<p>I've narrowed down my universities choices to Tulane University and Trinity University. I have several concerns about Tulane that I hope you can answer. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Is it difficult to get into the Tulane Honors Program if not accepted before freshman year? I know a 3.6 GPA gains admission so I guess I'm wondering how difficult that would be.</p></li>
<li><p>Monroe versus Sharp versus Wall. Which dorm would be the best if I'm looking establish a social network? I'm an out of state student.</p></li>
<li><p>As far as community goes I know there is a rather small percentage of Hispanic students. Would I be otracized or accepted into the community seeing as it is majority white. Also as far as economic backgrounds are students of various standings in the same social groups or are there divisions?</p></li>
<li><p>Knowing that New Orleans is a large part of the Tulane culture is the city relatively safe as long as I stay in the safe areas. I know it's the current murder capital and I'm not going to go running into the areas deemed unsafe but I want to know if I can be calm in the safe areas. If that makes any sense.</p></li>
<li><p>I received a financial aid package that I am very happy with this year. Given the economy and cutbacks that most schools have to make I was wondering if you think Tulane will be able to keep up their financial aid. I cannot afford to pay 50k plus for an education. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>In advance, thank you for reading my questions. These are the top five that are deciding questions for my decision and I would appreciate your comments.</p>
<p>These are all good questions, and here is my take given my experience, my D’s experience (at least what she tells me!) and what I have read from thousands of posts on here. The social questions especially will benefit from answers from current students, especially any Hispanic students.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Difficult is a relative thing. Not trying to be coy or evasive, but some students get to college and thrive in the independence and atmosphere they find, and do better than high school. Others struggle. It is impossible to say, but while a 3.6 is not trivial to obtain, I would say any student who is Tulane quality that organizes their time, stays focused, communicates with the profs and takes advantage of resources Tulane offers to help students academically and otherwise should be able to get those kinds of grades.</p></li>
<li><p>It will be interesting to see what current students say, but while the dorms have different character (well, Monroe and Sharp are quite similar), I would think that you can form social networks just as easily in any of them. One of the nice things about Wall is that you have to serve on at least one or two committees associated with running the dorm, so between that and a suite of 7 other people you have a mechanism for getting involved with others. On the other hand a lot of people say the hall bath arrangement of Sharp and Monroe is great for socializing. Hence my thinking that either works well. Besides, like most schools if you are nice and get yourself out there to meet people, you will have no problems having groups of friends quickly. Don’t forget also, aside from the dorms, many students get involved with clubs and activities.</p></li>
<li><p>This has been asked by other ethnic groups, and the emphatic response is that there is no issue here. I would be shocked if it is different for Hispanic students. Same for economics for the most part. I don’t think anyone asks to see your checking account balance, and most things there are to do around Tulane don’t have to involve a lot of money. I am sure some of the wealthier students can do some shopping and other things that others might not, but that won’t be a significant issue in day-to-day life.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes, it is safe. You have the right idea, just stay out of the bad areas and use common sense. If you Google the crime map for New Orleans you will see the violent crime is almost all on the complete opposite side of the metro area from Tulane.</p></li>
<li><p>Tulane is in very solid financial shape. In fact I saw a post by a student not long ago that said Tulane kept increasing the grant part of their FA package as they went from freshman to sophomore to junior, so now they have no new loans, just some work-study and the rest grants. If you do well in school you should be fine.</p></li>
</ol>