Which is better for city access, Tulane or Rutgers?

Tulane has much better day-to-day city access. Its Uptown New Orleans campus is actually inside the city, with neighborhoods, restaurants, music venues, and parks immediately around students, so getting into urban life usually does not require a train ride or major planning. Rutgers is much closer to New York in a regional sense, but from campus, NYC is more of a separate trip than an extension of everyday student life.

At Tulane, students can leave campus and be in a distinctly urban environment right away. The university sits by Audubon Park and near Magazine Street, the St. Charles streetcar line, and other parts of New Orleans that students regularly use for food, internships, nightlife, and exploring. That makes the city feel woven into normal routines instead of just a weekend destination.

Rutgers, especially the New Brunswick campus most people mean when they say Rutgers, has access to a college town and a train connection to New York, but not the same immediate big-city feel. New Brunswick itself has restaurants, shops, and some city energy, yet it is still its own smaller environment. Getting to Manhattan is very doable by NJ Transit, but it usually takes enough time, cost, and coordination that most students are not treating New York like the block next to campus.

The practical difference is that Tulane gives you spontaneous city access, while Rutgers gives you periodic access to a much larger city. If what matters most is being able to step off campus and quickly be in a real urban setting without making it an outing, Tulane is the clearer pick.