Here is info onthe Altman program. http://www2.tulane.edu/altman/ It does provide study abroad funding-- and more… It is an incredible opportunity.
If finances are not the final decision, IMO political science opportunities and the experiences you will have in NOLA are not going to be found anywhere else. Yes there are some safety issues in son areas off campus, but that is true at lots of schools (Johns Hopkins, U chicago, Ga Tech, Clark, USC, etc.)
@jym626 That is a very interesting program. I’ve got to say that I don’t think the program requires 12 AP classes, but rather 12 AP credits. So BC Calc with 8 credits and English with 4 credits would probably do the trick. Very few schools offer 12 AP classes.
My son will have 15 AP credits (Tulane doesn’t recognize World History!) and will select 15 dual enrollment credits from 39 that he has taken; so he would be a good candidate, as he has taken all the classes they want. But he chose not to take AP German this year after his National German Test score was one of the lowest in the class. I’m not sure he has much faith in his ability to learn a foreign language to full fluency. I’m going to tell him about the program anyway.
Your kid isnt looking at business/ Int’l relations, is he? I was suggesting this program to the OP.
I forget which scholarship your kiddo got at UGA, @EarlVanDorn , but IMO, short of the Foundation Fellows, if someone was lucky enough to get into the Altman, they should take the opportunity. Admit rate is about 15%. And While yes, the site says 12ish AP credits (not classes) the more the better to be competitive and able to manage the demands of this challenging curriculum/double major.
IIRC your kiddo plans to major in accounting? Thats not an option with the Altman- there is a finance major and an Econ major, but no accounting.
@jym626 Tulane doesn’t offer an undergraduate degree in accounting. Students earn a business degree that includes accounting courses and then enroll in the Master’s of Accountancy program for their fifth year.
If my son goes to Alabama or Georgia, he is going to have a double major of accounting and something else. Obviously he can’t do that at Tulane. With the Altman program he could have an economics and finance major and then wrap it up with the accounting master’s, so it might work out well.
At Georgia my son merely got an OOS waiver plus $3,000. The Georgia accounting program is very good, but I’m not sure the “fit” as Georgia would be as good. He has not visited Georgia, and that’s coming up soon.
Is the UGA accounting program in the Terry college of business? There is not a direct admit to Terry.
Yes, @earlvandorn- the undergrad business school at Tulane (known as “AB Free”) has finance. Would assume there is an option to apply for the MBA at tulane after the Altman but that would be a lot to take on. The altman is pretty comprehensive, with summer programs, etc.
It does not look like you can do the joint BSM-MACCT program while also doing the Altman. The altman itself is a double major with a pretty packed schedule. It might be possible, but not sure. However, from their website:
Doesn’t mean the student couldnt take a 5th year to get the Masters, but only if all the necessary courses expected to be completed by year 4 were, and it may be too hard to get all those classes in.
If you’re sure you have no budget, go with the school that’s the best fit for you. I’d say Tulane and Wisconsin are the stronger schools. Law school primarily looks at your GPA and LSAT, but if you change your mind and decide to do something else it might be nice to have a degree from a more prestigious school. If you’re set on law school, I’d say simply pick the school you like the best.
OP, what say you?
My daughter loved Tulane last year, but when you add in the R&B plus assume the continued increasing tuition, decided the debt wasn’t worth it. Know Wisconsin well–different in many ways, although both schools score high on “party” lists! Don’t know Alabama well enough to comment.
If money is no issue, seems crazy not to visit all 3 places and see for yourself.
Crickets from the OP. @EarlVanDorn is your kiddo looking into the Altman? Would be curious to know if they’d allow it along with the combined BSM/MACCT program. It’s only a 4 yr program so don’t know if they’d allow it with someone wanting to do a 5 yr program.
At Alabama, does full ride to you mean full tuition or a truly full ride that covers room and board?
Either way, M2CK broke it down quite nicely. Alabama is a great school, and importantly, it’s going to save you tens of thousands of dollars over the course of 4 years. You still get a high-quality education. A fully covered summer of study abroad for a political science major is huge, too. Lots of students don’t have the option of studying abroad over the summer because it’s prohibitively expensive.
If you’d have to borrow the excess, this is a no-brainer - Alabama. Taking out $150K+ for undergrad is a losing proposition.
But even if your parents could cover the costs, unless they’re so wealthy that this would be a drop in the bucket for them each year, I still think you should select Alabama. The extra money could go towards other things, and Alabama is a great school.
@jym626 My son is going to inquire about the Altman. He has three years of high school German. He did not take AP German because he is taking a very tough college course this year (intermediate accounting). I told him if he was selected I would let him go to Germany for three or four weeks this summer in hopes that he might pick up a bit, although picking up German really isn’t like picking up French or Spanish.
Anyway, I think he is going to enter Tulane with the maximum of 15 dual enrollment hours plus 15 or 18 AP hours, which turns the Master of Accountancy degree into a four-year plan.
@juillet People often mistype and refer to Alabama as offering a full ride when what it offers is automatic full tuition for anyone with a 32 ACT and 3.5 g.p.a. In rare instances Alabama gives additional scholarship money, but the free tuition is their thing and where they put all their money.
There are a lot of folks at Tulane who choose to pay half-tuition of about $25,000 rather than go to Alabama for free, so I wouldn’t say the choice is a “no-brainer.” My son was offered $32,000 at Tulane, and we’re giving serious thought to paying the $19,000 difference rather than take the free Alabama offer. We’re also going to carefully consider Georgia with an OOS tuition waiver at $9,000 per year. In my opinion the three schools offer very different potential experiences and opportunities, and I’m not out to just grab the lowest price – although that may very well be what we end up doing in the end.
Definitely worth checking out the Altman, @EarlVanDorn. One never knows who’s applying and what they are looking for each year. If he is pretty fluent in German he should be a viable candidate. If he gets in you owe me a drink 
I also agree with you that Georgia and Alabama are quite different from Tulane. A student will get a very different experience at Tulane than they would at UGA or Bama. If a student is considering business, they will have to apply to the Terry school of business at UGA in their sophomore year and there is no absolute guarantee they will get in. In contrast admission to Tulane it’s an automatic admission to A.B. Free.
We are in state for Georgia but neither of my kids wanted a huge university experience and neither applied to UGA. Both were national merit finalists and Alabama called him and encouraged him to apply and take the full ride (not full tuition full ride) scholarship at Alabama. Again he wasn’t interested in a big university, and for religious reasons it was not a strong competitor at the time either. So there are a lot of factors that go into these decisions. Certainly finances are a huge one but fortunately for some families it may not have to be the deciding factor. My younger son thought he wanted to go into medicine and was certainly sensitive to financial factors. Fortunately for him he got a full tuition scholarship (The full ride scholarships were not available at that time) at Tulane and that, combined with his national merit scholarship money, made Tulane cost us just a bit LESS than it would have cost for us to send him in state to UGA. Older son got into Georgia Tech (back then it was his safety school LOL) but also chose a smaller environment that was a better fit for him. Also back then, he was interested in physics, wanting to pursue practical physics, but the department at Tech was more theoretical which wasn’t a good fit for him. Both of my sons ended up switching into engineering, and if younger son had been at UGA, back then they had no engineering so it would have been a bad fit, possibly requiring a transfer. So these are all important variables to consider when one makes the decision for the best option for themselves. So again these are all important factors in making decisions about the best school choices. Good luck to your son and his decision.
It seems the OP must have made their choice or taken a break. Would be curious about their thoughts. Agree with everyone that going into large debt (eg over 100k) is not a good idea for undergrad. But if families can allow their student options that do not cause a financial pinch, so much the better. And entering at the sophomore level (with AP/dual enrollment credits) helps with access to registration earlier, etc.as one registers with the class above them.
IIRC, Wisconsin is facing some financial issues these days. DH attended UW, so am familiar with it, though haven’t been up to Madison recently. But have been reading about the financial concerns there. For anyone in journalism, DH’s relative endowed a journalism scholarship at UW 
Oops too late to edit above. I meant to give a lower # for debt. The old adage is if one has to take out loans, one should not have more college debt than they expect to earn their first year in the working world. The average student loan debt at graduation last year was just over $37K. Thats not unreasonable for most people. Of course debt free is much better!
Also, the curriculum for the Altman is pretty structured, IIRC, so even with all the incoming credits, if they don’t fit easily into the program, the Masters degree might still be not doable in 4 years with the Altman.
@jym626 You’re on for the drink.
As I said, my son will be coming in with at least 33 credits, maybe more. It sounds like they will accept more than 15 college credits if the credits aren’t included on the high school transcript; if so, my son could probably start with 45 credits, although I’m not sure all of them would be useful (if he goes to Alabama he will start with something like 67 credit hours).
For his first year his only required classes will be the Altman tides class and a language class; he will already have credit for the other classes, which should let him jump ahead. He’ll just have to ask.
The deadline for the early round of the Altman is soon. If possible, better to get that app in ASAP. He can apply and contact the program head simultaneously. Definitely better to be in the early read group, IMO. You can buy me that drink when you come through town to go check out UGA. As long as we do not talk politics.
I suppose that my question is - why?
I admit that my opinion is completely colored by my experiences and background; I come from a working-class background and high school where I and nearly all of my classmates were first-generation college students. Money was THE most important factor in choosing a college, and most of us chose the place where we got a scholarship or that was in-state affordable because we had no other options. We learned to look at and think about reputation and prestige very broadly, too. Even though I’m 30 now, and approaching my 10-year college reunion, I have yet to shake that upbringing. In fact, if anything, it’s strengthened - my high school friends have gone on to become doctors, lawyers, engineers, scientists, professors, and other great professions even though only one that I can remember off the top of my head went to a college in the top 50 (well, a large handful went to Georgia Tech, because I’m from Georgia).
I suppose if I came from a wealthier family and/or a family where one or both of my parents attended college, I might have a different outlook. I’m not saying that top colleges have no influence or experiences that might be worth more money - I went to Columbia for graduate school and worked with undergrads, so I saw the very stark differences in the resources they had access to (and that I had access to!) vs. what I had at my undergrad college (an excellent LAC in the top 100, but not top 50, of USNWR). There’s a certain amount more I’d be willing to pay for my own kids to attend a top college. I don’t know what that amount is because it’s all hypothetical because I have no kids, lol.
Still - $80-100K is a lot of money. And Alabama is an excellent school. I suppose I’m just wondering what outcomes such families might think are worth the extra $80-100K. I don’t necessarily think a Tulane graduate will earn $100K more over her lifetime than if she had gone to Alabama, or that there are $100K worth better career opportunities out of coming from Tulane. Even the fact that you have to apply for the business major isn’t that big of a sway to me, mostly because students can major in a variety of fields and go into business.
And I’m genuinely curious! I’ve learned a lot about this at CC over the years.