Tell me about Northern Louisiana

[Sonshine]

My son is looking at a college in northern Louisiana. Please forgive me for being narrow minded, but my view of Louisiana is that very fun people come from there but that it is crazy cajun hard drinking country. I am also not a big fan of casinos. Driving into Shreveport, the casinos are prominent in the landscape. However, heading east on I 20 after that, the northern part of Louisiana looked much more outwardly moral than my area of the country - no strip joints everywhere, etc. Can someone fill me in please?

[mcconnellboys]

You're thinking of south Louisiana.... North is, in general, more straight-laced as you mentioned....

[athena1277]

North LA is more like being in Arkansas. I grew up near New Orleans. N LA is a different kind of place.

[GWOB]

South and North LA are essentially two different states. Most people from the southern part of LA consider those from north of Alexandria Yankees. North LA tends to be very conservative and Protestant, whereas South LA is mainly Catholic.

 

What school are you considering?

[katilac]

North Louisiana is not actually part of Louisiana, :D. No, as others have said, there is a vast difference between north and south Louisiana. South Lousiana has the French Quarter; North Louisiana has meetings of the John Birch Society. They still have bars and strip clubs, although I've never been to a city that doesn't (city, not town). And you can party hard at any college.

 

What college? Centenary?

[katilac]

South and North LA are essentially two different states. Most people from the southern part of LA consider those from north of Alexandria Yankees. North LA tends to be very conservative and Protestant, whereas South LA is mainly Catholic.

 

Extremely accurate. Have you lived here?

[i.love.lucy]

My dh is from Shreveport. I went to college at Louisiana Tech, that's where we met. I am originally from California.

 

I had never in my life encountered racism the way I did when I got there. Truly...awful. On BOTH sides. I STILL don't like to go back and visit there because of it.

 

My school, Tech, was okay, as colleges tend to have a more diverse community. I loved college there as it was small, felt like a private school. Good times.

 

I'd personally never want to live in N LA if I could help it. The landscape is lovely, but the economy is very bad, politics very bad, and the racism is something I just could never get used to. I'm certain it exists here, but there it was just so pervasive.

[mcconnellboys]

Precisely, just like Memphis is really part of Mississippi....and northern Kentucky is really part of Cincinnati.... and I'm sure it's the same in many other states, too, LOL....

 

In my opinion, the best place to live in Louisiana is in the heart of Cajun' country, around Lafayette....They have a great little college there, too....

[UnPrairieMuffin]

I grew up in South LA (Baton Rouge), and went to Louisiana Tech for college. My freshman year was culture shock--I went from an area heavily influenced by Catholicism to a much more Protestant area (there are a lot of large Methodist and Baptist/Bible Churches in Ruston). I am/was Presbyterian, so I was a minority on the evangelical spectrum. That said, I adored N. LA. I really found a great niche at Tech. I thought my professors really cared about my development as a student, and I wasn't a nameless student.

 

I agree with the OP's accessment of Shreveport. Seeing that huge horseshoe casino is not the best thing to welcome you to the city, although the area does have its merits. Sometimes it's hard not to judge a city by its interstate.

 

I live in East Texas and the culture is very similar to Ruston. Small college town with a big variety of people. I enjoy it here and I'm thankful that I had the North LA experience. I hope some of my kids go to Louisiana Tech, but mine are a little too young to make that choice now.

 

OP--what does your son want to major in?