UF vs. Tulane?

@Zinhead I agree! Now stop with the post-graduate horror stories! I am already curled up in a fetal position in the corner.

@trackmbe3 and @Gator88NE

Thank you so much for all of the helpful feedback. Our D honestly loves these 3 schools equally, so the difficult debate has been “Is it worth 14k more per year at any of them when she seems like she would be happy/do well/have great opportunities at any of the 3 of them?” In all honestly, UF is closest to home and we visit FL frequently, so I was hoping it would work, but I am having a bit of trouble justifying the cost. Tulane I love for the small class sizes and educational experience that they would bring, but again, 14k/yr for 4 years is a 56k premium. OSU I love for the price and because like @Gator88NE said, it really felt very comparable academic wise to UF. I have heard that they grade harshly/weed out of popular majors which is of concern because she may be trying to enter med GPA is very important.

Does anyone have a resource or link to the average GPA by university? (Not for freshman acceptance - for the college students attending.)

@GAcollegemom6 not that this means much to you, but I just decided between uf and osu… They were similar price for me with uf being slightly cheaper. However, my parents made sure price didn’t influence my decision. I chose uf and I’m extremely excited to start there. I’m not going to give you useless info so if you have a question pm me. Go Gators!

See this link for UF"s grades by college:

http://ir.aa.ufl.edu/degrees-grades

Select the “Undergraduate Grades” tab.

@Gator88NE

Thanks so much! This chart is extremely helpful. I love that UF has such detailed data.

@GAcollegemom6 if you look at the Ohio state course catalog online and see the names of the professors for the courses your daughter is interested in taking you can then go to Rate My Professor.com and see the grade of these professor and comments from students about the professor. She can then pick and choose her courses at orientation based on who are the better professors.

Here are the average GPA figures for UF:

http://www.gradeinflation.com/Florida.html

Ohio State:

http://www.gradeinflation.com/Ohiostate.html

There was no listing for Tulane. Note that for public universities, the average GPA is nearly always significantly less than private schools. Public schools tend to be less sensitive to students staying enrolled, and frequently will have weed out classes in impacted majors that artificially lower GPAs. Private do some of that, but to a lesser extent.

We were just at Tulane and then at UF over the last two weekends. I think my daughter will end up choosing UF. Tulane had a lot of negatives for her. The campus was much smaller than she expected. The facilities weren’t all that nice. We got conflicting answers to some of our questions about the Honors Program. What I understood most was that the program was in transition and they aren’t really sure how its going to develop. They just keep trying different things with it. The students we met at Wall Hall said there were lots of triples because they over enrolled the program and don’t have space for everybody in Wall, so they’ve transformed the space designed for a double into a triple. They do offer you a $200 price break for being in a triple and cleaning service for the bathroom, but most of the triples attach to a singe or a double so those people end up with cleaning service as well. Bruffs for breakfast was not a great experience, and when we asked random students over the 3 days we were on campus what they would like to see changed about Tulane they mostly replied the food at Bruffs. Kind of disappointing that for a city known for its food, the only student dining hall is subpar. Also, she had a negative advising session when trying to pick classes. She said the advisor helping her didn’t seem to know anything and couldn’t give her any advice on which classes she should take. She really expected more from a smaller private university.
As far as Tulane positives, there was really just one. The student body. Everybody we spoke to seemed genuinely happy to be there. They referred to it several times as Camp Tulane and described being on campus as being with family. She really loved the students she met; everybody she approached was willing to take time out and talk to her. And besides Bruffs, nobody had any complaints. That was really a giant positive for her, and so she has not ruled Tulane completely out.

----- UF on the other hand was an all positive experience. When she visited last year and took the campus tour, she was underwhelmed. They just showed you the outside of lots of buildings and she didn’t really get a feel for the school. It felt too large and impersonal. But she spent the past weekend there and loved it. She went into a few of the dorms and although some were older and could be gross, others were spacious and beautiful. The students she approached also were happy to be there and said they were having an amazing time, although she could tell it didn’t have the same family feel as Tulane. There were a plethora of eating options on and around campus and the main dining hall for those on a meal plan was cleaner and easier to navigate than Bruffs. She was also impressed with some of the perks available to Honors students such as Honors classes which allowed you to take some of your gen ed requirements in an Honors only class, therefore limiting the class size significantly. She said that the Honors kids are also required to take certain classes every semester which gives them direct access to some professors and research opportunities. I think if she doesn’t get in to the Honors Program at UF it will be a much harder decision for her. I’m not sure what she’ll pick. I believe that her grad school and/or career opportunities will be similar if she remains academically strong at either institution.

Of course, she has not heard back from everywhere she applied yet. But I’m pretty sure it will be down to these two schools.

Just a point of clarification…we attended a Tulane Admitted Student event in our local area this past weekend. The admission counselor did discuss the “forced triples” for housing this year. It was an anomaly. More people enrolled than they expected for the 2016-2017 year. They are doing their best with admissions to be sure that doesn’t happen again this year.

One other item, perhaps someone can comment on…we have heard that at UF many are required to take online classes to complete the gen ed requirements. We are attending a local admitted student event this coming weekend and hoping to get some clarification on this. For other schools that my child is considering, this is not an issue…and may be the one that steers us away from considering UF.

@G8tr2mom we visited Tulane and went to Top Scholars weekend and I’d like to respond to a few of your concerns: regarding Honors and advising I agree with what you said. But when my daughter came back and told me her advisor was not very informed I went back with her and asked to meet with another advisor, who happened to be much more knowledgeable and personable and helped change her schedule. They also have special advisors for pre- med and pre-law and business who we consulted with. You just to have to be assertive and seek out a good advisor until you find the right one. They are there. As for Honors, they changed the program this year and that’s why the staff was somewhat confused. But as long as you take the honors colloquium first semester it’s fine. By the end of the semester I have confidence they will have worked the kinks out. As for facilities, we were very impressed with the relatively new Reilly sports and recreational center for students as well as the new stadium (Yulman) for football. And the student union center with the LBC food court all seemed modern and relatively new. Plus the Wall Honors dorm was recently renovated. And they are building a new business school addition. I don’t know what facilities you are referring to as needing renovation. I agree that Bruff dining commons needs an overhaul and I was told that they plan to build a new modern dining facility worthy of all the great food in New Orleans. I was told that construction for the new dining hall will occur after the new business school addition is completed by end of this calendar year. The school has a good endowment 1.1 billion, which allows them to build or renovate a new building every few years to keep updating. Tulane endowment is comparable to University of Florida (1,.86 billion) because when you consider their are a lot less students at Tulane, the amount of money that is available in endowment on a per student basis is actually more at Tulane. Also, there are several other places to eat around campus besides Bruff. And last year triples were an aberration because so many more students than expected accepted admission. The improved yield is evidence of the student satisfaction with the school. I agree that all the students we met there seemed happy to be there and the collegiality was evident.

@trackmbe3 I agree that the rec center was very nice and the student union was fine. We ate at the LBC food center and paid $22 for two salads and a water. Not really affordable on a student budget. I was also told a new dining hall was in the works but they don’t expect it to be completed for several years, so my D may or may not get to see it. Therefore, she can not include it in her decision making. The advising was particularly troublesome. We both didn’t feel that she needed to be more assertive seeking out other advisors since she hasn’t even decided if Tulane will be her new home. The schedule remains open for change and she can always contact the school between now and the fall if she commits. As far as specialty advisors, she wouldn’t know who to go to. She is the textbook definition of undecided. The Honors program has been a work in progress for the past several years. I really feel they are trying new things every year or two until they figure out what sticks. It’s not a program I’m going to hang my hat on at this time. Clearly, Tulane is moving in a positive direction and in a few years may have all its kinks worked out. I’m surprised you said Wall Hall was recently renovated. I thought it was a mess. We walked into several rooms and common areas. We saw TV’s that looked 20 years old, at least. Seriously, 36" square heavy things that my daughter has never seen in her lifetime. I know that’s petty, but that is not a renovated space. And although they claim the triples are an anomaly, they seem to be advertising the option pretty strongly. I don’t believe it is something they plan on reducing at this point. They may not add more, but I do think they will keep things at least the way they are. Additionally, there was a clear lack of diversity on campus. Even the admission officers I spoke with admitted that was an area the school is trying hard to improve on. Granted, we really enjoyed all the people we met and my daughter can easily relate to them, but I would not describe Tulane as a multicultural community. Honestly, nothing we experienced was a deal breaker, I just wasn’t as impressed as I had hoped to be. Even with her presidential scholarship, Tulane will be a much more expensive option for us than UF by approximately $25,000 per year, possibly more if bright futures expands. I’m not sure it’s worth it, but I won’t stop my daughter from going there if she loves it. And where I don’t expect my UF costs to rise over the next 4 years, I do expect Tulane tuition to increase every year by approximately 2.5%.

The other positive Tulane has over UF is the Greek system. My daughter wants to join a sorority and the Greek system at Tulane is much more lowkey and welcoming. She was told that she may not get her first choice but that the sororities work hard to be inclusive and most everybody that wants a spot gets one. I don’t know if that’s true, but it made her feel good. I’m guessing rushing at UF will be a much more stressful experience. But, who really knows.

@fallschurchmom UF definitely has online classes and much larger classes then Tulane. At Tulane you will get smaller class sizes with easier access to professors. I struggle with my opinion of the online classes. Most students I’ve spoken to are very positive about them. My understanding is that they are typically only available for your large gen ed classes and a multitude of business classes. I think most of them offer a live lecture option early in the morning but most students choose not to attend. That morning lecture is then viewed online at your leisure. I think most of the classes also require a weekly lab where you meet in smaller groups with TAs to discuss the lectures. Like many large state schools, some of the gen ed classes can be exceptionally large. I remember, back in my day, just not showing up some days, because nobody would know. But then I would need to purchase the notes that I missed. I think the online courses is a good way to resolve that problem for a large school. If a student misses class by choice or for some other reason, they have access to catch up at their liesure. The quantity of online classes you will have really depends on both your major and your personality. Engineering students have few if any online classes, business majors have the most. Everybody in between chooses their preference. Some students avoid them, others love them.

You have two types of online classes, the first is simply the lecture being recorded and the student having the option to not attend live, but to instead watch it from home. In all other aspects, it’s a normal classes, with breakout sessions (that have to be attended), test on campus, etc. Some of the live lectures may fill up, requiring you to sign up for a recorded, online lecture session.

Then you have the true online class, where all work is done online, including group projects and test. My daughter, who’s a junior in industrial engineering has taken one or two such classes. The class was “Professional Communication for Engineers”, and much of the work was group work, done on line with her assigned group. She liked it. You’ll be surprise how interactive online classes can be, especially for something that requires a group to work on.

Her roommate, who’s in CLAS, took 3 during her freshman year. She likes the online classes, and would select those over the standard option. So the number that you would take, is going to vary by your major.

I think you’ll find these recorded and true online classes at any large public university (which all are challenged to support the large number of freshman taking the same general ed classes). The state of Florida and UF have invested millions in building up it’s online category (in support of UF Online), so you may find more true online classes at UF (or other similar schools, like ASU) than some others.

As a freshman (taking Gen Ed classes), you’re more likely to run into a class that requires attendance, via pop quizzes. They tend to use “clickers” in class to score pop test. You have to attend the class to take the test. If you miss class, you get a zero on the quiz. My daughter had a few such classes her freshman year.

@Gator88NE…Thanks for the clarification on the online classes. One of my other children attends a large public university in a different state that does use the clicker but thus far doesn’t go the online route…perhaps it is their future!

DS is a first-year at UF, in CS (engineering version). We were prepared for the ‘half my classes are online’ issue and somehow he ended up with NO online classes other than a hybrid for Good Life which he preferred because he only had to go to class once per week.

Our son actually likes the online classes because he can replay lectures. He was accustomed to the online format from virtual dual enrollment with UF in high school.

Just wanted to give you our experience!

My sister actually did UF online for her business degree, and she loved the format along with the ability to replay lectures. From what I’ve heard, UF has an excellent online learning platform.

Thanks for all of the positive information about the online class experience. Not quite sure what my son’s thoughts are on them. Attending a local admitted student event this weekend. Will gauge where UF is on his list after this weekend! Appreciate the sharing of information here.