Tulane Honors or UCLA? Please give advice!

idad
Fri, 06 Apr 2012 21:29:21 +0000

The honors program is, as FC stated just that a program. It may not appeal to everyone. S2 elected not to be in the honors program since he had no intention of living in an honors dorm and did not feel it gave him that much of an advantage. He too was accepted at other more highly ranked schools, but has not regretted his decision it for a moment. His mother and I are happy with it as well, and since we are paying for it, that may be just as important. Let me say why.

S2 has always been a very socially successful kid who did well in school and always scored well on standardized tests. He was a varsity athlete (Lacrosse), an internationally successful martial artist competitor, and an excellent musician who performed at Lincoln Center in NY. He never seemed to stay up to 3 AM studying, and he always had dates or a girlfriend. In high school he just seemed to sail through life and everything came easy. The only time I saw him academically excited, however, was when he spent a very intensive few weeks taking a course at the University of Chicago between his sophomore ad junior years. The course was extraordinarily demanding. Class went from 9 AM until 4 PM daily, and exams were a minimum of 3 hours long. He loved it. I had never seen him so excited about academics. When he returned to high school though, he picked up where he left off, successful, but largely uninterested. From time-to-time he would comment that he wished high school was more like Chicago. At Tulane, that spark kindled at Chicago, has emerged again. He is engaged in his work and readily goes beyond it. He not only studies the course material, but asks professors for related books and articles not required. He calls to discuss ideas and arguments with me, and as fully taken advantage of the smaller class sizes and the faculty. Next fall, he will be studying abroad and put a great deal of thought into the courses he will be taking. He is approaching it as a real learning opportunity and not as a holiday. He is still the same easy going, very kind and thoughtful kid he has always been. He remains fun loving, and is in a fraternity. But this is balanced by an intellectual curiosity that makes us happily write those checks every year. We could not have asked for more. Perhaps this would have happened elsewhere, but we know it did happen at Tulane, and we are grateful. Tulane or NOLA (or the honors program) may not be right for everyone, but it is perfect for others.