Tulane vs. UGA

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Difficult decision, Tulane or UGA Honors?</p>

<p>Here is my situation. Accepted at Tulane and UGA Honors. I visited
Tulane for the second time over spring break (Destination Tulane
Event) and was completely impressed -plus Louisiana is where I was
born and I have no lack of love for LA. As for UGA; while I never saw
myself going to UGA, here I am considering it based on what I know
about the honors program and the possible opportunities.</p>

<p>My interests are political science/economics/public policy/journalism
-in other words, undecided, but decidedly not pre-med and not
engineering (my high school is a science and technology magnet program
-and an amazing program- but it made it pretty clear to me where my
strengths and interests lie).</p>

<p>A factor that I have to consider is cost. What Tulane offered
includes an academic scholarship and need based scholarship, the loan
portion is still $8500 per year (also and EFC of about $6000 per year
-and in my family's situation that would likely mean a PLUS loan or
additional Perkins loan with my mom helping as much as she can) vs.
UGA where HOPE covers tuition, but there is still a loan portion of
about $5000 per year. I've tried to look at the numbers with and
without work study, and even though the EFC is about the same for both
schools, work study makes more of a dent in the 'total cost' at UGA
-meaning, when I compare the numbers side by side, for UGA, the work
study amount effectively lessens the EFC -which likely means I could
lesson my loan amount. As I read this, I know it probably doesn't make
much sense, so I'll just say that UGA is the winner financially.</p>

<p>So that was a bit wordy but I really am having a tough time making this choice. Can you guys give me any suggestions? They would be much appreciated =] (and my apologies if this is in the wrong section of the forum I've never posted before).</p>

2

<p>This should be in College Search and Selection, but I’m sure a mod will move it.</p>

<p>Tulane and UGA are about on par academically. What is it that Tulane has that you feel UGA lacks? Besides distance from home, of course. I feel that too, but I don’t know that it’s worth an extra $14000+ in loans over four years. So what impressed you, more specifically?</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/tulane-university/476578-tulane-uga.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/tulane-university/476578-tulane-uga.html&lt;/a&gt; <–interesting thread, if you haven’t already seen it.</p>

<p>PS: If you think that was wordy, you should have seen my X v. Y thread.</p>

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<p>Besides the distance from home factor I think I just “felt right” at Tulane. It had that “it” factor. I think it had a somewhat more academic vibe and it was a little smaller. Also, even though I have thoroughly enjoyed my high school experience, UGA just feels all to familiar and I think there is something to be said of moving on. </p>

<p>BUT, I don’t know if those small things are worth the cost difference. Plus, UGA does have some unique opportunities, like their Public Policy school (which I could pursue a dual degree in).</p>

4

<p>Intuition is worth a lot, so that favors Tulane. Money is also worth a lot (lol), so that favors Georgia. The other thread referenced by haavain spelled it out pretty well. I would only disagree with his(?) statement that the schools are about on par academically. Taken as a whole, Tulane is a clear step above Georgia regarding the average stats of their students, and the observations in that other thread says the same. However, in the Ga. honors program I can believe there is a very similar level academically. The question then is whether that means you are taking only courses with honors students or are you still taking lots of huge lecture courses with all students. If the latter, then being in the HP loses a lot of whatever advantage it might have had. I don’t know how Ga does it, I am just saying if they do it that way.</p>

<p>But in the end, if you are saying that you personally would have to take out $34,000+ in loans and your parents would have to take out loans as well, I would go with Ga. That is way too much debt for an undergrad education.</p>

5

<p>I think you should consider another thread on CC called “Students protest housing crisis and meal plans increase” about some current problems at Tulane. At UGA, you live on campus freshman year, then you can move to off-campus housing (where there are many choices) or stay on-campus. You are never required to purchase the meal plan although it is unlimited and quite good.</p>

6

<p>^^^ I’m surprised that at Tulane, < half of the undergrads live on campus. Demographically, Tulane seems like an institution that should have > 80% on-campus.</p>

7

<p>I am a bit confused but it sounds like the difference in price is covered by UGeorgia’s offer of work study. Let me tell you this much, an Honors Program is unbelievably difficult and a lot more work than people realize. Yes, you get those great seminar classes and can prognosticate big ideas with heady profs…but the bottom line is its a helluva lot more work than the normal student workload and often comes with grade deflation. Great opportunity for the highly motivated but a lot of work. Will work study drain your free time? Work study may be answering phones in a university department or it may be working for the groundskeepers or in the bookstore where studying is nearly impossible. GET MORE INFORMATION if you can. </p>

<p>UGeorgia is a fine school. But its really really big. Its also got a huge party reputation. I know two people there now and one who left for NCState to escape that atmosphere. Its a huge frat and sorority scene and sports scene. All well and good. THough the Honors College will be a separate crowd within that larger population. Tulane has a decent party image as well and New Orleans is known for a lot of party activity and a laissez les bons temps rouler! atmosphere…anything goes. But Tulane is smaller and the workload also tough and if you want a strong academic lifestyle, its there for the taking.</p>

<p>I don’t know anything about the housing crisis or food plan at Tulane. I do know its a gorgeous campus and that across the street is a great Jesuit school, Loyola New Orleans. </p>

<p>What I would do (or anyone else here) is sort of irrelevant. What matters is what you want to do. With that in mind, your education is an investment in your future. It requires sacrifice. If the ONLY difference in price is workstudy at Georgia, then I suggest you go with your heart and go to Tulane. You can pick up a job in New Orleans easily, perhaps sophomore year when you have a grasp on the workload and your time management. </p>

<p>If I misread your comments, then the analysis should focus on the cost a bit more, and examine the ups and downs. Its tough to turn down instate tuition, Hope Scholarship and Honors Program. But yes, UGeorgia is FULL of instate high school buddies and its romper room for those who are unsuspecting. </p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

<p>Congratulations. Both fine schools.</p>

8

<p>Moreover and gadad - just to clarify some things, obviously people often make a situation sound worse than it is. You know students, just looking for a cause to protest! LOL. Not that there isn’t a legitimacy to some of it. Anyway, just to set the record straight, about 65% or more of the full time undergrads live on campus. The reason the stats are misleading is Tulane has a School of Continuing Studies, i.e. their night and weekend school. The 7200 number of undergrads includes this. Of course the 1500-2,000 people in this program do not reside on campus. The number of “normal” college students, meaning the ones that are not permanent residents of New Orleans and attend full time, less the few percent that are full time that happen to be from New Orleans, is about 5,000-5,200. There are about 3,300-3,500 beds in the dorms, I believe, so in fact well more than half live on campus. Just to make that clear. And as that thread says, there is a brand new dorm being constructed that will have a professor and family living there (the Residential College style, as they call it) that will be available for fall 2011. There are plans for another new dorm right after that one (also residential college style) and the plans are for all dorms to be residential college style within 10 or so years.</p>

<p>As far as meals, one can purchase an unlimited meal plan and it is quite reasonable. It is some of the other plans, along with the fact that sophomores are required to be on a meal plan, that are the focus of the discussions.</p>

9

<p>Gadad, regarding the students living off campus. Just my personal take on that is that Tulane is in the heart of a suburban-like area of New Orleans. Uptown New Orleans is filled with some old, even historic, homes, many of which are rental properties themselves or contain a section of the house that has been converted into an apartment. Most kids choose to rent a house rather than live in a dorm.</p>

<p>Actually, if you are able to, New Orleans is a great place to buy a few pieces of rental property because there are soooo many apartments around and so many of the homes in the area have apartments attached. Some of these were new additions and some had been living quarters for maids, ect. There are two universities (TU and Loyola) right there to have people to rent to as well.</p>

<p>If we weren’t about to move to the Villanova area of Philly my fiance and I were going to look into buying a house with an attached apartment to pay the mortgage. We live across the street from a park now so we’ve kept my place for a couple more years than we had anticipated. Hopefully we’ll like Philly as much as we like this area.</p>

<p>And about the protesting…oh man…where do I start. lol. Fallen is absolutely correct in that while there may be some merit to the protests, there is always a segment of the population (cough, cough)hippies …that come New Orleans to protest and live in a bohemian lifestyle. </p>

<p>When I was a student at TU, the university showed the movie Deepthroat (highly adult content let’s just say) on the school’s McAllister auditorium movie screen and there were protests by some because they said it objectified women. Again, that’s fine and a reasonable argument. But you should have seen the signs accusing everyone who went into the film as condoning rape and saying that the women in the film were actually being raped. </p>

<p>A good friend of mine got together with some folks and made t-shirts donning ‘protest the protest’ with some rather risque stick figures on them to wear as they went in to see the film. I mean it was obviously played by Tulane as part of an effort to make ‘the powers that be’ at university seem less stuck up. It was just a funny tradition but people got way too offended. </p>

<p>I also remember reading about when the 2nd Gulf War broke out and Tulane had a ‘tent city’ where those same people lived in tents on the quad for weeks to protest the war. Tulane as a whole isn’t really that much more liberal than other schools in the South in my opinion. It’s just more accepting of the people that ARE extremely liberal. I’d say it was still a Kerry (over Bush) and Obama (over any republican) crowd, but there are enough people in the middle and enough people on the right that no one could feel isolated because of their political beliefs. </p>

<p>UGA and Tulane are both great schools but they are different. Best of luck and you really can’t go wrong with either.</p>

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<p>Tulane can obviously produce some brilliant politicians–and ones who think the right way: Newt Gingrich got his PHD from Tulane</p>

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<p>And he was a guest lecturer in James Carville’s poli sci class at Tulane last year. If you have not seen the lecture on YouTube, find it. Whatever one thinks of the man’s politics, he is really intelligent and knowledgeable.</p>

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<p>My kid’s at Tulane, is a “hippie type” and I didn’t know about any protest!</p>

<p>She is having a blast, btw. Working hard, doing well, having fun and really thriving.</p>

<p>One aspect of her experience that has been terrific (that wasn’t a factor in selecting Tulane) has been professor interaction. Her classes are small, profs are amazingly accessible and she has already built relationships. Her econ prof offered her a summer research job already. Professors email back and forth. This kind of engagement has really enhanced her educational experience.</p>

<p>When I contrast her freshman experience with mine at a large state U, in bio and chem classes with 300 students… well, there is no comparison.</p>

<p>My kid was only looking at large urban schools in the Northeast, felt compelled to check out Tulane, was offered a nice scholarship, followed her heart there and hasn’t looked back.</p>

13

<p>abuwalker - I love that post. Of course I love Tulane, so it is holy food to the faithful, but it is still a wonderful thing. So glad to hear your D is loving Tulane. If you follow my posts at all you know how much I talk about the accessability and undergrad focus of the profs, so her story is no surprise to me. I know Tulane isn’t perfect of course. Most of the flaws it has tend to be more administrative issues like food and housing, not academics. But it really is a great place.</p>

<p>What dorm was she in?</p>

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<p>During my daughter’s search, class size, prof to student ratio really were not factors we paid much attention to. With my next kid (the reason I came back to CC), i will pay much closer attention to this information, knowing how much it’s meant to my oldest daughter.</p>

<p>Her experience is so radically different than my own… maybe it’s email that enables students and profs to connect… but my kid has had professors email her stuff to read they thought she’d be interested in. That was shocking to me that #1) they’d take the time to do that and 2) that they actually listen when kids speak in these small classes, so that they actually get to know the kids. And these are freshmen!!</p>

<p>My kid plunged in to intellectual engagement immediately at Tulane.</p>

<p>I’m only sorry my second daughter doesn’t like warm weather!</p>

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<p>Doesn’t like warm weather??? What’s the matter with her? LOL. Yes, my daughter (also a freshman, she is in Butler) also commented on how much the professors are personally engaged with the students. She thought maybe it was because she was in the Honors Program, but now realizes that is just the way Tulane is.</p>

<p>The reason I asked about the dorm was that if your D is in one of the big dorms (Sharp, Monroe, JL) I was wondering how she felt that meshed with the rest of her experience at Tulane. Not important, just curious.</p>

16

<p>Sorry… I missed your dorm question. She’s in JL, but doesn’t consider that a big dorm. It’s not a big party dorm, but I think after her initial disappointment, she feels like it was a good fit. She’s made great friends, is involved in Newcomb senate.</p>

<p>Next year she’s in Warren. Will your daughter stay in Butler?</p>

<p>(My other daughter is a cold-weather kid!)</p>