UT Austin v Tulane

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tulane University
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<p>My son is deciding between UT Austin and Tulane. He loves both schools for different reasons. He is accepted for BME at UT and at Tulane is undecided. He is not strongly committed to BME. So due to that fact, one of the big draws for Tulane is the flexibility of changing majors and the more LAC feeling. Changing engineering majors within UT-Cockrell is very competitive and changing out of engineering altogether to McCombs (for example) would be difficult but not impossible.<br>
My thought is that if he decides to stick with BME, it should be UT as Cockrell has a very highly ranked engineering school.
We have had two great campus visits at Tulane and came away very interested.
Son did receive Founders Scholarship so our COA would be about $10k more at Tulane than UT Austin.</p>

<p>That said, we are from TX and the instinct to attend UT is very compelling.<br>
Austin and NOLA are both great places so that washes.
In the end, it comes to small-medium private u very big public u.</p>

<p>Thoughts? comments?</p>

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<p>I think you pretty much have the parameters nailed down. I would only add that if he is the kind of student that, should he stick with BME, he would be likely to go somewhere for a Master’s Degree or Ph.D., then he will do as well coming out of Tulane as out of UT, assuming he does well in his coursework both places. In fact, since it is usually a good idea to go to a different school for grad school so as to get new perspectives, UT would make a great grad school. Of course, UT makes a great grad school for many disciplines. But the point is he would have everything available to him depending on his grades, etc. MIT, Johns Hopkins, wherever and whatever.</p>

<p>The only other thing I could recommend checking into is how many of the BME majors at UT really do meaningful research as undergrads. I know at Tulane this is very possible, with many students even getting authorship credit on published research papers. Also there is research going on in BME at both the uptown campus and the med school downtown, so there are even more opportunities than in some other fields. But that could be similar at UT, I just don’t know. In general, places with strong grad programs like UT tend not to have as much space for or ability to give attention to an undergrad, but I cannot say that about UT specifically like I can some other programs.</p>

<p>I wish there were a magic factor to make the decision easier, but I think he will just have to weigh all these factors, maybe do a little more research on what I just mentioned, and go with his gut. One other thing I might suggest is having a phone call with the Chair of the BME dept. if he didn’t already meet him during a visit.</p>

<p>Donald P. Gaver</p>

<p>Alden J. ‘Doc’ Laborde Professor and Department Chair of Biomedical Engineering</p>

<p>Email: <a href=“mailto:dpg@tulane.edu”>dpg@tulane.edu</a>
Phone: (504) 865-5150</p>

<p>Cal Tech undergrad, Northwestern Ph.D. so probably a pretty smart guy. I am sure he can talk to your son about how Tulane students have done in terms of jobs and grad school. Maybe that will help.</p>

<p>Let us know!</p>

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<p>FWIW, my son is about to graduate from Tulane with a major in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and a minor in Psychology. The engineering program is growing back in strength and breadth, but is still small, so your son would get a lot of individual attention. My son has had excellent summer internships and had 3 job offers in October of this year. He and all his graduating classmates have either job offers/plans or are off to grad school. My s started as a chemistry/history major and did all his premed reqs by soph year before he decided to change gears and go the engineering route. So yes, its quite doable to change majors at Tulane. That said, Austin is a great place, though HUGE. My other s went to Rice, and they joked that the entire undergrad population of Rice could fit one one of UT’s freshman dorms (I forget the name of the dorm but I aqm sure you know). Tough decision. Good luck!</p>

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<p>Lots of college kids change majors and lots of aspiring engineers wind up studying something else. I’d think about which school is a fit and worth paying for if your kid is studying something else. </p>

<p>Based on that thinking, we picked Tulane for our kid over two schools with higher ranked engineering programs (one an expensive private and the other our home state U). If our kid does stick with engineering, Tulane will probably be just fine. Kid could go somewhere else for grad school, or do the 3-2 program, or just transfer to a killer engineering school. But Tulane made the most sense by far in the case where engineering washed out.</p>

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<p>True dat, northwesty. In fact, I saw a study a couple years ago that said 2/3 of undergraduates change their major either from what they thought it would be when they entered college or from what they first declared. That is why I have said numerous times what you are saying as well, go for overall fit rather than how good a school is considered in one major or another. Besides, reputation for how good a school is in a major is often based on their graduate program. which more often than not has little to do with how good they are for teaching undergrads in that major. Otherwise, liberal arts colleges would have no reason to exist.</p>

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<p>Funny you should say that about the LACs, Fallenchemist. There was just a summit on tis topic reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education [Conference</a> considers the connection between liberal arts and careers | Inside Higher Ed](<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/04/12/conference-considers-connection-between-liberal-arts-and-careers]Conference”>Conference considers the connection between liberal arts and careers)</p>

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<p>We are also Texas residents and the declaring a major if you were intending to study engineering was one of the things that caused my son the most frustration while applying. Son knew he was interested in engineering early, but was completely unsure of the field, there were several that drew his interest. Son was at a very small private high school with lots of guidance counselor interaction and his counselor told him he had to apply to either UT Austin or A&M College Station, it wasn’t a choice (I’m sure she really wouldn’t made him do it). He was sure he did not want either of those 2 schools, I think mostly because so many kids choose them. He was not a top 8% (2007) admit, there were 3 from his school, and his GC told me personally this was one of most competitive years in terms of GPA that the school had ever had, with many kids right up at the very top (school doesn’t rank, but for the top % deal in Texas, its my understanding that has to be figured, if not on the transcript, in the GC stuff). </p>

<p>Son choose A&M (I would have picked Austin over College Station any day), over UT, if you live in Texas, you know there are very strong feelings on both sides, but for engineering, truthfully I don’t think you can go wrong with either one, and they’re both too big and rigid for my taste. I’m not sure why he made the choice he did, his best friend ended up at UT, starting filling out the app and got to the point he had to choose which engineering, and stopped. He agonized for days, but school’s unofficial yet official deadline for seniors to be done is start of Christmas break, so he put down mechanical engineering, reasoning it was the broadest branch, therefore probably had several overlapping requirements which might make it possible to switch. </p>

<p>He was notified within a couple of weeks that he had been admitted to the mechanical engineering program, (though he didn’t report to the GC for several more weeks and thoroughly annoyed those who were still waiting on an A&M decision, they didn’t understand why he didn’t just jump in and take it), received an early FA read which included a fairly large scholarship with additional requirements that needed a somewhat quick response, so we scheduled a visit to A&M. To my surprise son liked it much more than I figured he would, (the main portion seemed like a large city to me, but to be fair, once in the engineering quad there was a much smaller, more intimate feel) so we seriously started researching the program and found it was nearly impossible to switch engineering majors, in theory and on paper it could be done, but in the real world, only a handful managed it a year. Now it was fairly easy to switch out of engineering into most, not all, other fields. He was very uneasy about this, because he was really, really unsure of the area he wanted. Then he was admitted to Tulane & SMU, got wonderful scholarships to both, neither locked him into an area and took A&M off the table and we went from there. </p>

<p>I don’t know why UT and A&M require this, I can’t believe there isn’t enough common ground to allow for an undeclared engineering major. I guess it’s because they are trying to avoid a situation where 80% of the freshman class chose BME or EE or CE, etc… sophomore year. At least your son has a possible interest area, my son’s problem was too many interest areas, but still you’re right, what if you son hates it. Son has several friends from school and scouts at UT Austin, in engineering and from what he’s hearing from some of them, they wish they had made a different choice, but are going to have to stick it out because switching majors still staying in engineering is no easier there than it would have been at A&M. </p>

<p>For sure have your son look at all the courses required for BME, in as much detail as he can find, and get some names of current students, not just the top ones, but the average ones, and see if he can get a feel for how many love the major vs how many are managing but wishing they picked another one. Realistically there is probably not a huge problem with sticking it out (as long as you can pass the classes) in some engineering fields over another, a lot of the skills are transferable and you can do electives to accommodate additional interests, but BME might be one of those fields where it could be a problem. </p>

<p>Bottom line though, when you’re comparing two schools such as UT and Tulane, I think there is where the fit really kicks in. Son is having a completely different experience at Tulane than his friends at UT Austin are having, I’m not saying 1 is better than the other, just completely different and all else being equal, only your son can decide which experience suits him better and unfortunately without experiencing both, it’s a hard decision. I sometimes think we ask too much of our 17 & 18 year old kids, to know what they want to do and where they want to do it. It worked out for my boy, but could have gone the other way.</p>