Tulane v. U of Michigan

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tulane University
1

Going back and forth between Tulane and Michigan. I am well aware that Michigan is more prestigious and that is a big thing for me, as I worked hard in high school and am proud I was admitted to UM. The big negatives of UM are the zero financial aid for OOS and cold weather. Tulane’s cons would be its lower ranking and lack of Big Ten sports (though I know they have nice new stadium and happy students). Tulane’s offered me $27000 yearly scholarship. Want to major in history or political science and also take the prerequisite science courses and if do well in them maybe consider med school.

I am not so scared of graduating with huge debt (yes I know med school is costly!) if it can be paid back slowly over long period time. Haven’t done the math/interest yet but will I regret my choice or can the monthly payments always be negotiated to be a reasonable monthly payment (like a fancy car payment or another such luxury, which I will give up to go to UM)? Thanks for any advice.

2

I’ll copy what I posted in your Univ. of Michigan thread:

You can only borrow ~$5500/year on your own. Are your parents saying they’ll cosign a loan for the full COA for Michigan each year for 4 years? You can’t assume they’ll qualify for all 4 years and it would be foolish to borrow that much anyway. And you intend to go to med school after? If that’s the case, I’d suggest taking on as little debt for your UG as possible.

3

Back when Reagan was president, I was a undergrad at Michigan. Now that my DD is heading to freshman year, I’ve also spent multiple weekends at Tulane.

As far as which is more prestigious, they’re not that different in perception and the “rankings” that this should be a factor. Both of them are known nationally, both are respected nationally.

I know some things have changed at Michigan, but two things have not, the weather and the massive use of TA’s for about 50% of the poli sci courses (I was a poli sci major there).

The weather is a non-issue, no one really cared about how cold it is, and I assume the massive freshman dorm vs. dorm snowball fights still break out.

I can say that I really didn’t like the use of TA’s for classes, and it became one of the metrics I pushed my daughter to consider when applying to schools. Not only do I think you get less out of classes with TA’s but you just don’t get to know any professors until your senior year. Even by the time I was in senior year at Michigan, classes were large. One upshot of this is that it was harder to know professors. You wouldn’t have them for more than one class. When you need to get a recommendation letter for graduate school, you are in a harder position to have them write a meaningful, personal letter. And other seniors out there in the world from smaller schools are having professors who know them from 2 or 3 different classes writing these wonderful letters.

My hope with DD, who is 99.9% likely going to Tulane, is that she gets to know some professors personally in a way that I was not able to at a big school like Michigan.

If Tulane is less expensive for you than Michigan, I think this would tip my recommendation to Tulane. Save your debt spending for grad school, maybe back at Michigan which has a lot more of a graduate focus than Tulane. If you’ve done your research on CC, you’ll know Tulane is an undergraduate-focused school for most students.

4

Go to the more affordable university for those majors and with your plans to get a graduate degree later. It would be a waste of money to choose UM.

5

UM is too much out of state without a big package. Recommend Tulane.

6

@jccmmr‌

I have several comments on this. But first I will respond to one of the comments by @Bigmacattack‌. I agree that for some, maybe even many, weather is not a factor. But I can say without hesitation that it was a big factor for me and that it is for many that are looking at schools. I am guessing that it isn’t for you since you are on the fence, but to the extent that a warmer climate would be a plus for you as you indicated, I wouldn’t throw it out.

I have to really get behind his statements about large classes, classes taught by TA’s, and getting to know your profs. Tulane wins on all counts there. So many students have come back on here (or parents relating what their children have said) and talked about how great it is at Tulane that they get to know some of their profs really well and get invited to dinners, get asked to join their research teams, and other perks that can only happen when you have that smaller class size, classes that are taught by the profs and not TA’s, and the overall emphasis on undergraduate education that is standard at Tulane.

I think you are seriously underestimating how crippling “huge debt” (to use your words. It would be interesting to know how much you are actually talking about taking on if you pick Michigan) can really be. And if you do go the med school route, this becomes critically serious. The terms for paying back student loans are not as favorable as they used to be. In any case, IMO no school is worth $100,000+ more in cost than another unless you are wealthy and the money means little to your net worth. Especially when big loans are involved.

Along those same lines of the value of a school’s reputation or nameplate, as they say, I can only tell you from much experience that the ranking of Michigan vs. Tulane is completely meaningless. I can only ask you to believe me when I say that I would offer the same opinion if Tulane were ranked in the top 10. These rankings just don’t mean a lot to begin with, and completely lose value shortly after you leave school except in whatever pride that gives you. But I would hope that a USNWR number isn’t what makes you proud to have gone to school to A or B. I can’t say more than that without going on for pages.

As far as the sports, that is what it is. It is much like the weather factor. You have to judge how much that means to you, how much to weight it. Is it worth $10,000 a year? $50,000? All $100,000 of the difference? Of course I don’t expect you to put an exact number on it, but you have to make a judgement, sometimes a gut judgement, as to what these factors are worth to you.

Finally, and I can certainly be accused of burying a lead here, you should take a hard look at Tulane’s Creative Scholars Program. http://tulane.edu/advising/prehealth/academic/creative-premedical-scholars-program.cfm This would potentially be the perfect vehicle for your desire to major in history or poli sci (or both. Double majoring at Tulane is fairly common) and attend med school. The other plus of the program is that you would know that you are in med school after sophomore year, and you don’t have to take the MCAT. Anyway, you can read about it there.

Obviously you are getting pro-Tulane advice on here, as you would have expected. But I do think from what you have said that Tulane might be a better choice for you financially and academically. But at least now you have some extra input to think about. Let us know what you decide.

7

Both are great, in my opinion it simply boils down to $$ ; specifically which is less expensive.