Tulane University of Louisiana Top Questions

I find the academic atmosphere at Tulane to be a good balance of smart people who also value being social. I rarely meet a person who attends the school who I would categorize as unintelligent, and nearly everyone gets their schoolwork done with pride. I find the curves in the class to be difficult and everyone must work for their grades, good or bad.

There are a lot of good programs especially in the sciences and in business but also in liberal arts and fine arts (with growing programs in this field). Math here is difficult, not MIT difficult, but difficult. Language programs are good, especially French. Most of my professors have been nice and helpful, and you can definitely get a close relationship with your professor. They do care about undergraduate students!! Undergraduate research is available for almost all scientific fields. Classes are not overly competitive, except in the hard sciences. However, even there, other students are not trying to push you off the edge to advance themselves. Academic requirements make double-majoring easy if that is for you, and it's good for pre-med stuff, but a lot of the advisers are terrible, so you have to know how to keep up with your own stud.

English department is great. Teachers get better every year. Music department is dwarfed by the other programs at colleges in New Orleans, but the head of the department is changing, and the curriculum and majors are expanding rapidly (particularly in jazz), so the future bodes well for music at Tulane.

About half of the professors are very good, but the other half do not know how to teach. Many of the best professors seem unappreciated. Students seem to care more about the grades they make than about what they learn, so the academics are not generally held to a high standard.

The teachers here are brilliant, especially in the engineering department. They not only teach you the life applications outside of classrooms but the methods of learning. I have taken initiative to get to know my professors and taken a couple out to lunch on Tulane's generosity. You have to realize that they are human and desire to make new friends as well.

My professors know my name because I take pretty small classes. Professors with larger classes usually don't know people's names. My favorite class is Portuguese. It's taught by a Brazilian grad student, and there are only five of us in the class. Students usually don't have intellectual conversations outside of class. Students aren't very competitive. I love my major and department. Latin American Studies is a great group of people, and I feel very connected to it. I spend time with one professor in particular outside of class. I'm fine with Tulane's academic requirements except for service learning. Education here is aimed towards making money as easily as possible.

Academically, Tulane is mediocre. The only thing that maintain's Tulane's spot on the Top 50 is the Business School and some science programs. Your degree might have some weight, but don't expect to be impressed. Students take classes seriously to varying degrees. A lot of students drop out, and some never enjoy the nightlife. The key to success at Tulane is to find a balance in between getting all of your coursework done and having the time of your life. I'm a student in Biomedical Engineering. Being one of the stronger engineering programs it was kept during the cuts made after the hurricane. It has a very rigid curriculum and if you're an engineer your schedule is virtually predetermined every semester. A lot of my classmates are premedical students looking for a flashy major, but by the time you get to junior year everyone realizes how well this major really would prepare you for a career in research.

Make sure you take Calc or Stat in high school before taking it here -- otherwise there's a good chance you'll do pretty poorly in the classes. The best thing about academics here is that the classes are pretty small so it's easy for you to build a relationship with your professors. Most of my professors seem to really care about helping their students. I think a lot of professors take having hangovers into account while grading your work -- so that's chill.

Some majors have great classes and professors and others don't. Choose your major wisely. Classes are challenging but professors are available to meet with and the students really know how to work hard, party hard.

All the professors know me because I am one of only two Black students in my department (engineering). The odd thing is that some teachers constantly mix us up . . . Hmm, . . . anywho, the students are very competitive. Some classes are graded on a curve, which promotes this competition to be the best to ensure you get a better grade than your classmate. That has its good and mostly bad points; there's not an open learning environment. It becomes about who you know and who you don't. Outside of that, the quality of education is excellent. The teachers are experienced in their field and quite knowledgeable on a variety of subjects. The research and portfolios of the instructors are impressive to say the least. I do not spend time with my professors outside of class. I do not care to associate with those in my department because I have not had the best social and group experiences within my department.