Tulane Freshman Will Answer Your Questions [+ Restaurant & Hotel Suggestions from Parents, etc.]

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tulane University
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I am a current freshman at Tulane who just wanted to share my experiences here with all of the students who are unsure about whether or not to apply or attend Tulane. Let me start off by saying I absolutely love Tulane! From the academic offerings to the cultural experiences of New Orleans, I promise that you will have more fun than all of your friends at other universities combined. My friends who attend other colleges such as UPenn, Notre Dame, Boston College, and Emory are not having nearly as fun and easy a time as I have. Based on what I have heard from other students at Tulane, I think the same can be said about their friends as well.

I am a public health major on the pre-med track and have found all of my classes to be challenging but also fair when it comes to grades and workload. It’s funny because it often feels like I am the only one doing work because all of the days out of the week I watch snapstories of my classmates going to festivals and trying new restaurants downtown, but in reality most students balance their work and fun so well. One of my favorite aspects of Tulane is that the students here are all very serious about their schoolwork, but there is an overall relaxed atmosphere about Tulane that makes it nearly impossible to feel stressed. I have time to do all of my homework and study for my upcoming exams, but I also have time to explore restaurants in the city or tan by the social pool, while my friends at other schools complain that they do homework during all of their free time.

Overall I just wanted to express to all of you prospective students that I am loving Tulane and cannot imagine myself anywhere else. Feel free to ask me any questions you may have about Tulane or the application process!

MODERATOR’S NOTE: Anyone is free to ask or answer questions in this thread.

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hi, thanks for sharing…are you in the honors program by any chance?

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Seniorgirl - thanks so much for your post. My daughter just got into Tulane - with some scholarship money. She was delighted to imagine a college life that wasn’t as stressful and overloaded with work as she imagines some of the higher tier schools might be. She is applying to some “harder” schools like Brown, Penn, WashU, Tufts, Wesleyan. No telling if she’ll get in, but she’s wondered whether she could have a good quality of life at of those schools - and wondered whether she’d be able to turn down one of those schools for a saner 4 years.

I’d love to know more. Like AlexDad, I wondered if you were in the Honors Program. Is the honors program there also an easier load than schools like Penn?

Did you choose Tulane over one of those other schools? If so, how did you make that decision - or was Tulane always your first choice?

We’ll be coming for the Fall Preview day on Nov 12. We’re arriving Friday afternoon. Any suggestions for things to do Friday? restaurants? any festivals?

Thanks.

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@seniorgirl14 -Thanks for offering your insights on this forum. I wish that all of the CC threads had current-student volunteers.

I also want to add that my son is a sophomore at Tulane in the Honors Program. He passed up Penn to attend Tulane and has never looked back. He loves Tulane and seems to have a good balance in his life (schoolwork/friends/activities). I had always envisioned him at a small-to-medium university the Northeast, where we live (e.g., Wesleyan, Tufts, Dartmouth, Brandeis) but he wanted no part of New England. In fact, Penn was the only cold-weather school he considered. And now, with hindsight, I’m so happy that he chose Tulane. Even though the student body is rife with Northeasterners, he’s having opportunities to expand his horizons that he wouldn’t have ever gotten closer to home.

@motherof16yo -You can find festivals listed here https://www.everfest.com/louisiana/new-orleans-festivals or here http://www.neworleansonline.com/neworleans/festivals/

One fun thing to do is to just walk down Magazine Street. It’s full of shops, cafes, restaurants, etc. … lots of eye candy! When I first visited NOLA and people told me that Magazine is a “great shopping street,” I pictured an outlet mall … you know, the Usual Suspects like Ann Taylor and Ralph Lauren and Baby Gap. So, not being much of a shopper, I passed it up. But then I found myself in a friend’s car going down this fabulous street with all sorts of activity and I discovered that it was Magazine. It’s definitely worth a stroll, and there are lots of restaurants to choose among, from the popular student-friendly Dat Dog and Mahoney’s (and many others that don’t require reservations) to award-winning Shaya (book in advance) and La Petite Grocery (ditto).

Here’s an excerpt from Trip Advisor with some helpful touring advice that was offered to a visitor staying in the French Quarter:

If you’re a first-time NOLA visitor, the French Quarter offers excellent walking/gawking opportunities, too. We even took a Segway tour of the Quarter on our initial trip which was a fun way to get oriented. But when it comes to finding the more genuine flavor of the city, a stroll down Magazine is a must in the afternoon or evening. And many folks will recommend Frenchman Street at night for music (lots of options within a stone’s throw of each other, and advance booking usually not needed at most).

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@motherof16yo I am actually in NOLA right now (my son is a Tulane senior) and have been here about 7 times now. Each time we visit, we try to do some "touristy’ things. You can book trips through Viator, or your hotel can help you. Here are some of the things we have done over the last 4 years: A bus tour of the city (I think that it was about 3 hours long- this can give you a good overview of the city), the Plantation tours of Oak Alley and Laura Plantations (I wouldn’t do this on your first trip, since it is an all day affair, but it is definitely a cool thing to do), a visit to the WWII museum (a great thing to do on a rainy day or a really hot day), visiting the French Quarter both during the day and the night (different vibe during the night), Cafe Du Monde (can’t miss the beignets), and a walking tour of the Garden District (which we just did this morning).
One thing that I would definitely recommend is to explore the areas right around the school. There are restaurants on Oak Street and Maple Street on one side of the school and on Feret on the other. We just had drinks at Chais Delachaise, 7708 Maple Street. They have outdoor seating and it’s a cool place to just hang out for a while. If you walk down this street, you will see a bunch of restaurants. I also love Wayfare, 4510 Feret Street (there is a Dat Dog nearby as well- a Tulane favorite) which is on the other side of the school. Both of these areas are in walking distance to the school and the students frequent these places often.

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Thought I would include a short list of some of my favorite hotels/restaurants in NOLA. There are over 1,700 restaurants in New Orleans which means I have only included a few of my favorites, but there are plenty more! I hope y’all find some of the information helpful. Happy to provide more in the near future. Although many of the below are well known restaurants, I still think it provides some with great options when coming down to NOLA!

Hotels:

Park View Guest House (uptown)- Bed & Breakfast directly across the street from Tulane. More of an old time feel and more inexpensive that your average hotel downtown.

Hotel Indigo (uptown)- Less than 3 miles from Tulane, located directly on the St. Charles streetcar line. Modern hotel (very popular for families to stay at due to proximity to campus) with fair prices.

Old No. 77 Hotel & Chandlery (downtown: arts district)- More of a large boutique hotel. 3 blocks from french quarter. Not the nicest boutique hotel, but affordable and great location, next to great coffee shop (Revelator Coffee) and food (St. James Cheese Co.).

Windsor Court (downtown: central business district)- One of the nicer hotels in New Orleans. 3 minute walk to Canal St. (popular street). Higher end hotel with ‘high tea’ and good location. Further away from the ‘hustle/bustle’ of downtown.

Ritz Carlton (downtown)- Pretty hotel but located directly on Canal St. which can get loud/crowded. Rooms are big and very close to Bourbon St.

Q&C Hotel (downtown: french quarter/warehouse district)- I have never stayed here but one of the admission counselors loves it here.

Ace Hotel (downtown: arts district)- Amazing location (near South Market District). I recommend staying there! It is a younger crowd, but has an amazing lobby, rooftop bar (and pool), and music venue. Amazing restaurants inside and very popular hotel.

Hotel Summary:
Hotel Indigo if you want to be close to campus.
Ace Hotel if you want a newer hotel in a great location.
Windsor Court if you want a higher end NOLA hotel located downtown.

Food:

Brunch:
Atchafalaya is located near Tulane’s campus and is one of my favorite brunch spots. They have an amazing Fried Green Tomato Eggs Benedict along with a famous ‘make your own bloody mary bar.’ This is a favorite of Tulane students and is actually owned by a former Tulanian. They have outside seating and it is located right off of the St. Charles Streetcar line.

Lunch Option 1:
Satsuma Cafe is a favorite of Tulane students. It is located on Maple St. which is a very popular street for Tulane students to spend their time at. Satsuma has all fresh squeezed juices, soups, salads, sandwiches. If you get there early enough, you will not have to wait in the long line that occurs around brunch. It is further down Maple St. so you will be able to see all of the great places that are on Maple St. (Favori, Bruno’s, Maple St. Patisserie, Waffles on Maple, Starbucks, etc.).

Lunch Option 2:
Steins Deli is very popular. This ‘dive’ of a deli is located on Magazine St. next to District Donuts (go there for a quick dessert one day). Amazing pastrami sandwich.

Lunch Option 3:
Parkway Bakery & Tavern is in Mid-City and also my favorite Po-Boy spot in NOLA. I recommend getting their early for lunch (the line gets long). Order the surf & turf po boy.

Dinner Option 1:
Peche is one of my favorite restaurants in NOLA. It has won a James Beard award and Restaurant of the Year. They have a great mix of seafood, and southern food. This is a nice introduction to the flavors of the south without going too extreme with crawfish and gumbo. Peche is located on lower Magazine St. right on Julia St. which is where all of the art galleries are. Julia St. is an amazing area to walk around, and is where all of the art galleries are. I recommend ordering the whole fish, fried bread, tuna tartar, and oysters.

Dinner Option 2:
Shaya is also located on Magazine St. and serves Isreali food. It won ‘Restaurant of the Year’ in 2015 and is truly a ‘must try’ place. The atmosphere and interior of Shaya is amazing, with a very large courtyard to enjoy the weather. No need to order the entrees, the small plates and appetizers are plenty! I recommend the Cauliflower Hummus and Avocado Toast.

Dinner Option 3:
Cochon is the most ‘southern’ of the 3 restaurants. It is great NOLA food for a fair price. It is a casual restaurant located right next to Cochon Butcher, which is an amazing sandwich shop.

Dinner Option 4:
Boucherie is located near Tulane’s campus (uptown) and has some amazing dishes. I highly recommend getting the Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding and also order the short ribs.

Dinner Option 5:
Domenica- Located in the Roosevelt Hotel: was voted ‘Top 10 Best Italian in the Country. I highly recommend getting the Roasted Cauliflower.

Dinner Option 6:
Willa Jean is located in the South Market District. Although they have an amazing breakfast, brunch and dessert menu, dinner is an amazing option. I highly recommend getting the Milk & Cookies. They also have an amazing brunch with tartines and a ‘biscuit bar.’

Things to Do:

Audubon Park- take a walk through an amazing park, right next to campus. Keep walking until you hit The Fly. This is where you will find many students hanging out by the water (Mississippi River) with friends, music, and crawfish.

Plum St. Snoballs- order a small pint of nectar cream with condensed milk and see how NOLA locals stay cool on hot days. Very close to campus and featured on Travel Channel.

City Park- located in Mid-City, this park is over 2x the size of Central Park in NY. Take a walk through the sculpture garden (free).

Cafe Du Monde- located right across from Jackson Square, this is an institution that serves nothing but Beignets. Just walk in, seat yourself, and enjoy this famous dessert. Cafe Du Monde never closes!

Frenchman St.- while tourists love Bourbon St. locals love Frenchman St. Walk down Frenchman St. and listen to live music at over 20 different bars. The entire street is composed of live music! Also stop by the Frenchman Art Market located on Frenchman St.

@motherof16yo I hope this gives you some more options.
@Sally_Rubenstone I loved your list/recommendations.

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I hope we can save this topic and information. The information is valuable and this topic always being asked by new kids or parents or prospective students, etc about what to do or where to stay and what to eat while they are visiting Tulane, etc.

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If Fallenchemist were still alive, he probably would love to put this topic into special file so that it will be beneficial for others who will visit Tulane in NOLA. I certainly miss FC and his writing, etc.

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Thanks for those replies. 24 hours is not going to be enough. This will be my daughter’s first time to New Orleans - but is likely to come back for the Honors program weekend in March/April. I think walking down Magazine street and listening to music on Frenchman street will probably be the right choices for her. She’ll want a feel for where Tulane students hang out (not Bourbon Street, although it would be a fun visit if there were more time). She also loves music and I can’t think of a place where you can walk down a street and hear all that live music. On another thread, I saw mention of Tipitina’s.

TulaneBarry - I like those hotel recommendations. We booked a room at Hampton Inn New Orleans-St. Charles Ave./Garden District. It was recommened by Tulane for this big Fall Preview day. We found it very difficult to find a reasonably priced hotel that would accept just a Friday night/Veteran day booking on a weekend. Park View was booked, and I hadn’t heard those other great suggestions. This may be just the beginning of many New Orleans trips so that list could come in handy. Ace Hotel and Hotel Indigo will be ones to check out next itme.

Sally - I’m glad to hear your perspective about your son’s experience. We’re not in New England but are close in DC, and I’m from NY and went to college in Boston, so that area felt natural for us. My daughter is excited about Tulane, but also hasn’t heard from those other schools yet. She thinks it would tough to make that call - wanting a saner life, but hard to turn down a top tier school if she got in. (Some would be harder than others - and we don’t know what her acceptances might be).

Thanks all.

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@motherof16yo - I just came back from a weekend at Tulane. We stayed at the Hampton Inn again. It is our favorite…close to school (10 min drive), free parking, free wifi, breakfast included. They will also give you free water bottles at the front desk if you ask. All of the rooms are recently renovated. My advice is to keep checking the rates right up until you leave. If they go down, just call and they will honor the new lower rate. I checked two days before and ended up saving about $50 per night. Make sure that you check the Tulane rate, AAA rate and Hilton Honors rate (if you don’t have HH, just join on line).

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This crazy-quilt thread includes a generous offer by a Tulane student, “seniorgirl14” to answer questions about her Tulane experience. (In spite of her user name, she’s a current freshman.) The thread also includes a growing list of hotel, restaurant, and activity suggestions for visitors, coming largely from Tulane parents.

I’m sure that Fallen Chemist would have figured out a way to turn this into two separate discussions but, lacking his moderation expertise, I’ve featured it at the top of the page so that at least CC members will be able to see that there will be wealth of information here, albeit in a couple of divergent areas.

Note that there is also an offer on a separate thread from “TulaneMaddie22,” a member of the Tulane class of 2017, who is also eager to answer questions. So I hope that prospective parents and students will take advantage of these helpful resources.

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In hopes of making it easier to obtain/ask for NOLA recommendations I have created a new thread:

Tulane/NOLA Visit Recommendations

I hope y’all find this to be useful!

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Also, in the immortal words of Travis Scott “Uber Everywhere.”

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@seniorgirl14, @Sally_Rubenstone: my daughter (potentially pre-med) is interested in Tulane but we’ve been hearing that it’s a “party school” and that’s not what she’s looking for. She wants to have fun but also to be surrounded my students who are interested in learning, not blowing off classes, etc. Since it’s a fairly selective admissions process I assume the students are there to work, but you never know!

Can you please give some insight into: how hard the general student population works, what there is to do if you don’t want to go to a party (i.e. activities that Tulane brings to campus), and what a typical weekend is like for you?

You mention how fun Tulane is - can you elaborate on what makes it fun?
Thank you.

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Good questions

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@newyorkmom2girl I’m a senior at Tulane and like any school there is going to be a party scene but that being said you really can’t survive at Tulane if you’re going to blow off classes. The rigor is manageable, but definitely intense enough that you cannot skip class. We have small class sizes too so a lot of my classes count attendance and if you miss more than a certain amount it hurts your grade.

There are a ton of activities that Tulane brings to campus and that New Orleans offers that are not centered around drinking at all. Even if you don’t want to go out, that doesn’t mean you have to be holed up in your dorm watching Netflix alone. If anything some of my favorite memories from Tulane were spending time with friends in common rooms just hanging out in the dorms with each other. Eating is an activity in itself and I love finding new restaurants (or my favorite ones time after time again) to go to with friends. There are so many activities to get involved with on campus too and students social life will be busy with those.

For me a ‘typical weekend’ there is really no typical weekend at Tulane. There is always something different happening both on campus and in New Orleans. Just for instance in a recent past weekend on Friday I went out to dinner with some friends at a new restaurant we wanted to try, Saturday I hung out with friends at 'The Fly" (a park along the missisippi river that is a favorite among students), and then Sunday I went to a Po Boy festival right near campus. And that was all just in ONE weekend. There is always something to do that doesn’t involve “partying”.

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Thank you TulaneMaddie22 - that was the answer that I was hoping for ;). Sounds like there is plenty to do socially even if you choose not to participate in a more “typical” party scene. I appreciate your feedback.

I’m curious as to whether you were able to get an accurate feel for the social life and academics when you visited Tulane as a prospective student.

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@newyorkmom2girl -TulaneMaddie22 answered your question far better than I can, and I’m sure my son would agree with her. He loves to hang out in his room or his dorm with small groups of friends and also to explore restaurants, festivals, etc. in the city. He and his friends all seem very busy and engaged in activities they enjoy as well as in their school work.

My son is a manager for the men’s varsity basketball team, which takes a lot of time. So last weekend he was at the Smoothie King Center on Friday afternoon for a team shoot-around prior to the big North Carolina game. Then he was back there at night working at the game. On Saturday morning he was up early because he was spending all day at a Habitat for Humanity site as a member of APO … a campus community service organization. On Sunday he worked at the basketball practice and later played in the “managers’ game” (believe it or not, there is such a thing!) against the managers from Southeast Louisiana University. Similarly, his friends seem to be engaged in many worthwhile academic and non-academic pursuits.

Granted, I live 1500 miles from campus, so I’m sure there are things that go on there that I’ll never know about, including some I might not WANT to know about. But from the information that filters north, and from my own experience with college students in general over the eons, I agree with TulaneMaddie22 when she says that the party scene is there for students who seek it out … which is true at most other colleges … but Tulane and environs offer tons of alternatives, as well as tons of people who prefer these alternatives.

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@newyorkmom2girl I think it can be hard to gauge the overall social scene from just one visit to campus without staying with a student overnight. When I visited colleges I always tried to get a general idea of what the student body was going to be like by sitting on a bench in a crowded area of campus and just kind of observing everything. One thing I also always did was pick up a copy of the school’s newspaper and see what they were reporting on because I feel like that can also be a reflection of the school/student body. I also really recommend just approaching random students and asking them questions–at least at Tulane I know people would be more than willing to answer your questions and its always interesting to give a few random students opinions to help form your own.