“You need to be rich to afford going to Florida from out of state” 8-} Genuinely wealthy people wouldn’t say this in real life. It comes off as gaudy and classless. :)) Alas, let’s not start the anonymous Internet mudslinging. Maybe you should go to the Tulane subthread to hear what you want to hear.
@lcgusa I am not “genuinely wealthy”, I am middle class from the geographic area and people you just slandered who would never had the opportunity to afford to send my very high stat daughter to an expensive and well respected excellent quality school such as Tulane if not for the great merit aid they offer to outstanding serious students such as my daughter. You are obviously rich and privileged from New Orleans and the epitome of familiarity breeds contempt. Maybe I should reconsider sending my daughter to this school if you are representative of the type of locals she might find there. Where is Fallen Chemist when I need him. His presence is sorely missed!
nothing could be farther from the truth. I don’t even live in Louisiana, I just visit, but I’ve been going for all my life and some of my relative still live there part time. But some of my grandparents and greats go back since the 1920s living there. I just didn’t want to bearound people who were given everything in life and where money was no object. That’s not the whole student body, but that’s the vibe I got. I have a job and I shop at Walmart. I’m thrifty and I save my money, and I don’t party and focus on my studies. Tulane wasn’t a fit for me, I wasn’t raised around super wealthy people who got everything handed to them. Just because you’re from around there doesn’t mean you’re wealthy. But there is a lot of money uptown, so that’s the kneejerk reaction, because some of the houses are absolutely palatial. I find a lot of the UF students are really genuine and down to earth, and not materialistic. There’s all kinds there at UF, but everyone there is pretty studious, they really aren’t judgmental in regard to clothing, what kind of car you drive, etc. Plus rent for apartments is a lot cheaper in Gainesville than in that area of New Orleans. You can find apartments off campus for as low as $400 a month. It’s hard on the Internet and you tend to get on the defensive when you don’t know where people are coming from. I thought you meant, “You’re poor, you go to a state school, hahah I’m rich look at me.” But people can interpret it anyway they want without the nuances of face to face conversation. No hard feelings.
@lcgusa I thought you said you were from Louisiana in a prior post…you sure paint a false stereotypical view —and even if some of what you say may apply to a small number of students, be mindful that when you go to U of Florida you will see that mostly all your out of state peers/students are “wealthy” , because Florida cost of attendance for out of state without merit aid is in the $40,000 plus range. Most middle class folks cannot afford $160,000 plus over four years, especially if they have more than one kid to send to college. So, with your attitude you may want to stay close to your home and go to a local school where you and your fellow Walmart shopping peers can be content amongst yourselves! I shop at Walmart and do not mean to denigrate it, but I welcome diversity of economic strata and don’t look down or up with scorn at wealthy students as you seem to do!
I shop at Walmart because I’m cheap. Sure, there’s nothing against being rich, but the kids I know from OOS at UF don’t flaunt their wealth like at Tulane. In fact, a lot of the out of state kids came to UF because it was cheaper to go out of state than go to their states’ flagships. I just didn’t want to feel like the odd one out who doesn’t want to spend $20 a night on cover in a bar in New Orleans or do drugs, and I feel like that was more prevalent at Tulane than at UF. Obviously, not every student. There are a lot of serious studies and future doctors and lawyers I know who go to Tulane because of their generous merit scholarships. Yes, there are wealthy kids at UF, and there are a lot of drugs and alcohol, but there are a lot of levelheaded kids at UF who are there to study, and yes, let loose every once and a while, but their focus is get a good GPA and make connections in their future fields that will last a lifetime.
@lcgusa What you say–your words << Yes, there are wealthy kids at UF, and there are a lot of drugs and alcohol, BUT (my own emphasis added) there are a lot of levelheaded kids at UF who are there to study…their focus is to get a good GPA and make connections in their future fields that will last a lifetime>> the same can be said of the students at Tulane and most of the top 50 or 60 national universities in the US World & New Report. Tulane is ranked #39. Mid ACT range is 29 to 32. This year slightly higher I believe. Over 36,000 applications for this incoming class of 2017, with a 25% acceptance rate. Roughly 60% of students are in the top 10% of their high school class. So certainly there are serious academically oriented students at Tulane. In contrast, UF is ranked #50 in USN&WR and although it’s acceptance rate is higher (approx 40%) the incoming students are of comparable quality, with about 70% in the top decile of their high school class (although the rigor of a lot of Florida state schools are likely not on par with the rigor of the out of state schools of the students from across the country accepted to Tulane), can we at least agree on the academic quality of the students at both these schools being peers, regardless of economic class and their geographic origins?
It can be said that the top students of any top 50 school can compete with the likes of students at Ivy League schools, MIT, Duke,etc. owing to costs, space constraints, and personal fit, not every top student can go to a top 10 school.
Anecdotal, of course, but from what I’ve heard over the years. A lot of kids at UF and TU may have been accepted to academically elite schools in the Norrheast, but want to stay in the Southeast due to cost or weather, or some other miscellaneous factor
@lcgusa ^^^ Agreed! 
was your daughter offered the presidential scholarship at Tulane? That may defray costs, making it cheaper than OOS at UF. Also flying into New Orleans might be more convenient; I know southwest and JetBlue fly there. The airport in Gainesville is tiny and flights are expensive and I know everyone usually flys into Jacksonville or Orlando and has to take a bus to UF. It isn’t too far from the airport in New Orleans in Kenner.
Crime rates are very easy to research:
http://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/tulane-university-of-louisiana/student-life/crime/
http://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/university-of-florida/student-life/crime/
Yes, and then a need based grant. So the cost to attend Tulane is much less than the cost for her to attend U of Florida as a full pay. She did not bother to apply to UF because her older brother, who also had high stats, received no merit aid --neither the Sunshine or the other top scholarship. And when I called to appeal that decision a few years ago a UF admissions woman in a thick southern accent said “Florida does not reconsider merit aid decisions” and then she abruptly hung up on me. So that left a bad taste with me and my son followed the money to Ohio State, which offered $15,000 in merit aid per year. He is happy with his choice. But different schools for different kids. Our home state has SUNYs, none of which are well endowed and none offer all the academic programs In one single flagship campus. So if a student decides to switch majors and career paths he or she likely will need to transfer to another SUNY campus. Tulane and UF (and Ohio State) offer what a single SUNY campus cannot provide. With top notch facilities to boot!
@trackmbe3
Good to hear you have a kid at Ohio State. That is actually one of our other top contenders. D was awarded National Buckeye and Provost @ Ohio State, making her COA there $29284. We have visited OSU once and are going back so her dad can see it next week.
May I ask you a few questions? How has your son’s experience been there? Do you feel that the academics are significantly below Tulane and UF, or are they more on par with one another? It’s a huge cost savings, but it’s ranked #54 on USNWR vs Tulane at #39 and UF at #50 (not a big difference, but lower). Do you feel like the quality of education at Tulane or UF are worth paying $14k more per year for than the education at Ohio State?
Thanks!
Uf is very stingy with their merit aid. They know everyone wants to go there so they don’t have to attract kids with $$. Most kids are there because of Bright futures, which will hopefully cover all of tuition starting next fall, with a stipend for books. Currently it only covers about half of tuition. In all honesty, I’ve seen kids who totally deserve uf in house merit scholarships get passed over. If your daughter is a national merit finalist, I read that the state legislature was considering funding full rides for OOS finalists, as the benacquisto scholarship only gives full rides to in-staters. But UF is a great bargain for anyone who lives in FL in comparison to some other state schools! I know tuition alone at Penn State is 17k a year in state, but UF can cost less in-state if you budget and live in an off campus apartment and cook meals. I know this doesn’t help you coming from NY state. Tulane was just culture shock for me coming from the South. Life is a little slower. Maybe you’d feel right at home. It’s different for everyone.
@GAcollegemom6 in answer to your question (and I will address UFlorida and Tulane also below) my son is in Fisher school of business at Ohio State and loves the business school program as well as the academic, recreational and dorm facilities. And he loves the clubs, extra-curricular activities and the city of Columbus (two miles down from campus) is the short north area, where he sometimes goes in weekends. And the rah rah school spirit and big-time division 1 sports. U Florida and Tulane also have top notch academics, research, and recreation/sports facilities and campus spirit. And even Tulane is in division 1 sports and will play at Ohio State in football in September 2018! All three universities are renown research schools with lots of great programs and comparable academically and facility-wise. And all very social. But the advantage of Tulane is that it is a private school with smaller faculty to student ratio and smaller campus feel within a large research university. Also the student body class size is a lot smaller (1,600) and smarter in my opinion —the class size of Ohio state freshman is 7800 and the class size of UF is about 6,000. The top 1500 kids at Ohio State and UFlorida freshman class are comparable to mostly all of the freshman class at Tulane. So I think the competition amongst the student body in classes at Tulane is more like among Olympians, because they don’t have the lower stat kids that get into the large state universities like U Florida and Ohio state. This may make it difficult to shine when competing against equal olympians so to speak. Also, at Ohio State or Florida it’s very easy to transfer from a community college into the University after freshman year. So that dilutes the quality of the student body stats in the upper classes somewhat. It’s a lot more difficult to transfer into Tulane. Also I think the faculty at Tulane are better paid and just better because it’s a private school. It’s more focused on teaching at the undergrad level than is U Florida or Ohio State, where the top professors are focused more on research.
My son found the grading tough at Ohio State for all his classses, and especially they want to weed out kids from competitive majors. I don’t know how difficult the grading is at Tulane or UF.
The overall ranks are not meaningful because Tulane, UF and Ohio State are all within the top 60 universities in the country and also highly ranked in other rankings, such as US Times and Bloomberg business and Forbes. And specific programs within the university have their own individual ranks. But take them with a grain of salt because the differences are not significant. For example, the USNew & World Reports rankings of undergrad business schools lists Ohio state’s Fisher business school as #19; UFlorida Warrington as #27 and Tulane Freeman at #48. I actually think Tulane Freeman business school is significantly better than its rankings and comparable to Ohio State and U of Florida. They are building a new business school addition at Tulane so they are prioritizing the business school right now. The Engineering rankings show Ohio state as #28, UF as #37 and Tulane is not ranked because it does not have mechanical engineering. But it has strong biomedical engineering and another type of engineering, I forget which.
Tulane, UF and Ohio state are each strong in pre-med, pre-law and pretty much everything. So it comes down to cost and fit (including consideration of class size and size of student body and quality of undergraduate teaching) and where student feels most comfortable. I don’t think any one is worth paying A LOT more than the other. But Tulane is a private school and is worth paying more —only you can determine how much more. It depends on how much you are able to comfortably afford with or without loans.
However, of note—each visit to Ohio State we observed a few sketchy characters walk up and down north high street (the eastern border of the campus) on the opposite side of the street across from the Ohio Student Union, starting at Barnes and Noble which is at the southernmost end of campus and all the way up to the corner of north high street where the CVS is located. The “characters” include beggars and include some smoking weed. Not all the time, but frequently. It made my daughter uncomfortable but not my son. Last year we saw a van with police distributig flyers for off campus students on how to remain safe. Apparently there are a lot of off campus crime as similar to what @lcgusa described at Tulane. On the heart of campus–the main campus oval and south, north and west campus both son and daughter felt very safe. East of North high street where off campus housing the kids need to be watchful. But Of note is that there is a lot of Greek life at each of the schools and living in a Greek house, at least at Ohio State and Tulane, is a safer option than any of the off campus houses. Frats and sororities at Ohio State are like mansions. Frats and sororities at Tulane are more like medium or large houses. There are always students around and security systems in place to scare off potential burglars. I don’t know about UFlorida because I never visited that school.
@GAcollegemom6 Here are two links that you may find helpful concerning Safety at Tulane: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19660895#Comment_19660895
and http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20083438#Comment_20083438
This is definitely not true. The middle 50 percent ACT range at Tulane is between 29-32 while at UF it is 27-31. OSU has the same ACT range as UF. The average Tulane student would slide into roughly the 66 percentile at UF or OSU.
The problem that Tulane has is the location in New Orleans. NOLA does not have a thriving economy and many Tulane students have to head back home for jobs instead of staying in the area. Once outside NOLA, Tulane has little pull with employers.
@Zinhead Don’t forget that UF down plays the importance of test scores in its holistic admissions, while stressing the importance of GPA and rigor. The average GPA for freshman is higher at UF (and likely OSU) than Tulane (which rewards high test scores with merit scholarships). 73% of UF freshman are in the top 10% of their class (65% at OSU), while it’s 55% at Tulane.
I can’t think of another school, more similar to UF than OSU. They really are equal in most ways. If I was OOS at for both schools, I would be hard press to come up with a reason to choose UF over OSU (+$15,000 in Merit).
I think Trackmbe3 has done a great job of explaining the benefits to a smaller private school. Not much more can be said on it.
“Once outside NOLA, Tulane has little pull with employers.”
Going to have to disagree. Like most schools, it depends where you are trying to get a job. In CA or the Northeast, Tulane has a very strong brand and perhaps even a better reputation than it warrants. In those same places, most people only know UF as a large, SEC sports school, assuming they do not do further research.
@vistajay - Now that my kids are older and we are seeing some of the outcomes of their friends older siblings, I am seeing kids having difficulties launching when they attended a non-elite school outside their region, and it has made us rethink the college selection process. One of these kids happens to be a Tulane engineering grad who attended school on a 1/2 merit scholarship who now works for his uncle in non-professional position. Some others include:
A Smith grad working in retail at the local mall.
A Virginia grad waiting tables.
An Alabama grad who went to Tuscaloosa with a big merit award renting cars at Enterprise.
A Maryland grad babysitting.
These are smart kids who attended good schools, some with merit. If a parent is going to send their kid outside their region with the intention of the kids moving back home, they should have some plan to get them launched.