I’m a high school senior who has gotten into both SMU and Tulane. I was pretty surprised that I got into Tulane and it has made my decision much harder because SMU was my top choice before going down and visiting Tulane. Now I keep switching back and forth.
I plan on going into advertising as a career - SMU does have an advertising major, but from what I’ve heard, advertising (copywriting in my case) is more about networking and writing skills than majoring in advertising, and apparently most people in advertising did not study it in college. However, SMU seems to have a stronger alumni network and, being in Dallas, stronger job prospects. If I go to SMU I’ll probably do marketing (maybe advertising) and screenwriting/creative writing and at Tulane I’d do marketing with maybe English or something.
Tulane, on the other hand, probably has more name recognition outside of the region, and I really liked New Orleans. I also am on the fence about SMU’s student body - the rich, white preppy type. Obviously Tulane will have some of that same demographic, but to what extent I am not sure.
Both would cost me about the same which doesn’t make it any easier. Anyone have any experiences or just advice in general regarding picking one of these? My main concern is making sure I have a clear path for a successful career.
You have a really tough choice. Helpful, huh? Hah. But you do have competing factors, potentially. If you are sure you will settle in Dallas for your career, then SMU has to have the edge. Tulane is certainly well known in Dallas, but clearly nothing beats the SMU network there except maybe UT and A&M.
You are right that having an advertising major is not important as far as getting into advertising. People come into that field from diverse directions.
Tulane is more academically competitive to get into than SMU. Don’t know if that matters to you. Both schools are known nationally, but I would have to give Tulane the clear edge on national reputation. I think you are also right regarding each student body, as huge a generalization as that is.
New Orleans is such a great place to go to school. I also think that you could take the service learning component that is so important at Tulane and turn it into a huge plus for your job search for after graduation. For example, it is fairly easy to imagine volunteering in something important to New Orleans and a segment of its people, and getting very involved in the marketing and advertising of that cause to make it a success. As they say, it is very possible to do good and do well from it too.
So I guess overall I would lean towards Tulane for you. Big surprise. But those are the reasons I say so, and the main thing that would tip it the other way is how certain you are you will settle in Dallas after you finish. Most 18 year old students don’t know at all where they will be 4-5 years from now.
I hadn’t really thought about it that much, but I agree with you that the service requirement could be a big advantage to me as far as breaking into the industry.
Could you speak to the availability of internships and job opportunities Tulane provides? You’re right that I do not really know where I’m going to settle after college, but I want to make sure I can get experience while I am an undergrad, wherever I do go to college.
Yeah, @SouthFloridaMom9, that’s the thing - I think on a pure “fit” scale, Tulane would have the slight edge over SMU, I just need to know that I won’t be missing out too much in terms of internships/job opportunities
From what I know, Tulane does very well in helping with internships and jobs. In fact, Tulane is making a major investment in dedicating an entire building to coordinating every aspect of student assistance, from before your first class right through job placement, and then alumni services takes over. http://tulane.edu/news/releases/tulane-alumnus-gives-millions-for-student-success.cfm So this would be in place and humming along before you would be looking for your first internship, most likely. And Tulane brought in fresh blood to Alumni Relations a few years back and the alumni networking tools are now very modernized.
SMU has hands down an exceptional career placement center. If you decide on SMU they assign you a career advisor the day you begin classes. You can visit as often as you like.
My son attended SMU and he used their services all the time and visited every career fair. His professors even encouraged the students to attend and they went with! My son networked and learned what companies were visiting SMU. He decided early on where he wanted to go and it took several failed interviews to finally get past the initial round. He got a lucrative internship at a tippy top company. Also his wife who graduated from SMU also had a lucrative internship. They both had job offers a YEAR before the graduated. My son was also offered co-ops that he turned down. He had research positions, TA positions, etc. SMU did a fantastic job. Also they aren’t just placing the students locally. The students get employed across the nation.
I wouldn’t worry about career placement at this point. Both universities will help you with finding internships and jobs. The most important thing is to do well in college. If you do well then you’ll have a higher chance of getting a good job. The key to picking the college is fit. So pick the university that makes you the happiest. If you are happy, you’ll be motivated to do well.
As far as SMU being a rich university. If you look at their common data set you’ll see how many students receive aid. There are about 30 percent full pay students. I can tell you that exists at every college. I’m sure Tulane has their fair share of full pay students too. Colleges are a business and I think that’s rather low percentage because my D university is more like 70 percent are full pay.
In summary, you are the only one who knows what you are looking for in your college experience so none of us can suggest what you ought to do. We don’t know what’s important to you. My suggestion is to pick the college that makes you the happiest and that fits you best. They say happy students are successful students!!
Everyone’s needs are different so figure out what’s important to you and then decide.
Good luck with your decision and just listen to your gut. You cannot go wrong with either college. They are very similar in ranking and both really great universities. It’s definitely a nice problem to have.
As does Tulane. In fact you are assigned an Academic Advisor at Orientation. The Academic Advising Center is in the Career Center (soon to get a complete overhaul thanks to a generous alum donation). My son visited his advisor several times a semester to discuss his career plans. Once he made his majors official he was assigned advisors in each of those departments as well. So he now has 3 advisors to help guide him if needed. When he met with his Philosophy advisor for the first time they hit it off so well the advisor offered to let him enroll in his graduate level class as a Sophomore. (he did, he got an A in the course). Oh, he also has a pre-law advisor, so he has a network of people to guide him!
Tulane has Internship and Career fairs that are highly publicized and students are encouraged to attend. My son has also had professors contact him about fellowships, summer research projects, internships and jobs that they thought he might be interested in. Tulane also has “Mock Interview” day in the spring where professionals come and practice interviewing with the students. Such a valuable resource!
Public Service internships are a huge focus at Tulane. The Center for Public Service runs this program and they have internship fairs every semester. They helped my son get everything in line so he can do his internship at home this summer and receive credit for it. If he needed it would also count as his second tier public service but he already fulfilled that requirement.
As newjersey17 pointed out, his son sought out opportunities and that will be true no matter where you go. Jobs don’t come searching for you, you have to take personal responsibility for using the resources available to you.
(as a Career Services Professional I just want to say that “placement” is a dirty word in our field. We don’t use that term!)
I didn’t want to hijack this thread but since you asked. “Placement” infers that the Career Office will PLACE you in a job upon graduation. That is just not possible. We can’t guarantee that. There have been students that have sued their Career Placement office because they did not place them in an job or did not place them in a job related to their major. There are just too many factors involved to be able to say we are a placement office. Student factors- low GPA’s, no experience, unrealistic expectations (I always get the kid who wants the 9-5, M-F, no overtime job that pays $80,000…ok sure!), and many many other factors.
On the recruiter side they want to hire the best candidate, regardless of their relationship with me or my university. I can and do call up contacts and recommend students I have worked with that I think are highly qualified but the Career Staff from all of the other local colleges are doing the same thing. It’s in the recruiters hands.
We call ourselves the Career Services office. I am a Career Development Coordinator. We work with students to develop their toolbox- a strong resume -and again it goes back to the individual student. I can’t help someone write an amazing resume if they have done nothing for 4 years or have a 2.1 GPA. We teach how to write cover letter and do interview preparation and mock interviews. We help with the job search, provide mentors and networking opportunities, but it the end, the responsibility falls on each students shoulders.
All of our local colleges have dropped the word “placement” from their office names.
The trend is now to call what used to be called a Placement Report, A First Destination Survey. So we still have to report on where our students find their first employment opportunity, or graduate/professional program, military service. We have each graduating senior complete a survey asking about their post graduation plans, what services they used through our office and how they found their job, then follow up with them at 6 months and 1 year to try to get an accurate picture. I think last year for the 1 year survey we had a 35% response rate. Many don’t respond. We stalk them on social media trying to find them and what they are doing! When you read a Placement Report most schools will say they have a 98-99% placement rate. Easy to manipulate data as we all know. Students that don’t have jobs tend to not respond, so that skews the data right there.
