UGA vs. Tulane for Business

[Anonymous]

DC has been accepted into Tulane EA and yesterday into UGA (OOS). We were leaning towards Tulane as a top choice until the UGA acceptance, which was a surprise since DC's SAT was on the lower side. Major would probably be Management at Tulane and Management and/or Real Estate at UGA.

DC is a social extravert, so is definitely looking for a school with lots of social opportunities, greek life, etc, so I feel DC would love either school. They seem to be pretty comparable in terms of internships, job outcomes, and post-grad salaries but some data points swing wildly one way or the other on this point. I've done my homework on Tulane and feel good about it, even though there's some (valid) skepticism around it. One negative I see with UGA is that they aim to enroll 80% GA residents, which makes sense given it's a state flagship, so a tiny bit of concern about being with the majority of students from the local area. This seems like it would likely extend to internships and post-grad jobs / life and do not think DC would want to remain in GA post-grad.

Undergrad business rankings, for what they are worth:
Niche - UGA ranked #5 for Business, and Tulane #107 (wildly different)
Poets & Quants for undergrads - UGA ranked #64 and Tulane #31
US News - UGA at #21 and Tulane at #47

I feel like I know a lot about Tulane since we've had time to research, but now we're getting down to crunch time and UGA wasn't even really on the radar so I feel like we are flying blind. We will definitely be visiting within a few weeks. Any feedback or insight would be appreciated

[Anonymous]

Tulane great social scene, geographic diversity of the kids. It’s also a wealthy student population, ie better connections potentially especially for business.

[Anonymous]

Tulane is twice as expensive. The male female ratio is very skewed.

The settings are very different. Is there a preference?

Tulane is falling in overall rankings. UGA is rising.

[Anonymous]

Atlanta is probably a better place to do internships than NOLA. What does your kid want to do in the summers.

If your kid would not want to live in Georgia after graduation, I question why your student's two top choices are Southern schools.

[Anonymous]

OP here.

- I think the network and geographical diversity of kids from Tulane is better, and connections is a big factor for business major.

- Male/female ratio is not great at Tulane, agreed.

- We have not toured UGA so I can't comment on settings really. I hear it's a great campus and town though. We loved Tulane's campus and NOLA in general for college.

- I am not really concerned about NOLA as far as summer internships go. None of the Tulane students we know (a lot) ever worked in NOLA, mostly NYC and Boston and some California. No idea what my kid will want to do next summer, freshman internships are tough to predict and secure, but probably try and find something in a major city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tulane is twice as expensive. The male female ratio is very skewed.

The settings are very different. Is there a preference?

Tulane is falling in overall rankings. UGA is rising.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Atlanta is probably a better place to do internships than NOLA. What does your kid want to do in the summers.

If your kid would not want to live in Georgia after graduation, I question why your student's two top choices are Southern schools.

Mine went to UGA/ Terry and had an internship in DC (along with many other UGA students living in DC for internships). Moved back to DC after grad for a job. Yes, many stay in Atl, but most of them are from Georgia anyway. Terry students had internships all over the country. I would ht base choice on internships near the school.

[Anonymous]

Tulane. The kids are happy and want to be there

[Anonymous]

If he wants to major in real estate, then Georgia or Wisconsin.

For management, personal preference.

I have substantial experience with both locations and cannot imagine why one would not want to live & work in Atlanta during one's twenties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tulane. The kids are happy and want to be there

Is it still a big party school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tulane. The kids are happy and want to be there

Is it still a big party school?

The biggest.

[Anonymous]

UGA hands down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Mine went to UGA/ Terry and had an internship in DC (along with many other UGA students living in DC for internships). Moved back to DC after grad for a job. Yes, many stay in Atl, but most of them are from Georgia anyway. Terry students had internships all over the country. I would ht base choice on internships near the school.

OP. Thank you for the input, very helpful! I agree that too much emphasis is placed on the geographic location of the school, students from Tulane aren't limited to NOLA any more than students from Duke are limited to Raleigh Durham or Vandy limited to Nashville. DC has never been to Georgia and I am only familiar with Atlanta just for occasional business trips and not for some time, so I'm really looking forward to visiting Athens. The real estate thing is kind of a "maybe" so probably we are comparing management majors at both. Thanks again for the helpful feedback!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Mine went to UGA/ Terry and had an internship in DC (along with many other UGA students living in DC for internships). Moved back to DC after grad for a job. Yes, many stay in Atl, but most of them are from Georgia anyway. Terry students had internships all over the country. I would ht base choice on internships near the school.

OP. Thank you for the input, very helpful! I agree that too much emphasis is placed on the geographic location of the school, students from Tulane aren't limited to NOLA any more than students from Duke are limited to Raleigh Durham or Vandy limited to Nashville. DC has never been to Georgia and I am only familiar with Atlanta just for occasional business trips and not for some time, so I'm really looking forward to visiting Athens. The real estate thing is kind of a "maybe" so probably we are comparing management majors at both. Thanks again for the helpful feedback!

PP. I mainly asked about the geography because you made some remarks about Georgia that made it seem not very interesting to you. But Atlanta is a very major corporate center. More significant than New Orleans.

Schools tend to have more influence in a geographic area around themselves. From what I've read on this board there seem to be a lot of ties between Tulane and DC. But to be honest, I've not encountered them. I guess I'm too much of a Northerner. I do hear lots about Atlanta. Northerners coming and going from there. So I'm a bit skeptical. Also Tulane seems insanely expensive. I'm on a scholarship committee for the high school PTA and one of the only times I've heard about Tulane in my real life was one senior girl headed there. She had the highest amount of unmet financial need of any applicant for the scholarship that I'd seen in six years. I assumed it was a family school because I saw no reason why to go into debt that much for the major she wanted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

PP. I mainly asked about the geography because you made some remarks about Georgia that made it seem not very interesting to you. But Atlanta is a very major corporate center. More significant than New Orleans.

Schools tend to have more influence in a geographic area around themselves. From what I've read on this board there seem to be a lot of ties between Tulane and DC. But to be honest, I've not encountered them. I guess I'm too much of a Northerner. I do hear lots about Atlanta. Northerners coming and going from there. So I'm a bit skeptical. Also Tulane seems insanely expensive. I'm on a scholarship committee for the high school PTA and one of the only times I've heard about Tulane in my real life was one senior girl headed there. She had the highest amount of unmet financial need of any applicant for the scholarship that I'd seen in six years. I assumed it was a family school because I saw no reason why to go into debt that much for the major she wanted.

I have some bias playing into my feelings about Atl due to some not-so-great experiences professionally as a female there so I’m trying to push that aside and evaluate objectively.

Certainly Atlanta offers tremendously more opportunity than NOLA, not just summer but also spring/fall internships, connections, clubs, etc. As a parent I want my student to be as self-sufficient as possible post-grad and the outcomes of Tulane business grads are a lot hazier than I’d like (Tulane only published limited data, and the last available year is 2020 that I can find). Anecdotally the students I know are doing well but a small handful isn’t representative enough for me.

My DC won’t need loans, tuition isn’t the #1 concern but UGA is SUBSTANTIALLY less than Tulane ($194k vs $353k) so of course it’s a consideration among all of the other variables.