Thursday, September 22, 2011

Pre NACAC - New Orleans and Tulane!


I made it to New Orleans! I'm here to attend the National NACAC conference, a time for high school counselors and college admissions counselors to convene for lots of great educational sessions, professional development, and networking. The conference starts later today, but first I want to tell you about my final college visit for the week: Tulane University.

I took a cab straight from the airport to Tulane University, a medium size private selective university in New Orleans. Thank you to Tulane for the wonderful Jazz lunch that you provided for counselors, it was a welcome sight after my morning of traveling! Tulane students performed some rousing musical pieces- what better way to compliment lunch than with a trombone, tuba, saxophone, and trumpet?

The campus was managable in size and had a combination of both historic New Orleans architecture and new modern buildings with steel and glass. Best fun fact: students travel farther to attend Tulane than any other school in the nation. Over 75% of students travel more than 1,000 miles to get to there. It may be located in the South, but New Yorkers will be in good, and regionally diverse, company. Tulane is the only school in the nation with a public service requirement and their outreach efforts post-Katrina continue to this day. Considering its size, the fact that it has Division I NCAA sports, and its academic profile there are few other schools in the nation that can offer the same type of experience.

For students interested in attending Tulane, it is strongly encourage to apply during the Early Action or Single Choice Early Action (this means you can't have filed any other Early round applications) rounds. There is no application fee and the deadline is November 15. Tulane students report a high quality of life and a high satisfaction with their school. During the short presentation of the school, my favorite quote was "There are no bad colleges, only bad fits." From what I could see, the students I observed appear to have found a fit that is just right. Thank you to Tulane for hosting the event and allowing me to get my first taste of New Orleans.