<p>I recently have been admitted to UT Austin (from CA) as a journalism major and Tulane (with 20k/year scholarship). I'm leaning towards the longhorns however have a few questions/concerns.</p>
<p>While I would really like top academics, I also am looking for the full college experience from school spirit to greek life. Therefore, to me, UT seems like the perfect fit - Tulane seems to lack a little on the spirit side, however I hear NO is great.</p>
<p>I am little concerned about the size of UT not so much socially but academically; however, all my friends at UT say they love their classes. Tulane obviously will have smaller classes, less TAs, etc.</p>
<p>At both schools their seems to be academic inclination from the students, as to get to UT as a Texan you have to be in the very top of your class and at Tulane, students seem very smart and motivated.</p>
<p>I also feel that at UT, I will have a more diverse experience. This may seem out of line as there will be TONS of Texans, but I hear Tulane is a lot of northeastern kids who come from the same sort of socioeconomic background.</p>
<p>I’m from ATX so I feel completely able to reply to this.</p>
<p>Half my high school went to UT Austin or Texas A&M. IT is an AWESOME school, no doubt, but it is SO big. I got into UT Plan II, which is an amazing honors program but turned it down without much thought. I have no regrets. My friends at UT are very happy, but a lot of them have said the size is an issue.</p>
<p>I <3 being at Tulane. I know most of the profs in my major department. I am already doing research. The size of Tulane is perfect. I’m always seeing people I know, but I’m also always meeting new people. My friends at UT have found it hard to feel like part of a community, whereas I have had no problems in that respect at Tulane.</p>
<p>Tulane has a decent amount of school spirit. A lot of the sports/school spirit experiences are what you make of them.</p>
<p>I actually think Tulane would probably be just as diverse as UT. UT is mostly kids from Texas. Tulane has much more geographic diversity. I have met kids from almost every state plus lots of international students!!</p>
<p>Just PM if you have any more specific questions. If I were going back, I would def choose Tulane a million times over again. I <3 it here!! :)</p>
<p>Tulane is about 1/3 from the Northeast+Mid-Atlantic states, 1/3 from the South, and 1/3 from the Midwest and West. Some people say it just seems like it is majority Northeast because New Yorkers are so famous for being, ummm, outgoing. LOL. But clearly on a percentage basis Tulane is far more geographically diverse.</p>
<p>100% agree with tulane14, school spirit takes on different forms. This was discussed recently on another thread, but to summarize pretty much everyone agreed that Tulane has a ton of school spirit, it just isn’t as obvious on TV (so to speak) as at a school that has top-level sports teams. It manifests itself more in all the Tulane clothing everyone wears all the time and the way they talk about the school and pitch in for all sorts of projects all the time. If you are really wanting top football and basketball teams, then you have to go with Texas. If you are looking for more of an overall and unique experience and a more tightly knit class, I would say Tulane.</p>
<p>Greek life is strong at Tulane, about 30% of the students. You are right about New Orleans being great. So is Austin, but I would take NOLA in a heartbeat (I have been to Austin about a dozen times, usually for a couple days at a time, so I know it fairly well).</p>
<p>Bottom line, both schools are indeed great, but also very different. You just have to decide which type of experience you are looking for, which is of course why you asked the questions. I hope this helped a little.</p>
<p>I live near Austin and my son is graduating from Tulane. He wasn’t interested in UT Austin at all, liked the relatively small size and personal attention from the profs at Tulane. He also loves NOLA and has no regrets about Tulane vs another school.
If football prowess is important to you, then obviously UT is your choice - Tulane has a pretty terrible football team, but is really good in baseball. My son really likes the profs in his major (philosophy) and has received a lot of encouragement and help from them. He plans to go on to law school and his first choice is Tulane, so that should tell you something.</p>
<p>I really suggest you visit. I live in the city of New Orleans and the kids at Tulane certainly have school spirit… They might not have a top 25 football team to rally around, but that spirit is definitely there…</p>
<p>First point - Tulane is very geographical diverse, if not ethnically diverse. If your concern is an overwhelming concentration of northeastern students with a particular socioeconomic background, don’t worry because this isn’t the case. </p>
<p>Second point - Tulane will provide you will the full college experience. Greek life, crazy life, drama life, wild life, concert life, club life, bar life, night life, town life; rather the only thing that could remotely limit you is a distinct lack of natural attractions in Louisiana. A group hiking trip up a mountain often takes more effort than it would in other areas of the states.</p>
<p>Third point - There’s plenty of school spirit. Most Tulane students really love Tulane and will expressly say so when you ask them on visit. (I did, and 8/8 liked or loved it). Many of them will be seen sporting Tulane gear around campus and the alumni keep in close contact. Obviously, we don’t have a star athletic team to rally around, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t school spirit.</p>
<p>LamTran - I understood what you meant about the lack of “natural attractions”, but I would point out that Louisiana doesn’t have the nickname “Sportsman Paradise” for nothing. The attractions are just rather unique, like the bayous. It all depends on what you are into. You are completely right of course that mountain climbing is not exactly around the corner, lol. I don’t think they will move the Iditarod to New Orleans anytime soon, either.</p>
<p>And let’s not forget the “natural attraction” of some of the most beautiful beaches in the world: two hours to Gulf Shores, three to three and a half hours to the Panhandle.</p>
<p>Seconding kreativekat’s comment. The family of a friend of my D’s have a beach house around Biloxi I think it was? Anyway, somewhere over there and they went for a long weekend during fall break. It was apparently fabulous, including having the GPS take them 15 miles out of their way for what turned out to be a quarter mile cutover to the highway, lol.</p>