Being OOS, these 2 schools will cost roughly the same.
Tulane (with merit): $43364
UF (no merit): $43408
Which is a better value for a Pysch major?
Tulane will give you smaller class sizes and more “personal” attention (advising/faculty). It’s also in a great city.
UF spends more on research (Pysch and overall R&D), is likely better for pre-med, and has that big SEC school feel.
I would lean toward Tulane, unless research/pre-med/Big SEC school are important. If so, I would recommend a more detail comparison between those two schools in that area of interest.
Good Luck!
She is really passionate about the school she chooses having great research opportunities. She thinks she will want to be a research psychologist professionally.
Then UF may be an option. 
See this link for more details around undergraduate research at UF. It’s a long list.
http://www.psych.ufl.edu/undergrad/research-opportunities/
She should feel free to reach out to the folks leading each project, with any questions she may have (or maybe even arrange a visit). E-mails are in the above link.
Good Luck!
PS: it goes without saying she should do the same thing with Tulane.
Just out of curiosity, but did you apply ED or RD to Tulane?
Thank you @Gator88NE. I will have her do that.
Do you think on the whole that a large research university, such as UF, will provide more or better undergrad research opportunities? Do grad schools care if you went to a private or a large public, or do they consider the breadth and quality of what you were involved with regardless of what school you attended? Both of these are top 50 schools - are they both equally as impressive to grad schools assuming the same GPA/similar course load?
@angelkitty247 She applied EA to Tulane in the fall and was accepted in November.
In my opinion, it would be better to attend a smaller school to have a better shot at research (and more personal attention - although you would get near this personal level with UF Honors).
UF has higher quality research, from my understanding, but it will be harder to get accepted into some research program there because more people will be vying for those spots.
I think grad schools would look at these two schools similarly as both are closely ranked.
If it were me, I would pick Tulane over UF, since the costs are the same. Consider both colleges equal. Pick the one you want to go to based on the “feels” you get when you visit each school.
For grad schools, I don’t think it would matter if they picked UF or Tulane. What matters is grades, test scores and area of study (and networking…).
True. I just think it would be easier to succeed at a smaller school.
UF’s student - teacher ratio is over double.
I’m not bashing UF. It is still one of my top choice schools, but we’ve got to be honest. It is a big state school.
As someone whose family lives in New Orleans and considered Tulane, the schools are both very different, but in the end I’m glad I chose UF. Not only is the student body more socioeconomically diverse, but Gainesville is A LOT safer than New Orleans, especially for a girl. There are a lot more robberies and rapes at Tulane and in New Orleans, and the police force is apathetic there. Just google “Tulane robbery” and you will find lots of hits of robbers entering female dorms when the females are present. Overall, I feel a lot safer in Gainesville than I do New Orleans, and my parents considered this as well. I know a lot of UF students who applied to Tulane but scratched it off their list of colleges because their parents were worried about the safety factor.
Scary! Thank you for adding the perspective of a NOLA resident.
@lcgusa <>> give us a break! Did you or some close friend or relative get rejected from Tulane? I checked crime reports and could not find anything remotely supporting your claims. And by the way there is only 1 female dorm on campus. Your distortion of reality and your alarmist sentiments are not only off-base but does a disservice to prospective applicants and their families who are considering both schools. @GAcollegemom6 seems as if our daughters are considering the same schools. I know several young women and students there (seniors, upper class, recent graduates) and nobody has complained of campus safety. They all feel safe and love the school. Students just have to be careful and use common sense. (I.e., don’t walk around off campus at 3 am). I looked over crime reports and crimes have occurred off campus and in the Middle of the night hours when students should not be walking around anyways.
@trackmbe3
We honestly felt very safe and we visited campus on 2 different days. TBH I was surprised at how safe we did feel in NOLA compared downtown Atlanta.
@GAcollegemom6 I forgot to mention that we visited the Tulane campus also and felt much safer there than at several other campuses we visited. Tulane security force were visible, as they should be for a campus located in the outskirts a short distance away from downtown NOLA. And Tulane security also patrol the area off campus within the area where students live.
https://www2.tulane.edu/police/uptown/crime_alerts.cfm
Took me about 3 minutes to find it…
Not every “burglary” creates a “Crime Alerts”. Schools do have to report “crime stats” to the federal goverment.
https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=tulane&s=all&id=160755#crime
PS: yep, I would think downtown Atlanta is a lot worse, at least from my experience researching Georgia Tech…
@Gator88NE I am sure if I looked hard enough at University of Florida crime statistics I could find similar crime stats for your beloved alma mater, but I prefer not to spend the time and effort to do that. The bottom line here is that A LOT of great colleges and universities, like U of Florida, Ohio State, Tulane, even Johns Hopkins, for example, unfortunately have crime --mostly off-campus-- I would not let that dissuade someone from attending a school that is a great fit, as Tulane appears to be for my daughter, which offers a great academic program she is interested in, an open curriculum with easy transferability within the undergrad schools, community service, which she loves, and wonderful opportunities to engage in research at the undergrad level, while enjoying the benefits of a smaller liberal arts type environment and class-size, with the benefits of a large research university with a medical school, university hospital, school of public health, law and business school. Not to mention the beautiful campus, new Reilly sports recreational center and Yulman stadium for football, fun-spirited, festival laden city in NOLA, beautiful Audubon park across the street and plenty of wonderful restaurants all within easy walking distance.
My family has been in New Orleans for generations and we have had a house near Tulane Uptown for generations. I and any of my family members (some of my relatives have completed master’s degrees in the architecture program there) can tell you that Gainesville is in general much safer than New Orleans. There’s an old saying, “In New Orleans, you’re never five minutes from a sketchy area.” That applies to a certain extent in Gainesville, especially north of University, but it’s gentrifying so much with all the new construction.
I considered Tulane, but after checking out the school, I found it really wasn’t a good fit for me. It seems to be a bit more snooty and has more of a New York/Long Island vibe than UF. UF is much larger, yes, but once you find your niche it’s like you’re at a smaller school. There are plenty of research opportunities. And the Gator Nation is truly “everywhere.” The recognition for high profile sports helps, and every Gator alumnus and alumna that I’ve met are always eager to hear about my experience as a UF student and tell me about their time there. Gators “take care of their own.”
As a girl, I feel much safer walking at night in lighted areas around the UF campus than I would alone at Tulane.
Yes, I agree about Georgia Tech. My family and I have close family friends in Buckhead and driving around Midtown Atlanta around the GA Tech campus and the surrounding neighborhoods, it seems a little sketchy.
But of course, that’s just my 0.02, and of course you would experience bias on this page. It’s ultimately a very personal decision that’s different for everyone.
@lcgusa you obviously have a bias against Tulane. And it certainly is your 0.02 cents, which you are entitled to. But you are plainly wrong with respect to your comment about respect. Tulane is an exceptionally good university and academically well respected in academia and in many fields, perhaps even more so than U of Florida. And every college can be considered a party school, that includes Florida and others. You need to be rich to afford going to Florida from out of state, because the school is very stingy on giving merit aid and does not give much need-based to OOS. You come across as particularly snooty yourself, disparaging New Yorkers and Long Islanders You should keep your contemptuous comments to yourself because, as I said earlier, they do a disservice to prospective applicants who rely on commenters like yourself that really don’t know what you are talking about.