Top Scholars Weekend -- April 2014

donnahead
Wed, 09 Apr 2014 23:19:58 +0000

My husband, DD and I were at Tulane for TSW last weekend as well. We saw no difference (or problem with) in conditions on camps since our first visit (October 2013). We were actually impressed with how well they had cleaned up Crawfest in 12 hours or so (maybe the still remaining port-a-potties gave some people the wrong idea?).

There are still a few minor and major (library addition) construction projects going on - but that’s a good sign of a healthy school. My daughter’s overnight host was a Honors student in Butler, there were 3 honors students on the Honors Program presentation panel, and we were surrounded by students invited to the Honors Program- I actually would have found some more non-Honors students refreshing!

Now, we are from the NW suburbs of Chicago, and are used to sharply contrasting neighborhoods, so when the streetcar broke down between Tulane and our hotel in the CBD and were “abandoned” under a highway viaduct that was inhabited by a small village of homeless people, we were right at home, but I’m not sure we will take that streetcar route again. That was our only negative experience in NOLA, and the friendly locals we met on the streetcar more than made up for it. Gotta love NOLA - and if you don’t, unless you are antisocial altogether, you are not going to love Tulane.

DD was just happy to see the Mardi Gras tree and campus cats were still there. We had a really great campus tour guide, and enjoyed it even tho it was our 3rd or 4th time thru. Still the only campus visit that fed us while serenading us with a full horn band- God bless those kids who got up early Sunday morning to play for us- it left a lasting impression on us both times we were there.

I have to say my daughter felt a bit ignored by her host - a freshman, who together with her roommate was hosting 3 girls. 3 girls on the floor of a butler double! I guess they took the visitors out with a large group of their friends and the visitors were lost in the crowd. Also- they took them for “real New Orleans food” - turned out to be rather ordinary calzone- anyone in Chicago knows better than to eat Italian food in the south or on the west coast. Fortunately we took DD to Ralph and Kacoo’s the night before.

I think in the future I will recommend against these overnight experiences- my sons in earlier years as well as friends of my DD this year all had lackluster experiences with overnights. I think they can be very misleading because kids are randomly thrown at other kids and that is just not how the actual social situation evolves. Luckily my DD is smart enough to realize this and shrugged it off. She is still very excited about Tulane. She met with an advisor and registered for 1 class (the Tides class which had limited space), and will finish online this week, armed with a list of suggestions from the advisor. She thought the process was very efficient and found the staff more helpful than that of her (very well funded) suburban high school. She didn’t complain about the computer she used so either she had a later model than others or she’s just low-maintenance.

I think so many colleges are marketing country club-like features to parents (um, I mean kids), that maybe in comparison, Tulane is not as shiny. My husband, DD and I all love historic architecture (our house was built in 1906), and really appreciated the older buildings on campus.

We were at LBC at 9:00 Monday morning and missed those kids with beer in paper bags! While I certainly would not have been impressed by that, if that’s the worst thing my daughter comes across at a Tulane, I will be both surprised and relieved.

I think it’s hard to manage expectations and keep much perspective at this point in the process. For a lot of us, this has been a long and intense process and almost any “decisive” visit will feel anticlimactic. DD committed in October, so we had our anticlimactic moment months ago. I don’t know how any college can live up to the hype of “the Right One” in the current college search climate.

Good luck to all still trying to choose - soooooo glad that is behind us (forever, since DD is our youngest ). May the force be with you and propel you in the right direction.