UMD or Tulane?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tulane University
1

<p>I only have less than 1 week to enroll. I am a Maryland resident and I got into the university of maryland (45 minutes away), honors program, but with absolutely no financial aid/scholarships/grants.
I also got into Tulane University's honors program, with a 24k scholarship for 4 years. </p>

<p>I would go to Maryland because a lot of my friends are there, and I know that they have a wide range of student groups/activities that I would LOVE (and not be too hesitant/shy) to participate in. However, the fact that I got absolutely nothing financially (it's still a lot of money) just holds me back from attending. At Tulane, I know it is a wonderful school, however I am just nervous about the prospect of leaving so far from home especially to New Orleans. I don't know if this is true, but I heard that Tulane is not very diverse, and I just don't know if I can fit in there. I am a shy person and i know that i'll feel comfortable in maryland, but a lot of my friends received full rides to Maryland, which makes me feel sort of...inferior (I know, stupid). I don't know if I can turn down such an amazing scholarship from tulane to attend maryland, and i also dont know if i can adjust to a new life in new orleans...
Even with the scholarship from tulane, UMD tuition is about $7,000 less because i am instate and i dont need to consider longdistance traveling</p>

<p>my parents have also looked at a lot of things and they say that tulane's public health program (which is what i want to do) is more suited for me...cuz UMD's relies heavily on science...and i am not good at science. I like it, but i can't handle too much science.</p>

<p>i feel like i want to go to UMD because it feels safe. (i know about the crime rate there lol, but it's a different type of safe). I want to try so many new things in college, and I know I will feel comfortable joining things in UMD. At Tulane, I feel like I'd be too shy to put myself out there. If i go to tulane, i feel like i'd be too shy to audition for an a cappella group (they only have 2...) and i'd probably back out of a lot of things, just because when i am in a new surrounding, i freeze up. But then again, i feel like this is why i should leave for tulane, so i can get used to being in the real world...</p>

<p>Also, if I do enroll at Tulane, how am i gonna get my violin, guitar, lacrosse stuff, and everything else down there? and the travel costs are there...for like break and stuff</p>

<p>Also, I've been thinking about the music schools at both. i know umd's orchestra/music school is like amazing and tulane's orchestra is prettyyyy small...but i'm used to small, because my community orchestra is small...my parents are worried that i probably wont make it into UMD's symphony...and i guess im used to that whole big fish little pond thing at my orchestra now...i mean i get a lot more opportunities than i ever would at the more "prestigious" youth orchestra in MD</p>

<p>sorry...this is long.. i just have a lot on my mind right now!</p>

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<p>Tulane would be better for getting you out of the “shy” mold. If you take the safer school like you said, you will fall back into your safety shell of your friends and not experience things you might have if you went far away.
Just my 2 cents.</p>

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<p>asseenontv - First of all, great name. Second, third, fourth and fifth:</p>

<p>It is really hard to know how someone will react when away from home for the first time (I mean really away, like college). Most typical is that you will be homesick for the first couple of weeks and think you cannot stand it, then less so the next few weeks, and by the end of the first semester it is good to be home, but you cannot wait to get back to your new friends and the freedom that college offers.</p>

<p>As far as travel costs, I assume you fly out of BWI (Baltimore airport). Southwest flies from there to New Orleans pretty cheaply, so hopefully you can afford that. As far as getting your stuff there, again hopefully your parents can drive you the first time and manage to get it all there. Then you can store a lot of stuff for the summers and just bring home what you really need, like instruments. You might find someone that can drive you also.</p>

<p>I would hope you would thrive at Tulane. Since you are in the Honors program (my D is starting this fall in the Honors program also) you can choose Butler as your first choice for dorms (that is the Honors dorm) and find lots of people to bond with. I promise there will be others feeling just like you. There will also be others like my D who have gone away for weeks at a time and can help you through it. In fact my D and I have talked about this kind of thing, and one of her essays for college was how she helped kids at the “creative learning” camp she went to every summer that felt as you do, and therefore how she could help people just like you when she got to Tulane. So you will have resources.</p>

<p>Tulane’s Public Health program is one of the top programs in the country. You would be wise to take advantage of it. And music is always important at Tulane. I was very involved in music when I was there, although that was long enough ago that people would probably call those antique instruments. Anyway, I am quite sure you would find chamber groups to suit your desires.</p>

<p>It is understandable that you have a lot on your mind. It is even understandable that you find the prospect of going to a school so far from home intimidating, even paralyzing. But most of the time it not only turns out fine, it even becomes a life changing choice for the better. Private message me if you want to talk about this further.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the responses. I am just very worried about going so far away, because I really have had no experience away from home, except for like a week at lacrosse camp, and a week in Europe during a school trip.</p>

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<p>My S sounds much like you in temperament–not one to put himself in a new situation on purpose unless surrounded by his small group of close friends. H & I were both a bit surprised when he chose Tulane over his state school (again similar to your situation, only about an hour away from home).</p>

<p>Something he said after he made his decision has stayed with me. He said that going to the state school would be like 4 more years of high school. And he felt that since the majority of students come from OOS at Tulane, most would be attending without friends, alone, just as he would. It appealed to him that so many of the students are from somewhere else. </p>

<p>It turned out to be true. While I can’t say it’s been perfect, there’s no doubt that he has grown tremendously, he has never been sorry that he chose Tulane (and he started the semester of Katrina!), and loves the diversity of the city, his friends (from virtually all over the country), and the campus. We had expected him to make the safe choice. He didn’t. And grew because of it.</p>

<p>JMHO. Best of luck with your decision, by the way. You will get an excellent education at both schools. That being said, it is true that the Tulane Public Health School is highly thought of–my H is in that line of work and notes that many folks he’s worked with who’ve impressed him have come from their program (he knows mostly graduate level or MDs though).</p>

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<p>Curiouser’s post reminded me that I did not comment on the OP’s statement that Tulane was not as “diverse”. I guess it depends on what you mean by diverse. Tulane says that they have a higher percentage of their student body come from 500 miles or more away than any other school (I hope I got that right), so geographically at least it is diverse. I imagine in terms of minority groups you are assuredly correct that it won’t be as diverse as a state school, but then I would be surprised if any of the private schools (except for traditionally black colleges of course) were. Well, I guess in the sense they are almost all African-American they are not diverse either. Anyway, I digress. I can certainly see where that might be important to some, so only you can place the proper weighting on that factor.</p>

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<p>A couple of smaller points about travel.</p>

<p>We live in Maryland and we use Southwest a lot, flying out of BWI. You can indeed get low fares to New Orleans on Southwest. We were looking at it just last night and saw fares for $72 each way. Of course, you have to plan, and buy, well in advance to get those kinds of fares, but Tulane has already posted it 2009 - 2010 academic calendar so planning ahead should not be a problem.</p>

<p>The whole family (4 of us, on Southwest, but you could do this with 2, 3, whatever) traveled by air to drop off my son at college. Each of us carried a full size suitcase, all of which were filled with his stuff. We left one with him for spring break and such. The others were slightly different sizes so we put one inside the other, and then another inside those, and checked just the one large suitcase containing the others for the trip home. (It was a short trip of only a couple of days so we were able to pack our own clothes in carry-on bags.)</p>

<p>Just a thought.</p>

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<p>AsSeen - Kudos on the UserName.</p>

<p>I won’t pretend to know what’s the right decision for you. So I’ll fall back on a number of impersonal banalities:

  • Better Social Life: Tulane
  • Better College Town: NOLA
  • Higher admissions standards: Tulane
  • Harder to get in: Tulane
  • Smaller classes: Tulane
  • Community Service Requirement: Tulane
  • More personal: Tulane
  • More OOS students: Tulane
  • Streetcar availability: NOLA
  • Beignet availability: NOLA
  • Better music scene: NOLA
  • Appropriate to wear shorts in January: Tulane</p>

<p>Perhaps none of the above appeals to you. So here’s one last thought: If you choose Tulane and don’t like it you can always transfer to UMD after freshman year.</p>

<p>Good luck with your decision.</p>

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<p>Back on the diversity issue: at one point, S was in a suite that included 8 guys.
2 were Jewish, one Muslim, one African American, 1 Indian, a Catholic and a partridge in a pear tree…just to give you an idea :slight_smile:
They were from the Northeast, the South and Southeast, and in the Middle too.<br>
His experience, after attending his state school for his “Katrina” semester, was that his state school was much more homogenous. YMMV.</p>

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<p>Tulane is very diverse with 75% of the university coming from more than 500 miles a way. What the geographic diversity creates is a situation where everyone is new to the area and thus is in the same boat. That will help with meeting people as will living in the dorms. I think it’s always a good idea to go away to school unless cost is limiting. Here it might be. I am not sure about your family’s finances, but travel is almost a non-issue cost. If both UMD and Tulane cost the same with Tulane being farther away, then it should be factored in but $7k a year is way more than any travel costs will be. I think the total difference would be, at most, $8k a year when you factor in travel and tuition, ect. That’s including shipping music and sports equipment down to New Orleans. I think Tulane is the better choice if you want to develop and grow (if you don’t think you’ll branch out at UMD.) You will also find it hard to beat Tulane’s School of Public Health.</p>

<p>I actually met with the Dean of the School of Public health about two months ago for an interview about a finance position there. He is extremely friendly. That sort of thing tends to trickle down from the top and thus I’ll bet everyone at the school tries to be as friendly as possible. Tulane’s School of Public Health was actually the first school of public health in the entire country. Best of Luck. And if you do end up at UMD, make an effort to push yourself into joining clubs and that sort of thing. I know that helped me a lot in college.</p>

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<p>And just to push Southwest a bit more, there is no charge for the first 2 pieces of luggage at the time of this post, not do they nickel and dime you for things like aisle seats, peanuts, etc. They do charge for liquor, but not for soft drinks. So the fare + tax is really all there is.</p>

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<p>thanks for all the responses.</p>

<p>i think it’s just recently hitting me that i will be leaving my family and friends realllly soon.</p>

<p>and i am still a little worried about Tulane’s party/drinking scene?</p>

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<p>I thought about sending this to you in a PM, but I think it might be useful for others also.</p>

<p>When I was at Tulane, I saw 4 basic types of situations. I am sure there are others, but I think these were the most dominent.</p>

<p>Category #1: Kids that came to Tulane to party and met all their goals in this regard. Some were able to still do well, others found themselves out of school by the end of the first semester in some cases, the end of freshman year in others. Almost none of them were there to excel in school, it was good enough for them just to get by. I would say this is a small segment of any given class.</p>

<p>Category #2: Those that really don’t party/drink at all, and are there to just study and are focused at being at the top of the class so they can go to Harvard Law, Yale Med, whatever. Many of these kids also get involved in other non-party activities, such as music groups, community service activities (beyond what Tulane requires), etc. These are also a relatively small segment.</p>

<p>Category #3: Kids that come to school from fairly sheltered home lives (I don’t mean that as perjoratively as it might sound, just mean they haven’t really been on their own much). I saw a fair number of these students go completely crazy with their first taste of freesom and personal responsibility, and they completely crashed and burned. While these are probably the smallest number of all, they were also the most extreme cases. they inevitably ended up transferring after a semester or year to go to school back home. Just to be clear, I am not saying all kids that fit this profile went crazy, not by any means. More of them managed to move into the next category I am going to describe, or decided to follow the path of just studying and getting involved in other activities besides partying/drinking. But it is a cautionary tale that I think if one is aware of going in, it can be more easily avoided.</p>

<p>Category #4: By far the biggest, probably 90% of the students, those people that did a nice job of balancing their academic life with their social life. To use a most tired cliche, they “worked hard, played hard”, but hard in this case doesn’t mean to excess in either category, especially play. Naturally Tulane gets more attention for the party scene because it is in New Orleans, and I won’t deny that it gets a somewhat higher percentage of Category 1 students that decide to come because of that reputation, which makes it somewhat self-perpetuating. But that is still a small percentage of the population that really parties to such excess that it seriously affects the tone of campus life and academics. You read reports on here of students that visit Tulane and see kids coming into class hung over on Fridays, especially. Again, sure that happens (as it does at other schools) but because kids are looking for it based on Tulane’s rep, they notice it more. I have talked to 10 kids that visited Tulane this year to check it out (my D naturally being one) and only one said they saw anything really obvious in class, and even that was a non-event as the kid just kind of dozed off in the back of the room and then no one paid attention and the class was fine.</p>

<p>As someone else also pointed out on here, as Tulane keeps getting higher and higher quality admits (and this year appears to be no exception, it will be an outstanding class stats wise), the excessive drinking/partying gets to be less, because these students are serious about their future. Again, I want to be clear on context here. Every school has parties all the time, be it Duke, Northwestern, Wash U, and so on and so forth. Tulane will always have their share also, and that’s a good thing. It is just up to you to have the discipline to balance it all.</p>

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<p>this is random…</p>

<p>but how do i print things? do i need to bring a printer all the way down to tulane?</p>

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<p>I just got back from Dest. Tulane and there is an impressive Kinkos-like center (maybe there’s more than one) on campus for printing items, etc.</p>

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<p>asseenontv - Does that mean you have decided on Tulane?</p>

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<p>oh cool
im gonna sound stupid, but where do college ids get money from? are there jobs?</p>

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<p>lol not yet…im still waiting for some word on UMD’s music school
but um THE BENEVOLENT SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF ASSORTED TOM FOOLERY AND OTHER SORTS OF PECULIAR AND OTHERWISE ABSURD AND BAFFLING NONSENSE (also known by our most premier acronym, THE TULANE JUGGLING CLUB) has totally caught my eye.</p>

<p>but my mom keeps on making really great food to make me come back to maryland.</p>

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<p>There seem to be plenty of jobs, both on and off campus. For example, my dad and I went to a restaurant in the French Q., Red Fish Grill (excellent, by the way), and four staff were Tulane students. A front desk clerk at our hotel near campus went to Tulane. I saw students working in the admission office and bookstore, etc. on campus.</p>

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<p>Just to add to c3606, I also had Tulane students as waitpersons at restaurants such as Emeril’s, which is pretty expensive and so the tips tend to be very good. Those jobs are the most prized, of course, but I think there are opportunities to be had for the determined individual.</p>