For those of you that attended, or had a child attend alone, the Top Scholars Weekend they just held, please let us know how it went. Impressions of the school, New Orleans, how it might be influencing any decisions to be made, etc.
Since another TSW is scheduled in a few weeks, we can use this thread for those reviews as well, when the time comes.
We’ll be attending the next TSW, since DD is “99.5% likely” in her words. Interested to hear any thoughts on last weekend, and can provide ours once we return.
I was playing around with the Tulane Course Scheduler yesterday evening, looking at classes with DD, and you can see which classes this past weekend’s attendees enrolled to take, since they are the only ones who have registered. Not surprisingly, lots of registration for the freshman Honors colloquium. I do like the way that Scheduler functions, seems pretty easy to use.
I was wondering how they schedule a student if she does not yet have AP results for this year, and won’t for some time. Do they assume you got some credit for the intro 1000 level class?
It’s really more up to the student, I think. If the student is confident, then assuming credit and registering accordingly is probably the way to go. If not, I would register for the intro class (if they want to even take the subject) and then change the schedule if they do get a 4 or 5 on the AP. Generally speaking, it is easier to find space in the next level up than the intro class at the time you want. People pretty much always get the class they want, but sometimes at a less desirable class meeting time.
We went last weekend and it was top notch. Tulane was not really a school we were considering very highly and the weekend changed our minds, now one of the top schools on our list. They obviously went out of their way to make the students feel like they were wanted. Registering for classes was a great idea, gets the kids invested in next year. Only thing I would say is the hosts for the sleep over varied widely. My child had a great experience, I heard that was not true for everyone. My child also loved New Orleans, especially the weather and the food!
I hear you on the sleepover partner, @terp2B. My D was paired with someone that could not have been more different in terms of interests, both academic and social. And the host basically said, “I have a paper due tomorrow I have barely started, so you are probably better off finding others to hang with.” But my D had a great career at Tulane.
I can sympathize with Tulane that it is probably hard to find a lot of good hosts in the middle of a semester, close to mid-terms I would think. Still, one would think there is something that could be done to make sure that part isn’t a poor choice.
@fallenchemist: First, I think I’d add you to the top 101 reasons to attend Tulane, your advice and dedication to College Confidential and your balanced responses and insight are much appreciated, and reflect highly on Tulane. Thanks.
We also attended the TSW last weekend, and really enjoyed it.
Highlights: It was very well run, thoughtful, and a valuable use of time. The staff was universally helpful, caring, energetic. My daughter did the overnight and had a great host who hosted 2 girls, and took them to a few different dorms to visit friends and then they all went out to dinner on Magazine street via the streetcar. My daughter made several friends with other students there for the TSW weekend and went to many scheduled events with them.
Lunch with the staff and professors was great, as was the business open house. We sat in on the student panel for parents, and the candor of the students was appreciated. We sat in on a few of the offered lectures and enjoyed them - Peter Ricchiuti gave a good finance lecture and he would also be successful as a stand up comic (seriously, this guy is entertaining). The students were universally nice and friendly, both the Tulane students and the candidates there for the weekend. Students were busy studying all over (coffee shops were full with laptops open and books out on the tables) - a good sign. Lots of students outdoors playing frisbee or soccer on the different fields. Our streetcar ride Saturday night was great, the driver was hilarious (“drinks at the bar in the back” to get everyone to push back from the front door, then from the back “hey, there’s no drinks back here”, answer: “well we must have run out!”, the streetcar was packed but everyone was having fun).
OK: The weather was warm, but overcast most of the weekend, and it must have rained Sunday night as there were puddles all over on Monday. The dorms were, … OK. Definitely they could be nicer but really every student there seemed to love (or at least like) their dorm and living experience. It was also great that so many dorms were open for tours so we could get a good overview, and there’s a variety to pick from. The students showing off their dorm rooms were great and very friendly. We ate breakfast at Bruff on Monday and it was OK - definitely not the best and not the worst either. It’s nice to see some new construction on campus (the library was under construction now, and they are adding on to the business center), but it also means these buildings are partially closed too.
Lowlights: The french quarter. I had a great time there 30 years ago, it seemed both sleazy and charming back then, but on Friday night it seemed just sleazy and dirty. However, the students we talked to rarely went, it’s a few miles from campus, and there is so much else to do more local to Tulane that this isn’t a great concern of mine. Also, my daughter’s experience signing up for classes didn’t go great, it sounded like she didn’t get enough help deciding, but this is a non-factor (she can always change courses).
Summary: This was our first visit to Tulane, our daughter applied and was accepted with a scholarship so we decided to check it out. We were hopeful for a good experience based on our reading about Tulane here on CC, and we weren’t disappointed. It’s now at the top, or very near the top, of my daughter’s list. She still needs to wait for all the decisions from other schools to roll in, pick the leading ones, and visit them again, but certainly Tulane will be the benchmark now.
Ken
@kencc83
Thanks for both the thoughtful and thorough review and your kind words. I will only comment on one thing, which you seem to have deduced yourself but I want to emphasize anyway.
The French Quarter, and specifically Bourbon Street, is interesting to new students for about 2 weeks. Then most students never go again except when visitors come and insist on seeing it. Now I won’t say they never go the the FQ again because there are many very nice places not on Bourbon Street. Bourbon Street is really separate and unique. But your analysis is spot on: Bourbon Street is for tourists, the rest of New Orleans is for locals and after a very short time Tulane students become locals.
I am very glad your D’s experience was so positive. I will also say that most of the upperclass dorms are pretty nice, most are newer. The freshman dorms, at least the older ones, are typical of their era is all I can say. But for most people, the dorm room is just a bed and closet anyway. They spend most of their time elsewhere. Oh, and there is a new dining hall that should be in place by the time your D would be a junior, if not sooner, and the new president seems to have made a point of making sure that the food options and quality are taken up a notch at that time. But then again, the students have the best city in the country for food to fall back on anyway.
Ah, here I said I would only comment on one thing and I commented on three. Oh well.
Notes for those going to the next TSW:
I knew I was going to Tulane before attending, but this visit confirmed my interest and gave me realistic expectations. For example, there’s more alcohol on campus than I thought or wanted, but there are people who don’t want to drink and I’ll just have to seek them out. Hopefully I’ll see some of you this fall!
I went and loved it! It definitely confirmed Tulane as my choice. The whole thing was really organized, well-run and informative. I didn’t meet or talk to a single student or faculty member that didn’t seem to know what was going on which was a nice change of pace from some other schools I’ve visited and left a good impression. Being from the northeast, the 65 degree weather was also nice and it was funny how literally every single person I met apologized for the “terrible weather” that I was loving.
Registration was easy and organized and it was consistently easy to find out where we were supposed to be. The campus is gorgeous and pretty much everything I was looking for; it’s bigger than I thought it would be but in my case that was definitely a positive. Our tour guide was great. I actually applied as a liberal arts major but was basically undecided; by the end of the weekend I had switched to public health and built an entire schedule around it and now I feel reasonably sure (at least for the time being) that that’s where I want to be. Every single person that I talked to from the public health department was great and Dr. Lichtveld’s lecture on the gulf oil spill was easily one of the highlights of the weekend for me. But what really was the best part was the public health open house, which I’m glad to have made it to. All the student speakers were really what solidified my choice - all of them came across as so intelligent, worldly and curious and most of all well-spoken.
Overall, that was really what got this weekend to make Tulane my #1 choice by a clear mile: the resources and the attitudes. I think more than blatantly persuading everyone to want to attend Tulane, more emphasis was placed on painting an accurate picture of what Tulane is. I loved that pretty much everything seemed to circle around to using education as a means to better the world around us. Everyone there seemed to have a true passion for service and a want to integrate classes with serving the community and real world application. The professors were accessible and easy going - really, that’s how everyone seemed to be. The Big Easy is definitely an attitude I can get behind.
I was also pleasantly surprised by Bruff! From reading on here I didn’t think it would be nearly as nice as it was. My mom and I ate a ridiculous amount of food and then when we tried to get out of the building, we stumbled upon three more rooms full of stuff we hadn’t even seen before. Of course, we only ended up eating there at lunch on the last day because we’d been so busy eating our way through New Orleans otherwise. This might also sound crazy, but I always judge places by the quality of their salad bar and Bruff’s was definitely good.
Anyway, I really can’t praise the weekend enough and I didn’t even get to address how awesome the street car, the southern hospitality and the gym in Reilly are! Tulane was everything I wanted it to be and more. High school has kinda drained my motivation to learn but this weekend helped me to get excited about learning at Tulane and that was really important to me.
@Uptown
I never heard anyone suggest #1 before, and that strikes me as very useful and excellent advice.
As far as the dorms, I guess it depends on what one considers significant in differences. Certainly Sharp and Monroe are identical, essentially, and while Butler is also hall bath style, people are pretty consistent in noting that it is quieter than those two dorms. JL is all female so that is certainly different, and Wall and Greenbaum are suite style and have the professor in residence, so I think that qualifies as different as well. Just to be clear for those making decisions. But you and I agree on the main point, which is that which dorm you get doesn’t define your experience at Tulane so much as one might think. To me, getting a decent roommate, which I define as anything better than the roommate from hell, is much more important. Getting a great roommate that becomes a good friend is just that much better.
Best of luck at Tulane! Are you a NOLA local?
@bottleitup
So glad you had such an awesome experience. Best of luck at Tulane to you as well.
@terp2B @kencc83 @Uptown @bottleitup
I was wondering if you (and anyone else that still wants to review their TSW) could comment on what was said about the Tulane Scholars program. It is new this year and so I would like to keep informed about what they are saying about it and how they are presenting it. Same for Newcomb Scholars, if they mentioned that at all. It is not so new, but I would still be interested to know what, if anything, they are saying about it.
Thanks in advance.
TSW was impressive. Tulane is beautiful and seems to offer a lot for honors students. Surprisingly I did not speak to a single student or parent who committed to Tulane. Of course I didn’t talk to everyone there, but the people I spoke to were still deciding and in many cases still waiting to hear from other schools. Almost everyone had a state school where their child could go for free or almost free. I am having a hard time justifying the $148,000 price tag (even with the generous $30k/yr scholarship)when our in state option will be around $30,000 for 4 years. Is it worth an extra $118,000, even if you can afford it? I am definitely on the fence with this one.
One comment regarding Dorm options for freshman…if someone is looking for a newer/“fresher” dorm (my son thought Butler was a bit tired looking), then Greenbaum might be considered. For my freshman son, it has more than met his needs…this was its inaugural year as it was brand spankin’ new last fall. It houses a mix of freshman and upperclassmen and features lots of options for cooking, as well as lots of study rooms, both of which my son has utilized. Next year he will be in Weatherhead/SoHo. It is located near Newcomb Quad, across from JL and The Boot (which has been okay for my son).
Glad everyone seems to have had a good experience with TSW.
@fallenchemist We did not go to the information session on Tulane Scholars so no info from us.
@bottleitup Speaking of Bruff, just FYI, I commented on how good the food was to one of the students sitting next to us at lunch. Specifically all the fresh fruit, they actually had pomegranate and and kiwi halves available. Her comment was don’t be fooled this is not the usual spread. Not exactly sure what that meant but thought it was interesting. My son isn’t a picky eater so this didn’t bother us too much.
@jeb2015
Actually that is information, since I didn’t know they broke it out into a separate session as opposed to talking about it to the whole group. So thanks for that.
As far as Bruff, it has always had mixed reviews over the years. Some students think it is good, others OK to not so good, and a few think it is just bad. A similar few think it is great. Which is odd for a place in New Orleans, but maybe that is part of the problem. There are so many great choices in NOLA, even close to campus, that perhaps not enough effort was put into making Bruff as good as some other schools. Because I can tell you that when I was looking at campuses with my kids, some of the food at other schools just completely shocked me, it was so good and the choices were so varied. Middlebury and WUSTL immediately come to mind, but there were others. The fact that the view at Middlebury is unbelievable might have enhanced it somewhat as well. Also, the food plan at WUSTL was about 50% more than Tulane’s, so that quality definitely came with a cost. Anyway, the main point, I think, is that President Fitts made a special point of mentioning upgrades to the food quality and selections in one of his first communications as president of Tulane, so I think it will only get better. Not to mention, again, that there will be an entirely new dining hall in 2017, I think is the date. Bruff will be no more.
@1strodeo
I think there are 2 things I would comment on from your post. First, it isn’t terribly surprising that a number of students are still keeping their options open. You guys are the best students in the country, generally speaking, and so a lot of these people you are talking about are waiting to hear back from HYPS and similar schools. Then, depending on those answers of course, they will have to weigh all the factors involved, including cost since Tulane is likely the most generous of the private schools for most of them, unless they qualify for a very generous package from the Ivy, et. al. schools that promise to cover all or most of the tuition with no loans for modest income families. Most are probably not considering state schools, unless it is a Michigan, Berkeley, UCLA or UVA.
Which segues nicely into your next issue. $120,000 (rounding) is a lot for anyone, but of course some can afford it far more easily than others. Also, you don’t say if you applied for need based aid. If you did, that is not always just loans. Need based aid often includes grants from the school on top of your merit scholarship. So the out-of-pocket for your family might not be $120,000. Hard to comment further without those kinds of details. But if the costs get at least substantively closer, then you just have to decide if the atmosphere of Tulane and NOLA is worth whatever that cost difference is. Certainly no one outside your family can really comment on it meaningfully other than to point out generalities, and even you can’t see the future and know for sure. You can only make the best assessment possible, knowing you own strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, etc.
My daughter and I attended the first TSW and really thought it was great to get a feel for Tulane. I thought the program overall was balanced with a lot of choices and information. It was a whirlwind but effective for our impression of a welcoming, enthusiastic but kind of laid back air of Tulane. Every student (part of the program or not) and professor/staff we met was positive and engaging. The weekend was everything we needed to capture the essence of what it would be like for her to be there. I will also add that she is pretty convinced but needs to also have an intense visit at another school she is very interested in to be sure. I will also add that there is a big financial component for us and we are grateful for her scholarship consideration, but the rest of that discussion I won’t put on this thread.
It was great to start off with Fitz welcoming everyone. It was nice to have the schedule in advance to review options for the afternoon sessions so we could strategically plan. The tour was great - we were all gifted umbrellas or ponchos right away to keep dry from the light rain. The lunch was nice - we had a interesting conversation with a professor and good food but given that everyone came back from tours at different times (and earlier than our group) we couldn’t sit at a table designated for her major. That is not a big deal to me but the kids feel like it is. I would say that it would almost be better if there weren’t designated tables so that you sat with any professor or staff person to get a feel for something other than your major and you wouldn’t feel like you didn’t get to be where you ‘should’. I reinforce this by saying it is/was much more effective to go to the open house for your ‘major or school’ the next day than it may be to sit at lunch with them.
We went to three sessions and I let my daughter pick them. I personally might have chosen differently (and perhaps parents should be reinforced that they can if they wish), but I wanted to see my daughter’s reaction to hearing about new innovations in engineering or how she takes in information about building a course curriculum. We also went to the community service presentation. They varied greatly based on the presenters (from fabulous to boring) but I liked that there were many options.(We did submit feedback cards for the whole weekend.)
My daughter stayed overnight with a host and I was really glad she decided to be adventurous and do so. Her host was a senior and brought her to Magazine Street to have her first po’boy and then froyo. Back to the apartment after - which the student had homework to do. So as others noted, the hosts vary greatly. I think it was fun for her until she had time on her hands after dinner time until sleeping. My suggestion would be that for those hosts that do have homework and limited time, perhaps there could be a hangout area for the those admittees to do something for a couple hours.
Day two we went to Bruff to have breakfast, which I though was very nice and normal for a college - I wouldn’t have expected more and would have been disappointed with less. We then ran around to different open houses (honors, community service, Newcomb, her major), sat in on a second level class, and she had an appointment to set up her schedule for the fall should she attend. The advising ‘training’ and her advisor were very helpful. I got to sit on a great porch swing for an hour outside the ‘parents hangout/undergraduate office’, where they also provided lunch items (a surprise). It was perfect for me. After her 1.5 hour at advising (wish I knew that!) I took her to the union to grab a bite before we went to the airport.
It was a great experience for us. The thing(s) I would suggest: the lunch seating as mentioned, let everyone know about how long the advising appointment takes with the 1/2 hour training plus 1:2 advising time to put together their second day schedule, and third, presenters need to be better than monotone inflection to make topics interesting. Also important, during the morning reception (which was great) before Fitz spoke, the line for signing up for advising appointments was so long! Prospective students had to decide to wait in line for an appointment not knowing if they would be shut out and/or if that was more important than going to the reception upstairs.
As an added note, because you particularly mentioned Newcomb, we went to the open house and met a great bunch of students and Newcomb representative. There was one other prospective when we were there. I wanted us to go because my daughter is interested in science and I believe that the purpose of the organization is important. It was an engaging presentation, and while I completely get it, my daughter walked away without a clear impression of benefit and that she didn’t think that was for her. I don’t know how to help prospective make the connection (sorry), but it was worth mentioning. Since it was on the schedule for open houses, we made it there.
I will also mention, having read on other parts of forums, I am not sure what the difference between ‘scholars’ and ‘honors’ is. Even when we went to the open house for honors, I know she was admitted to honors but don’t know if the scholars connotation is only as designation of being a great student and receiving a merit award. I also know that a student can also apply to honors later. Some clarification may help. I know the honors ‘program’ is new, and the scholars program hasn’t been around too long but its still confusing. And the some of the housing does seem older but there also seems to be enough new, and the students all seemed happy with the housing regardless.
Hope this helps. I wrote a couple months ago about this weekend asking about the schedule and @fallenchemist was very helpful. We came a day early and explored some other parts of Nola which rounded out the whole experience.
I read somewhere else that day 2 was for students only. I disagree; there were a lot of parents around for Day 2. If you want to meet professors of the school that your D or S is interested in, or learning more about anything go back to Day 2. Financial aid, undergraduate offices, all schools, community service, Newcomb, and many dorms all have open houses.
We stayed in the CBD at the Hampton Inn which worked out fine for great access to the cable car, French Quarter and the nice long ride to Tulane through many neighborhoods. We took the cab when we had to be at Tulane at a specific time (approx. $16).
@33cd33
Streetcar, not cable car 
New Orleanians can be very particular about that. They are two different things, actually. But probably the biggest reason is that the Tennessee Williams play was not called “A Cable Car Named Desire”.
Yes, Day 2 can be a day for parents to just explore NOLA or they can stay on campus and learn a lot, depending on their own needs and desires (no pun intended with that last one).
Yes, Streetcar, never cable car or trolley