Anonymous wrote:It’s a very liberal school with vocal population of activist students. It used to have a sizable Jewish population (north of 20%) and was a good alternative for kids who were also looking at Brandeis. That has probably changed. Boston weather can be terrible if you are not from the NE, but the area is considered to be a desirable place attend college. Since they have won some DIII championships recently. So, you might see a slight uptick in school spirit. It has a number of cultural housing options and centers for different affinity groups. It has a decent engineering program and lots of kids major in international relations and study abroad. The campus is ok and people seem to get excited about things like dance groups, theater or acapella. It is very expensive but poor people can probably get 100% need-based aid. Not a great school for UMC kids who don’t have stats for lots of merit-based scholarship money. They might end up with a lot of student debt. The endowment used to be terrible. Something like only $160m in 1990. It’s around 1.9 billion now, but for comparison Notre Dame’s is 12bn, Emory’s is like 7 billion, Williams and Amherst are around 2.5 bn. More often you see people doing well or even really but not really elite or at the top of their field (law firm partner but not superstar), musician but not rockstar, key adviser to well-known politicians, but not the politician, very good doctor but not world renowned surgeon, accomplished author but not NY times best seller, Olympian but not a medal winner etc.

Tufts does NOT provide merit aid. "Financial aid for undergraduate students in the School of Arts & Sciences and School of Engineering is awarded entirely based on financial need."

It’s a very liberal school with vocal population of activist students. It used to have a sizable Jewish population (north of 20%) and was a good alternative for kids who were also looking at Brandeis. That has probably changed. Boston weather can be terrible if you are not from the NE, but the area is considered to be a desirable place attend college. Since they have won some DIII championships recently. So, you might see a slight uptick in school spirit. It has a number of cultural housing options and centers for different affinity groups. It has a decent engineering program and lots of kids major in international relations and study abroad. The campus is ok and people seem to get excited about things like dance groups, theater or acapella. It is very expensive but poor people can probably get 100% need-based aid. Not a great school for UMC kids who don’t have stats for lots of merit-based scholarship money. They might end up with a lot of student debt. The endowment used to be terrible. Something like only $160m in 1990. It’s around 1.9 billion now, but for comparison Notre Dame’s is 12bn, Emory’s is like 7 billion, Williams and Amherst are around 2.5 bn. For a school that wants to be considered a world-class research university that low endowment limits what the school can do. If you are interested in med school, dental school or vet school, doing well as an undergrad probably confers some benefits for admission to those programs, but you would have to check that. There are so many colleges/universities in Boston area. Tufts is certainly worth considering, but other area schools might be also be a good choice assuming if they can get in to those schools. There are a lot of really wealthy people and international kids who come from money but not a lot of people who seem to make their money after going to Tufts. In terms of the there there…maybe the best way to describe it is to say you don’t really hear about a lot of wildly successful graduates. There some notable names but those seems more like the exception. More often you see people doing well or even really but not really elite or at the top of their field (law firm partner but not superstar), musician but not rockstar, key adviser to well-known politicians, but not the politician, very good doctor but not world renowned surgeon, accomplished author but not NY times best seller, Olympian but not a medal winner etc.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I always liked the name...TUFFFTSSSS. It sounds elite.

really?
It literally sounds like a euphemism for ass, and their mascot is an elephant named Jumbo. I agree it’s a strong university, but from the outside it sounds like a comedy. Similarly to “American University” which sounds like it’s entirely fictional.

PP...seriously. I did laugh at your ass comment and agree 100% with AU

Y’all are just petty…or ignorant…and likely both.

Petty or ignorant for making cracks about school names? You're a moron or overly sensitive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always liked the name...TUFFFTSSSS. It sounds elite.

really?
It literally sounds like a euphemism for ass, and their mascot is an elephant named Jumbo. I agree it’s a strong university, but from the outside it sounds like a comedy. Similarly to “American University” which sounds like it’s entirely fictional.

PP...seriously. I did laugh at your ass comment and agree 100% with AU

Y’all are just petty…or ignorant…and likely both.

+1, Hope DC can write more intelligibly than the PP.

Anonymous wrote:My impression of Tufts from just having a kid go thru the application season (so, seeing which of her friends applied, and who is going there) is that it’s become a school for kids who weren’t going to get into the Ivies, but who wanted New England. Wealthy, preppy, full pay. That’s just the impression based on an N of about 10 of my DD’s peers who applied/decided to go there.

Agree there’s no there there.

My friend was on the faculty there in the 90s and had mostly nice things to say about her students, but did say they were mostly wealthy suburban white kids who couldn’t go elsewhere.

Not to say it’s not perfect for some kid, these are just my observations...

There’s no there there in your post.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always liked the name...TUFFFTSSSS. It sounds elite.

really?
It literally sounds like a euphemism for ass, and their mascot is an elephant named Jumbo. I agree it’s a strong university, but from the outside it sounds like a comedy. Similarly to “American University” which sounds like it’s entirely fictional.

PP...seriously. I did laugh at your ass comment and agree 100% with AU

The conjecturing on this thread is absurd. You can make statistics work to tell any story. All I know is what I’ve experienced - that the kids we know who have chosen Tufts in recent years are all with out fail exceptional, well rounded students and responsible, engaged community members and leaders. Perhaps they are at Tufts as a backup to a more selective school, but that doesn’t make them any less talented.

If OPs kid is URM then Tufts might be a good choice, as they accept a lot more test optional students than other colleges.

Anonymous wrote:

It's ranked in the top 30 because it's so selective, and it's so selective because of where it is, a [destination] for NE prep school students.

and DMV students whose parents are from New England and cannot stomach the thought of the kids at Tulane, Emory, Wake, or any other location on the wrong side of the Mason-Dixon line

The reality is that even full-pay Black kids with great stats and activities have to apply to all of those schools, or a group of about any six schools at roughly that level, to have a good shot at getting in to two or three.

Kids who need financial aid or have imperfect stats need to apply to 10 or more schools at that level to have a good shot of getting into a school
at that level with enough aid to attend.

So, this isn’t about the Mason Dixon line; this is about parents getting an admissions reality check.

When a lot of us parents applied to college, Harvard had a 20 percent acceptance rate. I think MIT attracted a very specific kind of applicant but had something like a 40 percent acceptance rate. Getting into an Ivy League school was very normal.

Today, admissions has gotten much harder, and the idea of parents sneering at Tufts (or Tulane, or Emory) is absurd.

Anonymous wrote:Everyone one is disregarding the nieces URM status. If her mom wants her to stay close to home, Tufts may be a more welcoming place for her than some other schools. Niece should visit and draw her own conclusions. She could look at Amherst too.

I don't think people are disregarding. OP waited till third or fourth post three or four pages into the thread to disclose that info. Until then, read as a troll post with someone throwing out potentially inflammatory bait to see the responses.

Agree with one of the PPs who mentioned that Tufts now has an 11% admit rate. Perhaps the school has some drawbacks of being a refuge for Ivy rejects and not being in Boston (though technically neither are Harvard or MIT), but enough seniors are throwing their hat in the ring to render it a highly selective school.

OP, perhaps you can ID a college counselor who may be willing to work with your niece pro bono. She could really benefit from a professional take on a very different college admissions landscape from when many here were in school. Even last year's admits may be the harbinger of a new trend rather than an outlier in terms of admissions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went in the 90s and I liked it enough. Strong academics, safe campus, and there’s enough stuff to do. When I went it was an intelligent somewhat nerdy, crunchy granola student body. Lots of Birkenstock’s. Greek system was preppier but they represent a small portion of the student population. Overwhelmingly though the vibe from the place was ivy-reject with a chip on their shoulder and lackluster school spirit. Most students who were there didn’t want to be there and were vocal about it. It’s a good backup to Brown. It’s also good for engineering, pre med pre vet pre dentistry, IR. Other than that, I think the academics of other schools match it and have better student cultures. Outside of academia, no one really knows of tufts, haven’t encountered an alum in any of my corporate travels. I think most grads go on to grad school, med school, etc. I think tufts is good for a certain type of kid. A colleague’s son went for two years on a lacrosse scholarship and then transferred to UVA for the last two years. He says the academics at UVA were like high school compared to tufts, but the culture was way better. In hindsight no real regrets, but I would have had a blast at BC.

I went there in the ‘90’s, too. It wasn’t my top choice, but it worked out really well. I got to live off campus in a wonderful dump with terrific friends (truly, that was a highlight), all my friends were those Birkenstock wearing crunchy kids, and we were all part of the Mountain Club and spent lots of weekends at Tuft’s house in the White Mountains hiking and cross country skiing. I was an English major, and everyone I knew there was super smart. I was also an athlete and loved being able to do my sport at the division III level - serious, but not TOO serious. Somerville was great for art films and music and coffee shops. That was a long time ago, but if the vibe is still the same it’s a great place to go to college.

As the parent of three current college students/recent grads, to me this sounds like a great college experience. What made it possible is that you were able to let go of the "didn't grab the brass ring" mentality and find the serendipity in where you ended up. That's a valuable lesson to learn at a young age.

Anonymous wrote:I went in the 90s and I liked it enough. Strong academics, safe campus, and there’s enough stuff to do. When I went it was an intelligent somewhat nerdy, crunchy granola student body. Lots of Birkenstock’s. Greek system was preppier but they represent a small portion of the student population. Overwhelmingly though the vibe from the place was ivy-reject with a chip on their shoulder and lackluster school spirit. Most students who were there didn’t want to be there and were vocal about it. It’s a good backup to Brown. It’s also good for engineering, pre med pre vet pre dentistry, IR. Other than that, I think the academics of other schools match it and have better student cultures. Outside of academia, no one really knows of tufts, haven’t encountered an alum in any of my corporate travels. I think most grads go on to grad school, med school, etc. I think tufts is good for a certain type of kid. A colleague’s son went for two years on a lacrosse scholarship and then transferred to UVA for the last two years. He says the academics at UVA were like high school compared to tufts, but the culture was way better. In hindsight no real regrets, but I would have had a blast at BC.

My experience too! I wish I had applied to smaller schools like Amherst or even Bard.
The vibe at Tufts was weird. Location in a lower/working class neighborhood was also weird. Sure that's changed with gentrification but there are so many other lovely options where a student will get more support. Maybe the professors didn't want to be there either.

Everyone one is disregarding the nieces URM status. If her mom wants her to stay close to home, Tufts may be a more welcoming place for her than some other schools. Niece should visit and draw her own conclusions. She could look at Amherst too.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Slightly overrated due to its NE location.

Huh? I'd argue it's totally overshadowed by its neighbours Harvard and MIT

It is certainly, but it's location helps it a ton. Replace Tufts with Vandy, Emory, Wash and Lee, WashU, UVA even location wise and it wouldn't be top 50. Tufts only has 2 top 20 programs (I just checked) Vet medicine and occupational therapy. It's ranked in the top 30 because it's so selective, and it's so selective because of where it is,a feeder for NE prep school students.

I don’t know anything about Tufts, but location always affects a school’s appeal, and therefore its selectivity, doesn’t it? I went to Stanford, which I chose largely because of the location.

Yes, you're right but that's the point. There are schools in much less socially desirable places that are ranked much higher. Emory is in Atlanta, Rice is in Houston, Vanderbilt in NASHVILLE?!, Notre Dame in South Bend etc. If Tufts was in Alabama or Georgia instead in Massachusetts, the wealthy NE'ers would not flock to it. Tufts doesn't have to work as hard or be as academically or socially renowned as the other schools to get top students.

Tufts can attract a high performing cohort of students in part due to its location therefore it “doesn’t try as hard” and is overrated doesn’t compute to me.

I don't see what is hard to understand. Tufts has an advantage in the admissions process to get highly prepped and qualified students because of where it is. However, it cant beat schools who don't have that advantage.

If you are saying that if Tufts and W&L were both in BFE then W&L would be ranked higher than Tufts then I would disagree but also I would say it’s a completely useless point because schools are where they are. Carleton would be different if it wasn’t in MN. Eckerd would be different if it wasn’t in FL. What’s the point of comparing where a school is to where it might be?