<p>All things being relatively equal, go with less expense.</p>
<p>If college athletics are important, you’ll never get that experience back. Ties to college teams are made at the undergrad level and are a lot of fun to retain through out your life as an alumni. You can always go to schools without good sports for grad school, where there won’t be as much time or interest in it among your peers at that point anyway. But it is always fun to be able to cheer for your school no matter where you are in life.</p>
<p>Honestly, the reputation of Tulane is negligible, or nonexistent, over Pitt, and it won’t mean a thing if you apply to any graduate programs. This year in US News, Tulane is #50, Pitt is number 58. The differences in the metrics that separate them are minute. There are other rankings that have Pitt higher. In the [Times</a> Higher Education world rankings](<a href=“http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/top-400.html]Times”>World University Rankings 2011-12 | Times Higher Education (THE)) out of London (which is actually more familiar to the rest of the world outside the US), Pitt is 59th in the World and Tulane is 201st.</p>
<p>Pittsburgh has a decent music scene, and although it can’t compare to NOLA, it is still a major city. Pitt itself does host one of the best annual [jazz</a> seminars](<a href=“http://www.pitt.edu/~pittjazz/seminar.html]jazz”>http://www.pitt.edu/~pittjazz/seminar.html) in the country (assuming Jazz is your thing if you are interested in NOLA). And yes, Pitt is more urban, but it is also adjacent to one of the [largest</a> urban parks](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schenley_Park]largest”>Schenley Park - Wikipedia) in the country, so it is easy to escape that urban feel few for a few hours. Also being adjacent to another major university is a plus for music and other events, etc, as is being close to a lot of music venues.</p>
<p>Tulane and Pitt are both excellent schools and there is really no bad choice here. But with things being relatively equal, like I said, I’d take the $24,000 in savings over the four years of your college.</p>