From May 27 to May 31, our office will be closed.  May 27, Tulane University is closed in observance of Memorial Day.  May 28- May 31, the entire OISS team will be attending the NAFSA Annual Conference.  As the most important annual event for international educators, this conference will provide our team with vital updates and ideas that will help us to better serve our international community.  As a bonus, we’re using this opportunity to update the carpet at 6901 Willow. 

If you have any timely requests, such as an OPT, CPT, or Academic Training application or a program extension, please be sure to get complete application to your OISS advisor no later than Friday, May 17 to allow for 3 to 5 business days for processing.  If not, we may not be able to complete your request before the conference. 

During this time, we’ll be monitoring our email for true immigration emergencies, but please be sure to expect a delay in our response.  We’ll still be there if you really need us. 

Thank you for your cooperation,

The OISS Team

Office of International Students & Scholars
Europe

 

“​​When I came to the U.S., I realized that some concepts that I thought to be constant, I realized that they're actually variables. Very basic things like how people communicate and what is considered as disrespectful. Like, even just holding the doors… it's so common here. In Turkey, nobody would do that! I'm from Izmir, which is a coastal town near the Aegean Sea. It's the third biggest city in Turkey. When I came to Tulane to start as an undergraduate, this was my first time coming into the U.S. I applied and accepted my offer without having seen the country that the school is in! So it was a big culture shock to me. Freshman year was tough. I was trying to adapt. I was much more reserved. Even though I’d speak to people, I wasn't feeling that they were actually understanding what I meant to say. Like the same words had a different meaning in my mind than they were understanding in our conversations. It was just a constant feeling of being not understood by the people around me. But then things slowly evolved. In the tough times, I mostly concentrated on classes. I took more and more classes and I pushed the academic side of things and along the way I built good relationships with my friends, too. So right now I'm living with my roommates from freshman year. And all of those feelings of being not understood have just disappeared.”