<p>Hello all, I am a senior from Seattle, and would greatly appreciate input on which school to attend. I am undecided in what I would like to do, and please disregard cost for this thread.</p>
<p>The four schools are:</p>
<p>Tulane University
University of Washington Seattle
Santa Clara University
University of British Columbia</p>
<p>Thank you for your input</p>
<p>There is no way to answer this question. What are you hoping the next 4 years will be like? What are you looking for? What are your preferences with regard to, well, just about anything? Size, weather, sports, Greek life, location, so on and so forth. Have you visited any or all, and if so what did you think?</p>
<p>You have to give us something to go on.</p>
<p>I like the size and weather of Tulane and Santa Clara a bit more than ubc and uw, greek life is not a factor for me. I have visited Tulane and uw, and will visit the other 2 soon. I was really impressed with Tulane, but I have heard that ubc and Santa Clara are also stunning. Basically I am looking for one fact which will make one school stand out above the others, but I haven’t found it yet.</p>
<p>Hmmmm, Ok. That’s a start. BTW, UBC and Santa Clara are both, in fact, very nice.</p>
<p>You are right about the weather. If school were in the summer UW and UBC would win, but it isn’t. LOL.</p>
<p>What stands out for one person might not for another, so this is still really tough to answer. Do you know what you are going to major in, or at least what direction you are leaning? Is getting involved in public service important to you? New Orleans is such a unique city, so if you liked the whole vibe of Tulane on your visit that’s a really good sign. I would also say that if you are leaning towards smaller schools like Tulane and Santa Clara, then UW and UBC would not be as good a fit.</p>
<p>Well I have spent 3 summers building houses in new Orleans, (waiting on decision for com. Service scholarship for this), so I am semi-familiar with the city. The main pull for uw is the jazz music scene, which I love. And I know new Orleans has a fantastic scene, its just different because I know the artists in Seattle, and it’s a different genre of jazz than what is typically found in New Orleans. This being said I will not be disappointed by he music in either city. Santa Clara and ubc however have less to offer music-wise.</p>
<p>Well, I would say that the one thing that stands out is the culture of New Orleans: that includes the food, Mardi Gras, festivals, etc. There is no place like it in that respect. If you spent summers in New Orleans building houses, you have been there at the absolute worst part of the year in terms of weather. It is so much nicer the other eight or nine months of the year that you will love Tulane even more if your only impression is based on your summers there. New Orleans is unique and Santa Clara is beautiful from what I have heard. As far as the other two, which weather-wise I would think are pretty similar, the son of a friend went to uw and after one year said he just couldn’t go back because the weather was so depressing. He tried at his parents urging to return the next semester, but after that he was done. Too gloomy. He had made great friends, was very happy with his fraternity there, but just couldn’t take the weather day in and day out for nine months. Wish you could have seen New Orleans this past Honors Weekend. It was a very happy place.</p>
<p>Sounds like you already have a bond to NOLA. I like Seattle’s jazz scene also, but you are right, you will get to know the artists in NOLA and that will be fun for you as well. Tulane has a few on staff, like Jesse McBride. Get to know them and the whole NOLA scene will open up for you.</p>
<p>Just guessing, and my Tulane bias is certainly at play here, but it does sound like when you put together the school size, the music scene, the fact that you are already familiar with the school and the city, and that helping the community is clearly a high priority for you, Tulane is the natural choice. Santa Clara is a very nice small school, but it is very different than Tulane and New Orleans. It just won’t have the active off-campus scene Tulane will. Vancouver and Seattle you know, but those schools are really quite large. You will be sacrificing the smaller class sizes and closer relationships with the faculty, if that is important to you also. I guess I am saying it sounds like Tulane balances your needs/preferences better overall.</p>
<p>I would pick Tulane.</p>
<p>I’m picking Tulane over Duke… So… haha</p>
<p>UW is a wonderful school with many choices and opportunities. It is also huge. It receives more research funding than any other public school in the nation, and is second only to Johns Hopkins. However, class sizes can be in the hundreds and the dorms can be crowded. S2 was admitted to UW (among others) and chose Tulane. He thought it provided a more personal educational experience and that the social life was more relaxed and robust. He loves Tulane, and recommends to anyone who will listen.</p>
<p>D chose Tulane over UW (and others) due to weather and size. No regrets.</p>
<p>guheng-
Have you heard from Duke yet?</p>
<p>Vitrac- Did your D apply to U Washington (state) or U Wisconsin?</p>
<p>JYM–Univ of Washington</p>
<p>well… I surprisingly got the likely letter from Duke, so I guess I’m expecting an offer coming up this week!</p>
<p>Ok well then how about this, is Tulane worth an extra 20 grand per year over UW? (I did not get the 15 grand comm. Service scholarship)</p>
<p>I know you are tired of hearing this, but it depends. OK, I’ll get to the end first and then explain the exceptions and nuances. If you are not from a wealthy family, i.e. the $20,000 per year difference is significant to you, then no it is not worth it in general. More specifically, if you would come out of Tulane with more than about $25-30K in total debt, then I would say no. Now that is just the amount I would feel OK with, you and your family might feel differently in either direction.</p>
<p>The exceptions and nuances: One I alluded to. If your family can comfortably afford that extra money, then you are in the enviable position of picking the school you like best regardless of finances. But what are your plans for post-undergraduate? If they are something expensive like med school or law school, that has to be factored in to the whole affordability equation. If you knew that going to school X guaranteed you reaching your goal, for example acceptance into med school, it might be worth the extra money. There may be a few other things that I am forgetting right now, but hopefully you are getting my drift. College is a value proposition, and we sometimes lose sight of that because we think we have to go to the perfect/most prestigious/highest ranked school we got into. That simply is not the case, at least not at any cost. One always has to trade off affordability for quality, as in most things. If one is rich, affordability becomes almost a non-issue.</p>
<p>You said at the start not to consider cost in this thread. Now that you are asking the question it makes me think your family is comfortable (as they say) but not wealthy. If true, then I think you have to make very sure that attending Tulane (or probably your other OOS choices) won’t cause a strain. I think Tulane is wonderful, but no school is priceless.</p>
<p>Well, $80,000 is a lot. If it puts any strain on the family budget or you would come out with a large debt, then, as FC has wisely stated, don’t do it. UW is a wonderful school. Many of my sons’ friends attended or attend UW and really like it. It is quite different than Tulane, but different does not mean worse.</p>
<p>I am in this exact same situation, I am trying to decide between UW and Tulane. They are both really great schools, it is so hard to choose. UW is ranked higher and it is less expensive than Tulane but I already live right by Seattle and UW is so big. Tulane seems like it has the right amount of students and is in a great location but I am sort of worried about its reputation as a party school.</p>
<p>Believe me, there are parties at UW. Tulane has an easy going party scene, and don’t be fooled by those rankings. The Tulane student body is quite accomplished, and has a better SAT distribution than UW. S2 is a Seattle kid who code Tulane and loves it.</p>