Plan Of Study - Grambling State University: Fill & Download for Free

An interesting question, Anthony. Are you thinking about continuing your education ? By your stat pages of questions, you are asking about quite a few places - from Newark to Oakland.As to best university in Louisiana, the preliminary problem is, what do you mean by best ? Best in what way ? Best for undergraduate studies ? Best for graduate studies ? Best for professional studies ? Best for what programs - liberal arts, social sciences, sciences, engineering, architecture ? Medicine or law ? Makes answering difficult.And location might matter a great deal. There are several universities in New Orleans - a marvel of a city. You might well find going to school in New Orleans a big attraction. There are schools in Baton Rouge, the state Capitol - you might like this a lot. Or you might find being in smaller cities or pretty rural places attractive - Louisiana has those places, too. Lafayette is a very nice place, and I know several people who loved Thibodeaux.The main contenders would be Louisiana State University (and Agricultural and Mechanical College) and Tulane University.For liberal arts, I would say Tulane, though LSU is not far off. In many ways, though, Loyola University is awfully good, and the place has a wonderful music department. Folks from Loyola's Communications program seem to do quite well.For hard sciences and engineering, I would have to say LSU, simply on the basis of resources. Tulane just does not have the stuff and places to do much advanced reasearch in many areas. Undergraduate science students, though, might find Tulane a better and more rewarding place, and Tulane's biology programs are first rate. Neither place is going to be so great for nuclear physics, and neither is known for astronomy or cosmology. I am told that Louisiana Tech is quite good at very practical engineering, but I have no real knowledge about this; still, the few folks I know who are Tech graduates are quite bright and well prepared and do nicely.Now, back for more answer.Graduate schools follow mostly the same pattern as for undergraduate programs. Still, Tulane does rather focus on city stuff and South Louisiana, and LSU has a wider geographical scope, and looks at different types of studies. The choice between the two schools is not one of quality, but between concentrations.Oh, yes, for programs in agriculture, and plants and food-stuffs, and acquaculture, LSU as the A&M of Louisiana wins hands down. I wonder about Louisiana Tech, but don't really know; I would think that University of Louisiana at Lafayette and McNeese State over in Lake Charles (whatever it is called now) would both be good at a lot of this, too.For architecture, tough to say. I have met a number of bright and very good architects from both LSU and Tulane, and, ya know, they tend to design very different types of buildings, and they tend to have very different sets of interests. I am not a very good judge of architecture, though, as I still like Beaux Artes buildings better than corporate glass boxes.For medicine, Tulane and LSU are more or less the same, and LSU has a medical school in Shreveport, too - and if you are from Louisiana, LSU is way more affordable.As to law schools, I have a JD from Loyola and. Master of Civil Law from Tulane, so I have some first hand knowledge of these two law schools - though from longer ago than I like to think about. The instruction at both schools is very similar, and both have some international flavor. Louisiana has a civil law system, which is not quite like other states; it is not so different, either, as the civil code is about family law, propert and obligations, including tort law and contracts. But commercial law and criminal law and the public law, of the organization of the state and local government, are pretty much the same as in other states. Louisiana civil procedure is historically the basis for the modern civil procedures of most every state; the code pleading system, usually noted as beginning with New York's Field Code, is actually a lift from the Louisiana Code of Practice.Both Tulane and Loyola teach both the civil law curriculum and a common law curriculum. Both have international students, and both emphasize admiralty law - look where New Orleans is, and you will see why these happen.The big difference is in the student bodies: the students are very comparable, but the bottom 10% of the class at Loyola is simply not there at Tulane. And Tulane law students tend to have much better off parents than Loyola students do.LSU law school is quite a good place, too, but I do not think it teaches a common law program. Southern University law school has, or had, the same limitation of being civil law only. These may have changed, but I don't think so, though I have not thought about it in years.There are more universities than these in Louisiana. The smaller state schools all sort of grew as places where folks from their areas could go without the expense of moving to New Orleans or Baton Rouge. They each have some very good programs, and other good ones. I really don't know. The University of New Orleans grew from an LSU campus, and is much the same as the regional schools. It has the qualities and defects of many public commuter colleges, and has never seemed to me very focused on academic excellence - but this may just be me being ignorant. I did know some folks in the UNO city planning program who I respect a great deal, so a closer look at certain programs might be worthwhile.And there are historically black universities, such as Southern and Grambling State. These are socially important places, and are likely more or less the same as the other regional schools, though my impression has been they have more remedial classes than other schools - which is a good thing for their historical student population. Lots of very bright folks don't have a good preparation for university level work, simply because their secondary schools were not so very good. I experienced exactly the baleful effects of this myself.But there are also historically black private universities, too. Dillard and Xavier are both church related, and have their specific strengths. Xavier is really well known for preparing students for medical schools, and its graduates do really well at being admitted to and graduating from medical schools across the country. Dillard had a core of excellent folks in sociology and urban studies, so I would think those are still strengths.Tulane, though, has the best commencement and graduations - more lively and fun than you would think. Where else would you see Dr John and the Dalai Lama togather, sitting on the same piano bench with music pouring out ? And the indoor fireworks are pretty amazing, too; and the marching jazz bands are not the ordinary Pomp and Circumstance.