. For instance if your senior wanted to take Chemistry 2 in the Spring, and the pre-req for Chem 2 is Chem 1, generally they will want you to take Chem 1 at Tulane. The process to get a satisfactory pre-req from another 4 year is kind of a pain (and not always accepted) and requires getting the course syllabus and the dean’s approval.
Therefore, even if Tulane is online in the fall, I would recommend sticking with Tulane. You run the risk of having to take some of those pre-req classes over again, which would be very frustrating.
The is it worth it question is so hard even in normal circumstances. Lots of people thought it was crazy that my D19 could have gone to UF tuition free but we let her go to Tulane instead. Private colleges are so expensive it is really up to each family to decide if ti is worth it. Then add in online classes and it gets even more confusing! D19 absolutely loves Tulane, the size, location and social scene are perfect fit for her and we feel very lucky that she got in and we could afford it so for us so far it is worth it. It will be interesting to see what the plans are for fall, right now D is happy she got the dorm she wanted and is crossing her fingers she can move in there in August!
I agree with @AH1310 though, really talk to Tulane a lot if you want to try to take classes somewhere else in the fall (if Tulane goes online.) We have not had to do it yet but I hear from lots of kids that Tulane is pretty strict about getting credits to transfer. You usually need to submit class information and a syllabus before they will give permission.
Thank you everyone for your thoughtful responses.
@momtogkc - My daughter will love your response as Tulane is her #1 choice and the public school we are referring to is UF, her #2. We are from Chicago.
If you and your daughter had to make that decision again, based on everything you know and have experienced, would you still pick Tulane over UF? Any reasons that stick out above all others?
@dednimnepo We would pick Tulane again in a heartbeat but we also have friends who are at UF and love it and would pick that again as well!
D19 knew she did not want a huge school and did not want to stay in state but we made her apply to UF and FSU because of the Bright Futures Scholarship. She never got a chance to visit FSU but did visit UF. She did not do the official tour but stayed with a friend and got to see what life as a student was really like for a night. She liked it much more than she expected - she said it was fun and it was a prettier campus than she imagined. Even with all of that and the amazing price she just couldn’t see herself at a big school with tons of kids from her high school.
Tulane had the right mix of what she was looking for - smaller size, smaller classes (no online classes even for the big intro classes like Psych), traditional campus but near a city, stuff to do within walking distance, greek life but not overwhelming or super important (in fact her other top choice was BC which has no greek life so she was happy to find a place where it wasn’t the only social scene) and the ability to try out lots of classes without having to be accepted into a specific school.
D19 was concerned she would never find a “perfect fit” but now she has it. She hates being home doing online class and can’t wait o get back to New Orleans. In fact she and her BFF from home both go there and the other day they were saying that if Tualne did online classes in the fall they would just go and get ab apartment for the semester because they miss it so much!
Not all Tulane courses are on-line. I believe all of my son’s courses (upper division) have been in person both last semester and this semester. My younger son is at a public university and all his courses ended up being on-line - except his lab courses.
Tulane President Fitts --We are planning to host a fall semester in which most of the COVID-19 protocols are no longer necessary and the campus experience looks very much like pre-pandemic semesters. Of course, all of our planning is dependent on the state of public health at the time and is subject to local, state and federal guidelines, as well as recomendations from our own experts.
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