Anonymous wrote:BU's campus is peculiar because of it length. Hard to have a cohesive campus when its one long road. We didn't see Tufts as being run down. Obviously not like our Virginia schools, but not run down.

Anonymous wrote:Tufts is also a “Goldilocks” school for many kids…not too small, not too big. I know that finding schools in the 3000-8000 student range was a priority for my kids. BC, BU, and NU were all too big.

Anonymous wrote:The kids and culture at BU, BC, Tufts, NE, and Brandeis are NOT like the kids and culture at Vanderbilt, Emory, Georgetown, or WUSTL.

Anonymous wrote:The kids and culture at BU, BC, Tufts, NE, and Brandeis are NOT like the kids and culture at Vanderbilt, Emory, Georgetown, or WUSTL.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thing that puzzles me in this whole thread: Why is the general consensus that the (excellent) Boston-area schools are Harvard, MIT, BU, BC, Tufts, and Northeastern? Is there a reason no one has mentioned Brandeis?

Please hold your fire--I am not a Brandeis booster. In fact I know very little about the school. I was just wondering!

Brandeis is a great school but it isn’t in Boston and it isn’t on the T. I think you would have to take the commuter rail to get into the city right?

I agree with this. Visited with both my kids and the main thing that felt different was how remote Brandeis felt- it's in Waltham, about 15-20 miles outside of Boston and there is nothing there. You can take commuter train to get to Boston and I think the University may run shuttles too but it definitely does feel isolated.

Brandeis is very pretty and is a great school. We were impressed by the student tour guide. However, it does have a religious vibe with a lot of discussion/references to religion/interfaith dialogues than at other places. I imagine it is a big draw for some kids (not for mine).

Anonymous wrote:The kids and culture at BU, BC, Tufts, NE, and Brandeis are NOT like the kids and culture at Vanderbilt, Emory, Georgetown, or WUSTL.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thing that puzzles me in this whole thread: Why is the general consensus that the (excellent) Boston-area schools are Harvard, MIT, BU, BC, Tufts, and Northeastern? Is there a reason no one has mentioned Brandeis?

Please hold your fire--I am not a Brandeis booster. In fact I know very little about the school. I was just wondering!

Brandeis is a great school but it isn’t in Boston and it isn’t on the T. I think you would have to take the commuter rail to get into the city right?

Anonymous wrote:One thing that puzzles me in this whole thread: Why is the general consensus that the (excellent) Boston-area schools are Harvard, MIT, BU, BC, Tufts, and Northeastern? Is there a reason no one has mentioned Brandeis?

Please hold your fire--I am not a Brandeis booster. In fact I know very little about the school. I was just wondering!

Anonymous wrote:One thing that puzzles me in this whole thread: Why is the general consensus that the (excellent) Boston-area schools are Harvard, MIT, BU, BC, Tufts, and Northeastern? Is there a reason no one has mentioned Brandeis?

Please hold your fire--I am not a Brandeis booster. In fact I know very little about the school. I was just wondering!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always thought highly of Tufts and still do. Love Boston as a college town. One thing I noticed on our tour was how rundown many of the buildings and campus appeared compared to other Boston schools, especially BC. BC is also far more accessible to T to get into town and more social (but admittedly, not everyone is a social butterfly).

OP - why does this matter? Visit and if DC likes it, apply. If not, don't.

Boston sucks as a college town

The only reason Boston has this reputation is because of the number of schools that started up in Boston and and continue to operate

But as a college town it has huge drawbacks:

- not fun
- bad weather during school year
- earth shatteringly expensive (rent, living expenses etc)
- poor public transportation
- no happy hour
- not social

The only positive thing about Boston is there is a large number of college students in the area and it is safe

But on almost every other metric, it is not college student friendly or a “great college town”

General public doesn't agree with your personal taste, so those Boston colleges are insanely popular with low acceptance rate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always thought highly of Tufts and still do. Love Boston as a college town. One thing I noticed on our tour was how rundown many of the buildings and campus appeared compared to other Boston schools, especially BC. BC is also far more accessible to T to get into town and more social (but admittedly, not everyone is a social butterfly).

OP - why does this matter? Visit and if DC likes it, apply. If not, don't.

Boston sucks as a college town

The only reason Boston has this reputation is because of the number of schools that started up in Boston and and continue to operate

But as a college town it has huge drawbacks:

- not fun
- bad weather during school year
- earth shatteringly expensive (rent, living expenses etc)
- poor public transportation
- no happy hour
- not social

The only positive thing about Boston is there is a large number of college students in the area and it is safe

But on almost every other metric, it is not college student friendly or a “great college town”

Anonymous wrote:I always thought highly of Tufts and still do. Love Boston as a college town. One thing I noticed on our tour was how rundown many of the buildings and campus appeared compared to other Boston schools, especially BC. BC is also far more accessible to T to get into town and more social (but admittedly, not everyone is a social butterfly).

OP - why does this matter? Visit and if DC likes it, apply. If not, don't.