Personal Narrative: My Visit To Tulane

I visited Tulane in December of 2016. The day was cold and dreary and gray and wet, and I was exhausted after our six hour schlep from my town of Denton and a mildly boring tour through Rice University.

Tulane had been on my radar since the first wave of colleges began to court me. It stood out as a very good school in a very good location, with some interesting degree plans and quite a bit of spunk. I was intrigued. But once I stepped foot onto the campus and saw this massive tree dripping with Mardi Gras beads, I was enamored.

In particular, what really stood out to me was how warm the campus was on such a raw day. The staff treated me as one of their own, the tour guides seemed to know the school like the back of their hands and could

seemingly answer any question I could fathom, and smaller things like the little house built for Cow Cat all were immensely inviting and familial.

What really stuck with me was the initial presentation, when an alumni recounted his first day at Tulane, where his new roommate was astonished because he “had never met a real life Jew before”. I laughed pretty hard, as I could relate to that - I moved to Texas from Long Island, and within a couple of weeks of attending my new school, a boy asked me if I was “Hanukkian”, because he had heard that I celebrate Hanukkah.

The city of New Orleans was a blast, as well - there seemed to be so much to do, and the city was filled to the brim with culture and the arts, with the aura of raw history seeping from the walls of every building I passed. And entwined into this city was the legacy of Tulane - waiters and waitresses that I mentioned the school to had nothing but praise, the cashier at a Subway lovingly recounting how he had a full ride to the school on a sports scholarship until he hurt his leg, and the bellhop at my hotel reminisced on his days as a student, urging me to attend, firm in the fact that it would not be a decision I would regret.

It all won me over, one hundred percent. Tulane seems like a place where I could be my best self, somewhere where I could receive a great education and make some precious memories. If it would have me, I would be honored to be a part of its family.