Tulane Honors or UCLA? Please give advice!

OptimalDV
Sun, 08 Apr 2012 18:30:12 +0000

I’m a class of 15 students as well, considering transfer to some schools up north. I have to agree with shermani on several of the points he made. My perspective is as a premed student majoring in Economics.

Good things first: I love the city, the food, the weather, and the people. There really is no substitute for these three things outside of New Orleans. I’ve had so many great experiences traveling downtown, having a hand grenade or two, and lounging around Cafe DuMonde eating beignets. It’s also great to have so many delicious southern food places near campus (and yes, Bruff is still horrible). The one thing I disagree with shermani on is the people: people here are mostly really nice and welcoming, regardless of where you are from. Then again, I am from Westchester, but I’ve never had a “clique” with any group from back home coming to Tulane.

So in those respects, socially, Tulane is the perfect fit for me. But I wish to transfer, so that’s not the only consideration obviously. As a student, my teachers have been very hit or miss. My math professor did not speak intelligible english, nor did my chem teacher. But I’ve also had several good teachers, particularly my writing teacher last semester. Scheduling is also an absolute pain (they will rearrange teachers at the last minute without notifying you), especially as a freshman. The academic advisers, even for the honors program, are likewise incompetent.

The academics are my biggest complaint though. I have BREEZED through 19+ credits semesters (with both honors and premed courses). The chemistry class averages are abysmal, but as shermani mentioned, not many of the students really put forth an effort worthy of complaint. In other classes, I have witnessed a few dumbfounded by what I thought were elementary mathematics (this would be Calc II, not an intro. class): distributive property, limits, scientific notation, just to name a few. In my financial accounting class, 2 students were confused by the fact that multiplying a value by .05 is the equivalent of taking 5% of that value; ridiculous. These are the exceptions, but I cannot honestly say that the typical Tulane student is really all that capable academically.

I will likely transfer to either Cornell, BC, UVa, Dartmouth, Columbia, or Villanova, where I hopefully will be challenged as a student without taking over 20 credits. In summary: socially tulane is great, but academically it’s a no-go for me.