Tulane w/ 20k/year vs. NYU vs. USC spring semester admit. HELP!

SabrinaFairchild
Fri, 08 Apr 2011 23:35:12 +0000

@ nalalovessimba
Last year I was a spring admit at USC, and I decided to go to Tulane for a semester first. So hopefully I can help a bit :)

I also am a Creative Writing major at USC, and I’m minoring in Screenwriting and Performing Arts. Here are some thoughts about both schools:

Tulane:
The campus is incredibly beautiful. You won’t get homeless people (not that I have anything against homeless people) wandering around campus like you do sometimes at USC. Tulane is also in a really pretty neighborhood of New Orleans and is surrounded by pretty, historic houses. Also, it is really easy to get to downtown New Orleans and the French Quarter because the streetcar is right on St. Charles Ave.
New Orleans is definitely a really quirky, beautiful city. The people are incredibly friendly, the architecture is amazing, there are lots of things to do, and there is a lot of history there.

Social life at Tulane is what you make of it, but drinking is really important (this is New Orleans we’re talking about…). At Tulane there are some students who seem to go out every night and you do find some who seem to really be there just to party. That being said, there are also a lot of students who are smart and care about academics.

Academics: For some reason I picked classes at Tulane that I didn’t end up finding very interesting, and in my honors classes the other students (mostly other freshmen) thought they knew everything and were overly-opinionated. Often I just wished that they would all be quiet so that the professors, whom I was paying to hear talk and who knew what they were talking about, could lecture. I did have two classes (out of five) that I really liked. One of them was my TIDES, which is a required freshmen course that was a lot of fun but only met once per week for one hour.

Tulane definitely is not known AT ALL for screenwriting or film, whereas USC has the best film school in the world (not just in my opinion) and the screenwriting minor is a very good program.

Size: Class sizes were pretty small, which was nice. Tulane feels smaller than it actually is; I would see the same people over and over again around campus and at the cafeteria. It felt a little too much like high school at times.

Overall: Tulane is a very good school and I think that anyone could be happy there. I’m willing to give Tulane the benefit of the doubt and say that I just happened to pick classes that were boring… the campus is very pretty, if small, but I absolutely fell in love with the city of New Orleans. I could see myself living in NOLA someday again and even though I only lived there 4 months, I get homesick for it sometimes.

USC:
Campus: The campus is really beautiful and there are more places to eat around campus than at Tulane. The libraries are nicer at USC than at Tulane, and there are many more places to study than Tulane offers. Of course, the area surrounding USC is very poor and there is no where to shop/walk to like at Tulane. There is a shuttle to downtown LA on weekends, so it’s easy to go see a movie, concert, or basketball game. Overall, Tulane has a prettier campus in my opinion, because there are more flowers and there’s just a different atmosphere.
Unfortunately, there are some homeless people who wander around USC’s campus, and at the grocery store right by USC sometimes people will come up to me and ask for money. You can’t walk far off campus at USC - there’s no reason to because there isn’t anything to do. However, if you or a friend have a car, than there are TONS of things to do in L.A.
The beach is obviously a big plus if you can get there, there are lots of cool neighborhoods in the L.A. area to explore, lots of great shopping, etc.

Also, since I am really interested in the film business, L.A. is the place for that. USC’s film school is the best in the country, and there are TONS of industry professionals who come to speak at USC. I’ve met the director of Toy Story 3, the producer and director of House, Marco Bellochio (a celebrated Italian filmmaker) and two of the writers of Modern Family this semester.

Besides that there are lots of famous poets and authors who come to USC to speak; I’ve heard Billy Collins, W.S. Merwin, and Natasha Trethewey do poetry readings this semester. Next month, tons of authors are coming to USC for the LA Festival of Books which is held every year, and the Dalai Lama is also coming this semester. So USC attracts a lot of really cool speakers, more so (in my experience) than at Tulane.

My classes at USC have all been really good so far; I find all of them interesting, especially my film and English classes.

Overall, USC is a great school. I actually enjoy the spring admit thing now because I was assigned an apartment, so I have my own kitchen and bathroom (that I share with a roommate) and personally I find it much better than dorm life at Tulane. But it’s not for everyone; my roommate seems to be having a hard time with being a spring admit; some people benefit from living in dorms, especially if they’re not very independent.

Honestly, both are really good schools, so you have a tough choice to make. There are pros and cons to each, of course. But I do hope this gave you a bit more information. I know that it’s a really hard decision to make - I was sad to leave Tulane, but then I got to USC and loved it, too. I’m planning on staying at USC, but like I said, Tulane is great, too.