As Tulane University plans to reopen its doors for the spring semester, the roughly 40 students Tufts admitted after Hurricane Katrina are planning to return to their New Orleans school.
The students - admitted in the two weeks after the hurricane made landfall on Aug. 29 - were at Tufts as guest students. They were not admitted as transfer students, and they are required to return to Tulane.
"They're Tulane students," Dean of Students Bruce Reitman said. "They came here for a semester. Tulane expects them to come back."
Guest students from Tulane said they appreciated their time at Tufts but were looking forward to returning to their school. But they did have some concerns.
"I have no idea where we are going to live," Tulane senior Jennifer Near, a guest student at Tufts, said. Near's apartment in New Orleans was completely gutted by the flooding.
Near, who lives off-campus with a Tufts student and another Tulane student, visited New Orleans last weekend. She hoped to salvage some of her belongings, but was greeted by three feet of water in her apartment.
"I wanted to get some closure but everything had already been tossed," she said.
Tulane's Web site has a countdown of the days left until classes begin on Jan. 7, but Near said a great deal remains to be done before things can return to normal.
"The city and the campus is still far from being the livable place we have gotten used to," she said.
Tulane freshman Alex Chan, another guest student, said that while he has enjoyed his time at Tufts, he wants to go to New Orleans. "I've loved it here, but as a freshman, I was really excited to live down there," he said.
Chan lives in nearby Hingham, Mass. He had been looking forward to "going away to school" - one of the primary reasons he chose Tulane.
Another Tulane freshman, Johanna Miller, said the order to evacuate the city came just four hours after she moved into her Tulane dorm. "All my stuff is still in New Orleans," she said. "I just turned around and left with my parents."
Miller, who grew up in Belmont, Mass. and attended the Middlesex boarding school in Concord, said she was excited about getting out of New England. "I've always wanted to be somewhere different, somewhere really fun," she said. "I got really pumped about going to Tulane."
After only six weeks at Tufts, though, some of the Tulane guest students are struggling with how to leave their new friends. "It is going to be hard to re-say goodbye since I just did that in high school," Miller said.
Miller said she will try to transfer to Tufts only if she does not like Tulane when she gets to campus.
To be admitted to Tufts, the guest students signed a contract that did not give them preferential treatment if they want to apply to transfer. "I really like it here at Tufts," Miller said. "I'm trying not to think about leaving [Tufts] because it is going to be really hard."
Near said she has made some good friends at Tufts but has kept in mind that she is here temporarily. "You know you are leaving so you try not to make too many connections," she said.
Miller said her roommate at Tulane has decided not to return and will remain at the University of California Los Angeles.
According the Harvard Crimson, Harvard will not accept transfer applications from visiting Tulane students because Tulane's president discouraged transfers.
Reitman said he was not aware of any transfer requests from Tulane students.
"I've found that the freshmen really want to go back and experience New Orleans," Near said. "But some seniors would be just fine if they could stay here."
Only one credit away from graduating, Near needs to return to Tulane because she cannot complete that course anywhere else. She plans to spend winter break working for Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans before classes resume at Tulane.
