Considering that New Orleans enjoys an average temperature of 70 degrees, students can enjoy year-round outdoor activities in a city famous for its food, music and cultural festival. Lake Pontchatrain is within the city limits and provides facilities for water sports.

Loyola University's red-brick, Tudor-Gothic buildings overlook Audubon Park and Zoo. Loyola's 20-acre main campus and 4-acre Broadway campus are located in the historic uptown area of New Orleans and are hubs of student activity. The University's residence halls, equipped with computer labs, kitchen, laundry, and study facilities, are home to 40 percent of the undergraduate students. The Joseph A. Danna Center, the student center, houses five food venues, including the remodeled Orleans Room, Pizza Hut, N'Awlins Poboys, Smoothie King, and a gourmet coffee shop. Also found in the Danna Center are an art gallery, travel agency, hair salon, concierge desk, and post office.

Tulane University is in a historic New Orleans residential area adjacent to a 440-acre park. One of the only remaining streetcar lines in the country clatters by the campus connecting students with downtown. While the 110-acre campus maintains a traditional collegiate atmosphere with Gothic stone and red brick amid blooming azaleas and lawns that are green year-round, new buildings are going up at the rate of one a year. Recent additions have included a state-of-the-art student recreation center, a center for engineering and biotechnology, a law school building, and a fine arts complex, with a new residence hall and a new science facility. Tulane University in New Orleans is known nationally and internationally for its teaching and research. At Tulane a student can get an international education in a European city without leaving America.

The University of New Orleans is an urban university established in 1956 as a part of the Louisiana State University System. UNO is a distinguished member of the Urban 13, an association of the nation's top urban universities. Located on the southern shore of Lake Pontchartrain, only 15 minutes from the French Quarter, UNO occupies a 195-acre campus in one of the finest and safest residential areas of the city. The campus is easily accessible to historic plantations, the Aquarium of the Americas, the Superdome, and Audubon Park Zoo. Renowned for its Creole and Cajun cuisine, Mardi Gras, and the Jazz and Heritage Festival, New Orleans is a cosmopolitan port city that offers everything. World-class entertainers, sports events, the symphony, opera, and theater are enjoyed year round. The city's semitropical climate and thousands of acres of scenic public parks allow year-round outdoor activities. Since opening, the University has graduated over 43,000 alumni. UNO derives its strength from its urban setting and enhances the economic, social, and cultural life of New Orleans through its numerous research programs, community outreach programs, and special cooperative agreements. The university's economic impact on the community was $271.5 million last year and continues to grow. UNO has forged a partnership with New Orleans and Louisiana that anticipates the educational needs of the region into the 21st century.