Is Tufts underrated?
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Anonymous
| I went to Tufts years ago. I loved it, as did most of my friends. I can't speak about it now, but I chose it over an Ivy. I thought the location was ideal- close enough to a city when you wanted to get away, but on a campus outside of the city so it felt collegiate. |
Anonymous
Your ratings are about as good as your use of possessives. |
Anonymous
Sure you must have a DC at W&M . W&M is a BU maybe BC type of school. It is not prestigious/top tier like the other schools (sans Tufts) are typically typecasted as. |
Anonymous
DH went to Georgetown and he thinks our DC's experience at W&M is comparable to his at GU. And it's a whole lot less expensive. |
Anonymous
| My dtr is at Tufts now. She chose it for engineering because their program is close to 50% women. I found a study by Cornell where they were actually trying to replicate Tuft’s success. Tons of engineering opportunities nearby for internships and career. She has a job offer that stemmed from her (virtual) internship last summer. Her roomie was a music major. With the School of Fine Arts, there is so much diversity on campus with BA and BS. The school has been THE BEST with their Covid response. They tested every other day at peak. I’d say it is under-rated here in the DMV, but not elsewhere. Here (we’re in VA) people seem to focus more on the VA schools due to so many in state options. She considered Northeastern, BU, MIT and Carnegie Mellon. It was the perfect fit for her all around. |
Anonymous
I don't have a child at any of these colleges. But IMO (and experience, in my capacity on hiring committee of my firm) W&M has always been as well regarded as Tufts - and I think the comparison the poster makes is a good one since they are both medium sized colleges with some LAC-ish features and an academically intense student body and small sports emphasis. In recent years, Tufts has become more competitive for admissions - likely there are a number of reasons behind that, a major one being its location. But the simple fact that the admit rate is lower for Tufts than W&M doesn't make Tufts a better college, academically or holistically. |
Anonymous
| Academically I don't think it's any better than BC or UVA. Also, it's kind of drab looking and not very fun. I would say it's overrated. |
Anonymous
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W&M is a very good school, and as a Tufts parent who checked out W&M, would agree that they are comparable schools. We also checked out BC and it too is very good. It really comes down to preferences and priorities. An excellent education can be obtained at any of them. Of course, only Tufts has engineering (in-house), though BC is starting up an engineering program.
I certainly wouldn't say the Tufts campus is a dump. It's quite attractive and the view of Boston from the top of the library is striking. That said, the BC campus is stunning. It's certainly better maintained and better appointed than the Tufts campus. Of the three schools, I found the W&M campus to be the most charming, FWTW! This said, as noted in an earlier post, students admitted to both Tufts and BC seem to choose Tufts by a statistically significant margin, https://www.parchment.com/c/college/tools/college-cross-admit-comparison.php?compare=Tufts+University&with=Boston+College whereas those admitted to both Tufts and W&M don't exhibit a statistically significant preference for one over the other, which is not too surprising, given that they are similar in "character", https://www.parchment.com/c/college/tools/college-cross-admit-comparison.php?compare=Tufts+University&with=College+of+William+and+Mary |
Anonymous
PP here, sorry, instead of "a dump" I should have quoted "drab looking" |
Anonymous
The Tufts campus isn't bad. But many of the New England campuses don't look their best in particular during periods of Winter and Spring. |
Anonymous
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I say it’s valued about correctly. It is a nice medium size, location is good (sure, I’d rather be a little closer in if I wanted an urban environment but it’s close enough), academics are strong and it has solid grad and job placements. Actually thinking about it, it’s almost a victim of its own success — so close yet so far removed from the truly elite. That’s where the chip-on-shoulder vibe comes from.
That said, I definitely wouldn’t pay anything close to sticker for it. I don’t see the value, especially if one has access to a strong in-state flagship or another option with good merit aid even if further down USNWR. |
Anonymous
| No |
Anonymous
W&M maintains as 65/35 split in resident/nonresident undergrad population. In-state tuition is $17k. I bet a lot of the people who get into both Tufts and W&M and choose W&M are Virginia residents. W&M’s out of state tuition is over $40k. You should choose Tufts over it at that price. |
Anonymous
| I am baffled by this thread. We know three children at Tufts currently and so far 5 planning on attending as freshman this fall, 4 ED1 & 1 ED2. When combining the groups, there is an even split between coming from public vs private HS and all are /were in the top 10% of their grade. That’s all I need to know to be confident it’s an excellent school. |
Anonymous
+ our experience as well. We’ve been impressed by the talent of the kids and dedication of the families choosing Tufts. |