Why don’t people respect Tufts more?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work in foreign policy and Fletcher grads are reliably the excellent, hardworking, intelligent hires. So maybe the people that matter (those that employ graduates) respect Tufts?

Who lands more ses and principal jobs in town?

Fletcher, sais, hks or sfs?

Even in this narrow space, tufts is below 4-6 schools

It’s full of try hard cogs/drones

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tufts has an increasing number of students each year applying ED so it is a lot of students first choice nowadays (same could be said for many other colleges- respected and disrespected ones, haha). I agree Tufts isn’t as respected as imo it “should” be on dcum, but having grown up in NY it is very well regarded there, so maybe some is geography? I tend to think of it lumped with Emory ad Wash U, but I realize both of those are ranked higher on USNWR than Tufts. I don’t understand why they are, but they are. At my kids’s W high schoo, the exact same caliber of students apply to all three (and yes all tend to be wealthy but that doesn’t mean they aren’t smart and well qualified).

Because they know they will be rejected by Ivies or other top schools. Obviously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tufts has an increasing number of students each year applying ED so it is a lot of students first choice nowadays (same could be said for many other colleges- respected and disrespected ones, haha). I agree Tufts isn’t as respected as imo it “should” be on dcum, but having grown up in NY it is very well regarded there, so maybe some is geography? I tend to think of it lumped with Emory ad Wash U, but I realize both of those are ranked higher on USNWR than Tufts. I don’t understand why they are, but they are. At my kids’s W high schoo, the exact same caliber of students apply to all three (and yes all tend to be wealthy but that doesn’t mean they aren’t smart and well qualified).

Because they know they will be rejected by Ivies or other top schools. Obviously.

DP. the snark. You are Not an ivy grad. Obviously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tufts is the equivalent of American University.
It is fine but does not stand out in any way.
It is kinda sorta in Boston/Cambridge but in a boring location.
Same as AU which is in DC but close to the edge of it.
Both have mediocre campuses.

AU student quality way lower

Probably the only difference is that AU hasn’t played the college rankings game like Tufts has

These Tufts people are shameless.

Yoeld Protection = Tufts Syndrome

This is ridiculous. Tufts students are MUCH higher caliber than those at AU. OP, you asked for this response with the question. It is not true at allthat people don't respect Tufts. People are just giving you what you wanted to hear.

[Anonymous]

I think the problem with Tufts is that it has no personality of its own.
It has a mediocre campus in a mediocre location with high level but somewhat mediocre students.
There is nothing unique about it. Some schools are known for a fun party vibe or an outstanding program (CS and Engineering at CMU for example) or a great location (UCLA). Tufts is just a solid school with nothing special about it. I would argue that AU has a better location and better access to internships on the hill/politics)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. Location is meh
2. Endowment per student is small (in the 200,000s, between Ohio Wesleyan and Agnes Scott - seehttps://www.reachhighscholars.org/college_endowments.html )
3. Full of greasy grimy pre -professional kids with no innate love of learning (same thing people hate about Penn and Hopkins)

I don’t dispute #1.

I don’t know about #2.

But I take issue with #3. Tufts has no undergrad schools other than arts and sciences (vast majority) and a small engineering school and even smaller fine arts school. It is hardly where pre-professional vibing students pick to attend. They pick schools with undergrad business at a minimum. Someone upthread brought up Emory and that is a great example of a school with a lot of pre-profession oriented students. Or colleges with large engineering programs, or other specific career oriented undergrad colleges like public policy. (Not that being profession-oriented is a bad thing anyway - some might say it is a large part of the point of the undergrad experience in fact. But Tufts still is liberal arts focused to me, although it is larger than your typical LAC. I think this is the heart of Tufts “problem” - it is much bigger than the other Nescac’s, so it can’t sell itself on small classes sizes and warm community. But it isn’t as pre-professional and research focused as uni’s like Emory or Wash U or Case Western. For some, Tufts is a great mix- but for many, it misses both marks.

[Anonymous]

Okay gang. I will say this: this Tufts thread strikes me as the among the uglier and least informed threads that i have read. Odd.

Let me begin by credentializing myself. I went to Tufts. Wife went to tufts. She went to Tufts grad school My two best friends went to Tufts. So did their wives. My brother and sister both went to Tufts and so did their spouses. Okay? So an informed point of view:

Reality:

1. It’s a beautiful campus on a hill that overlooks Boston. The subway (called the T) now stops at the Unviersity gates and is a 30 minute ride into Boston…closer to Cambridge.

2. Comparisons to American are off. The comps for Tufts have always been Emory, Wesleyan, Tulane, Wash U, Middlebury. A notch higher than Vassar. As a rankings matter it feels like it has sort of tread water where it was vs 20 years ago whereas its previous peers (like Vandy and NW) have surged ahead. When I attended Tufts, Northeastern was literally a place where you could witness drunken brawls in pools of vomit on the Boylston sidewalk on a nightly basis. NEU something else now but I’m punting on that topic.

3. The reference to “greasy” preprofessionals was seemingly written by an unpleasant human being. A lot of people emerge from the immigrant experience as “greasy professionals” because hard work and grit allow them to rise in a more meritocratic measure than other fields. Perhaps that poster is landed gentry! If so,.good for him/her. Tufts is unequivocally pre-professional. It doesn’t pump into consulting or banking or tech. It pumps into law school, medical school, dental school, veterinarian school. Tufts gets plenty of respect at all those places. Engineering is now more than 50% female, interestingly, it was probably 10% at best that not too long ago

4. So yes while its liberal arts the undergraduate experience for most is heavily weighted towards the professions. And on the pre med side that is heavily Jewish, Asian and Indian. The IR gang (which is strong) is more of the government minded folks and ultimately ends up at law school or government service. And then law school.

5. Tufts has always been idiotically and painfully woke. So much of what happens on campus is utterly painful and cringey. I guess not that different from Yale banning offensive Halloween outfits but still deeply annoying.

6. Tufts has always been a school chock full of Brown rejects. They have engineered around that by heavily favoring EDs. In the past 3 years (and i know this because they just did some teach in for alums) the applicant pool has increased a full 50% and acceptance rates have dropped accordingly.

Thems my thoughts

[Anonymous]

Are you the poster whose son goes to Stuy?

[Anonymous]

Tell Jamie Dimon that Tufts doesn’t feed into banking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay gang. I will say this: this Tufts thread strikes me as the among the uglier and least informed threads that i have read. Odd.

Let me begin by credentializing myself. I went to Tufts. Wife went to tufts. She went to Tufts grad school My two best friends went to Tufts. So did their wives. My brother and sister both went to Tufts and so did their spouses. Okay? So an informed point of view:

Reality:

1. It’s a beautiful campus on a hill that overlooks Boston. The subway (called the T) now stops at the Unviersity gates and is a 30 minute ride into Boston…closer to Cambridge.

2. Comparisons to American are off. The comps for Tufts have always been Emory, Wesleyan, Tulane, Wash U, Middlebury. A notch higher than Vassar. As a rankings matter it feels like it has sort of tread water where it was vs 20 years ago whereas its previous peers (like Vandy and NW) have surged ahead. When I attended Tufts, Northeastern was literally a place where you could witness drunken brawls in pools of vomit on the Boylston sidewalk on a nightly basis. NEU something else now but I’m punting on that topic.

3. The reference to “greasy” preprofessionals was seemingly written by an unpleasant human being. A lot of people emerge from the immigrant experience as “greasy professionals” because hard work and grit allow them to rise in a more meritocratic measure than other fields. Perhaps that poster is landed gentry! If so,.good for him/her. Tufts is unequivocally pre-professional. It doesn’t pump into consulting or banking or tech. It pumps into law school, medical school, dental school, veterinarian school. Tufts gets plenty of respect at all those places. Engineering is now more than 50% female, interestingly, it was probably 10% at best that not too long ago

4. So yes while its liberal arts the undergraduate experience for most is heavily weighted towards the professions. And on the pre med side that is heavily Jewish, Asian and Indian. The IR gang (which is strong) is more of the government minded folks and ultimately ends up at law school or government service. And then law school.

5. Tufts has always been idiotically and painfully woke. So much of what happens on campus is utterly painful and cringey. I guess not that different from Yale banning offensive Halloween outfits but still deeply annoying.

6. Tufts has always been a school chock full of Brown rejects. They have engineered around that by heavily favoring EDs. In the past 3 years (and i know this because they just did some teach in for alums) the applicant pool has increased a full 50% and acceptance rates have dropped accordingly.

Thems my thoughts

Brutal Week!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you the poster whose son goes to Stuy?

Brutal week dad is back, baby!!

[Anonymous]

Are people actually comparing tufts (with a 14 percent acceptance rate) with American - a 40 percent acceptance rate. Not same ballpark

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are people actually comparing tufts (with a 14 percent acceptance rate) with American - a 40 percent acceptance rate. Not same ballpark

Compare stats not acceptance rates. The latter are extremely gameable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are people actually comparing tufts (with a 14 percent acceptance rate) with American - a 40 percent acceptance rate. Not same ballpark

Compare stats not acceptance rates. The latter are extremely gameable.

This exactly. Tufts is perhaps a tad better than AU or perhaps not.
Many people would put them in the same league

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay gang. I will say this: this Tufts thread strikes me as the among the uglier and least informed threads that i have read. Odd.

Let me begin by credentializing myself. I went to Tufts. Wife went to tufts. She went to Tufts grad school My two best friends went to Tufts. So did their wives. My brother and sister both went to Tufts and so did their spouses. Okay? So an informed point of view:

Reality:

1. It’s a beautiful campus on a hill that overlooks Boston. The subway (called the T) now stops at the Unviersity gates and is a 30 minute ride into Boston…closer to Cambridge.

2. Comparisons to American are off. The comps for Tufts have always been Emory, Wesleyan, Tulane, Wash U, Middlebury. A notch higher than Vassar. As a rankings matter it feels like it has sort of tread water where it was vs 20 years ago whereas its previous peers (like Vandy and NW) have surged ahead. When I attended Tufts, Northeastern was literally a place where you could witness drunken brawls in pools of vomit on the Boylston sidewalk on a nightly basis. NEU something else now but I’m punting on that topic.

3. The reference to “greasy” preprofessionals was seemingly written by an unpleasant human being. A lot of people emerge from the immigrant experience as “greasy professionals” because hard work and grit allow them to rise in a more meritocratic measure than other fields. Perhaps that poster is landed gentry! If so,.good for him/her. Tufts is unequivocally pre-professional. It doesn’t pump into consulting or banking or tech. It pumps into law school, medical school, dental school, veterinarian school. Tufts gets plenty of respect at all those places. Engineering is now more than 50% female, interestingly, it was probably 10% at best that not too long ago

4. So yes while its liberal arts the undergraduate experience for most is heavily weighted towards the professions. And on the pre med side that is heavily Jewish, Asian and Indian. The IR gang (which is strong) is more of the government minded folks and ultimately ends up at law school or government service. And then law school.

5. Tufts has always been idiotically and painfully woke. So much of what happens on campus is utterly painful and cringey. I guess not that different from Yale banning offensive Halloween outfits but still deeply annoying.

6. Tufts has always been a school chock full of Brown rejects. They have engineered around that by heavily favoring EDs. In the past 3 years (and i know this because they just did some teach in for alums) the applicant pool has increased a full 50% and acceptance rates have dropped accordingly.

Thems my thoughts

You did good buddy! Go Tufts!