TU Thrive at Tulane: Navigating the Hidden Curriculum

Catalog description

For many students, the transition to college represents a significant academic, social, and personal shift, one that can feel simultaneously promising and disorienting. Both Tulane University and the City of New Orleans may initially appear complex or difficult to navigate, particularly for students who have had limited exposure to higher education environments. Yet this transition also offers a critical opportunity for growth, self-definition, and the capacity to make informed choices. This course examines the transition to college not simply as a process of acclimation, but as an encounter with the formal and informal systems that shape student success. Central to the course is an exploration of the hidden curriculum, or the unspoken norms, expectations, and institutional logics that influence how students learn to engage academic spaces, access resources, build relationships, and make meaning of their experiences. Rather than positioning these dynamics as obstacles to be decoded or mastered, the course invites students to reflect on how they are already navigating these expectations in their daily academic and campus lives, often without explicit guidance.