Tulane Honors or UCLA? Please give advice!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tulane University
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<p>Fanboy candor? Idiots? Lazy? Can you not see that it is difficult to have an intelligent discussion when you insist on using pejoratives to describe others? Nothing wrong with expressing your opinions of course, but when you insist on insulting others in the process, you risk having people just tune you out.</p>

<p>Anyway, we don’t need to debate every feature (or lack thereof) of the honors program. I just think you misunderstand its purpose at Tulane. It specifically is NOT an honors college, something I correct people on all the time for this very reason. Vandy, for example, doesn’t have an honors program except by department, so that one can do a thesis and graduate with honors. Different structure but similar end result.</p>

<p>Just, as you said, my two cents worth.</p>

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<p>The honors program is, as FC stated just that a program. It may not appeal to everyone. S2 elected not to be in the honors program since he had no intention of living in an honors dorm and did not feel it gave him that much of an advantage. He too was accepted at other more highly ranked schools, but has not regretted his decision it for a moment. His mother and I are happy with it as well, and since we are paying for it, that may be just as important. Let me say why. </p>

<p>S2 has always been a very socially successful kid who did well in school and always scored well on standardized tests. He was a varsity athlete (Lacrosse), an internationally successful martial artist competitor, and an excellent musician who performed at Lincoln Center in NY. He never seemed to stay up to 3 AM studying, and he always had dates or a girlfriend. In high school he just seemed to sail through life and everything came easy. The only time I saw him academically excited, however, was when he spent a very intensive few weeks taking a course at the University of Chicago between his sophomore ad junior years. The course was extraordinarily demanding. Class went from 9 AM until 4 PM daily, and exams were a minimum of 3 hours long. He loved it. I had never seen him so excited about academics. When he returned to high school though, he picked up where he left off, successful, but largely uninterested. From time-to-time he would comment that he wished high school was more like Chicago. At Tulane, that spark kindled at Chicago, has emerged again. He is engaged in his work and readily goes beyond it. He not only studies the course material, but asks professors for related books and articles not required. He calls to discuss ideas and arguments with me, and as fully taken advantage of the smaller class sizes and the faculty. Next fall, he will be studying abroad and put a great deal of thought into the courses he will be taking. He is approaching it as a real learning opportunity and not as a holiday. He is still the same easy going, very kind and thoughtful kid he has always been. He remains fun loving, and is in a fraternity. But this is balanced by an intellectual curiosity that makes us happily write those checks every year. We could not have asked for more. Perhaps this would have happened elsewhere, but we know it did happen at Tulane, and we are grateful. Tulane or NOLA (or the honors program) may not be right for everyone, but it is perfect for others.</p>

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<p>@FC: Vandy actually has the College Scholars Program which does allow students to graduate with honors from their particular “College”. In addition, even those not part of that program can graduate with Latin Honors if they have the requisite GPA participate, with or without being part of the College Scholars program. Like Tulane, you can begin as a freshman if you are invited into the program or apply to be part of it later (I think at the end of the first semester). Just thought you might want the facts. They don’t really call it an Honors Program, but it essentially functions the same way that Tulane’s Honors program, with the exception of not excluding others from the Latin Honors opportunity.</p>

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<p>I’m a class of 15 students as well, considering transfer to some schools up north. I have to agree with shermani on several of the points he made. My perspective is as a premed student majoring in Economics.</p>

<p>Good things first: I love the city, the food, the weather, and the people. There really is no substitute for these three things outside of New Orleans. I’ve had so many great experiences traveling downtown, having a hand grenade or two, and lounging around Cafe DuMonde eating beignets. It’s also great to have so many delicious southern food places near campus (and yes, Bruff is still horrible). The one thing I disagree with shermani on is the people: people here are mostly really nice and welcoming, regardless of where you are from. Then again, I am from Westchester, but I’ve never had a “clique” with any group from back home coming to Tulane.</p>

<p>So in those respects, socially, Tulane is the perfect fit for me. But I wish to transfer, so that’s not the only consideration obviously. As a student, my teachers have been very hit or miss. My math professor did not speak intelligible english, nor did my chem teacher. But I’ve also had several good teachers, particularly my writing teacher last semester. Scheduling is also an absolute pain (they will rearrange teachers at the last minute without notifying you), especially as a freshman. The academic advisers, even for the honors program, are likewise incompetent.</p>

<p>The academics are my biggest complaint though. I have BREEZED through 19+ credits semesters (with both honors and premed courses). The chemistry class averages are abysmal, but as shermani mentioned, not many of the students really put forth an effort worthy of complaint. In other classes, I have witnessed a few dumbfounded by what I thought were elementary mathematics (this would be Calc II, not an intro. class): distributive property, limits, scientific notation, just to name a few. In my financial accounting class, 2 students were confused by the fact that multiplying a value by .05 is the equivalent of taking 5% of that value; ridiculous. These are the exceptions, but I cannot honestly say that the typical Tulane student is really all that capable academically. </p>

<p>I will likely transfer to either Cornell, BC, UVa, Dartmouth, Columbia, or Villanova, where I hopefully will be challenged as a student without taking over 20 credits. In summary: socially tulane is great, but academically it’s a no-go for me.</p>

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<p>I have a D graduating from UCLA and an S who will go to Tulane. UCLA is a great place but there are some things to know:</p>

<ol>
<li>Freshman are packed 3 in a double room. It’s really tight and you may not like it.</li>
<li>The campus is nice but you will need a car to get anywhere fun or interesting in LA. Mass transit does not cut it. My D’s life changed greatly when she got a car there. If you can’t have one at some point, I would almost say don’t go for that reason alone. </li>
<li>Classes vary in size, but you will have a good number of really large ones where the prof might as well be on TV.<br></li>
<li>If you seek them out, opportunities to be involved in research (as a helper, anyway) are not that hard to find.<br></li>
<li>Have a thick skin. Something will go wrong and you will have to deal with a big bureaucracy.</li>
<li>Nobody cares how you are doing. Nobody. You can disappear from class for a month and no search team will be sent.<br></li>
<li>Most important point of all: Don’t assume that anything in particular will be available or accessible to you as a student unless you have asked really specific questions to verify this in advance (like now). My D found this out the hard way regarding art classes and studios (for majors only). Similarly, classes you need can disappear the quarter you need them, budget cuts can chop almost anything at random, and so on. </li>
</ol>

<p>It’s still a great place. But go in there with eyes open.</p>

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<p>kreativekat - thanks for the info, I tried to search the Vandy site but since I didn’t know the specific program name, I didn’t find it. I think you are right, it sounds very similar.</p>

<p>OptimalDV - thanks for your perspective. As far as the teachers that are hard to understand, this has been a problem at all universities for years, and it will only get worse since so many of the Ph.D.'s coming out these days are not native English speakers. I was lucky enough to never have this problem when I was at Tulane, but my wife had several professors she could not understand at her well known state school. This was all about 30 years ago, so it is nothing new. It certainly won’t be any better at UCLA, that much I feel sure about.</p>

<p>Also, reading other school’s forums and talking to parents of kids and the kids themselves that go to other schools, science classes are famous for low averages everywhere. Same thing with scheduling, many students complain about this at many different schools. That’s not to say Tulane couldn’t do it better, my D is similarly frustrated sometimes, but in point of fact she has found she only has to communicate with the prof and she can always get a space. Granted, these are always upper level classes and she is a top student, so many it works better for her than it would for some others, but she gets what she needs. I think she has only taken one 100 level class, symbolic logic, which she actually really liked. Again, I am not saying she has thought that every class was spectacular, but she has been more than pleased with all but a couple of them. I do wonder if you and shermani should have taken higher level classes from the start, if possible. Yes, I know with chemistry that is impossible if you are pre-med. I know she would probably have had exactly the same complaints as you two have had if she had not used her AP results to place out of those courses.</p>

<p>carlman - Thanks very much for the inside info on UCLA. Didn’t know the dorms were so overcrowded, and I bet with the budget issues that isn’t changing anytime soon. As far as the research, I know that is true, but I think you would also agree that the relationship with the prof wouldn’t be nearly as close at a school like UCLA as at Tulane. Also, I thought #6 was interesting. From what I have heard, that is not the case at Tulane. While they are not nannies, it is much more likely that is something were really wrong, it would be noticed and there would be communication.</p>

<p>Everything is a mixed bag, with pluses and minuses everywhere. Generally speaking, I have heard very positive things about UCLA, if you can deal with the hugeness of it.</p>

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<p>All of the responses are very helpful. Thanks all.
I actually just visited UCLA this past weekend. On Friday night, I spent the night in a dorm with a current UCLA freshman and her two roommates. I experienced firsthand, carlman, how it feels to have three people in one room. She lives in Sproul Hall, and you’re right, it was very packed, especially with my sleeping bag on the ground! Everyone at UCLA was extremely friendly, though. The campus was beautiful, and the weather yesterday was absolutely amazing. It’s true also that the campus is huge, but I’m fine with that. However, I don’t know how much weight I should place on personal attention to students, because I do feel like I’d get more of that at Tulane. I’m visiting Tulane two weekends from now, and I guess I’ll just have to decide then. I literally have to decide right when I get home. I know that both schools have a ton of pros and some cons as well, and it’s just difficult to weigh all of that.</p>

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<p>emilysh - It is very tough to have two such good choices, and the best advice I can give you is to not get too caught up in the idea that you could be making the “wrong” choice or even “not the best” choice. There is no such thing here, most likely. Whichever you choose, you will then go there with the idea of making it the best experience possible, meet wonderful people that will be friends for life probably, get a great education, have all sorts of new experiences, etc. I have a feeling you will do great wherever you end up.</p>

<p>I would only say that if you are not going to New Orleans for a couple of weeks, there is something very good and maybe not so good about that, The good is that you might be running right into either the French Quarter Festival or the Jazz Festival. Depends on exactly when you are going to be there. The bad is that you will be visiting right before finals, so you may not see the campus and the students at the most “normal” time. Just keep that in mind. Have fun, though!</p>