Hi. This is pretty straightforward. If you were to choose between the two for this particular major, which would you choose and why? I’m in a bit of a crisis here. I don’t know which to choose!
Carnegie Mellon (college of science) vs. Tufts (School of arts and sciences) - bio major/ pre-health
Congrats! Reputation wise both of those schools are HIGHLY REGARDED in the eastern U.S. and their Biology undergrad programs and overall reputation are roughly equal here (though CMU may be better regarded worldwide if you are not planning to stay in the U.S. after graduation). Tufts is generally regarded as one of the top schools in the nation and top 3 in Boston (behind MIT, Harvard but ahead of BC, BU, Brandeis, UMass, etc.) and CMU is generally regarded as one of the top schools in the mid-Atlantic with schools like NYU or Cornell.
Personally, I would choose Tufts since its classes are smaller, more undergraduate focused, and cooperative and if you are looking into premed, you will also likely get a higher GPA there as the classes are more slow paced, producing high GPAs that are essential for applying to med school (Of course the quirky and friendly environment too 
). However, CMU on the other hand is slightly larger and may also have slightly larger classes. The environment may also be more cutthroat and though still cooperative, more competitive than Tufts and much harder to maintain a high GPA, and this may not benefit you if you are applying to med school.
Tufts also offers early assurance for pre-med, which has a 30% acceptance rate to their med school sophomore year for Tufts students (whereas for everyone else is around 2% acceptance rate) and by getting into Tufts med sophomore year, you can save a lot of stress by not needing to even take the MCAT. (http://medicine.tufts.edu/Admissions/Special-Admissions-Options/Early-Assurance-Program)
I would say to choose most based on fit of environment and there will be definitely people who want the second type of environment (CMU) over the first and also people who will want the first (Tufts). GL and visit if you can!
Net costs after financial aid [folks, please post this in your first post!!!]
@Bjklw2a wow I didn’t expect such a detailed response! Thank you so much! It was very helpful 
I never actually considered the environment, but now that’s something I should take into consideration.
thank you again
@harvardandberkeley about $21k for tufts and $33k for cmu
Since these two schools/programs are very similar in ranking/prestige and opportunities (Boston could offer more potentially?) and Tufts costs less, Tufts is the obvious choice unless you don’t like its environment, want to consider majors outside of Bio, such as engineering, or feel like you fit CMU more (If you choose CMU, no matter the reason, that reason better be worth 12k/yr).
@Mamapa2 thank you for your advice! i decided to enroll at cmu and it was good advice to think about a reason being worth 12k/year. Tufts actually doesn’t have scholarships; they only give grants so the fin aid will fluctuate each year. I don’t know by how much it will fluctuate, but I decided to depend on the stability of renewable scholarship from cmu I’m considering majors outside of bio and I heard that neuroscience is a rising major at cmu so I’m taking that into consideration.
Glad to hear you made the choice! CMU was my top choices as well and if cost weren’t a factor, I may gladly have considered there as well. Well good luck!
Yikes!
Tufts only gives need based aid. Their policy is to meet “full need”. If you qualified for that much need based aid, then you are not rolling in money. Where is the extra $48,000 for CMU going to come from? If you are pre-health, then you potentially have a very expensive grad school in your future and need to be minimizing debt.
The fact that the “scholarship” from CMU is significantly less than the aid from Tufts the means that CMU was not willing (or able) to meet your full financial need. They basically "gapped’ you - which is not a good thing. Did you check to see if there any minimum GPA that would cause CMU to revoke the scholarship?
Need based financial aid at Tufts only changes if there is a significant change in your financial situation. It can increase as well as decrease. It only decreases when there is a large increase in income, a large increase in monetary assets (such as an inheritance, gift or sale of an asset) or a large reduction in living expenses (such as no longer having to pay for a sibling’s tuition). This can happen, but it is not the norm.
Since need (at all schools) is now determined by financial information from two years prior, you have the information (this year’s tax return) to determine your aid for you second year. If your gross income did not increase significantly (or you do not have a sibling that will no longer be in school or other change in assets) then your aid will not change your second year. If it does change it is because you have more resources to draw from.
Since we are well into this year, you probably also have a good idea of what this year’s income/situation will be. That means that you have a very good idea what your financial aid will be for your third year and a pretty good idea what it will be for the fourth…
It appears that you are potentially paying a huge premium to eliminate a potential risk that you should be able to quantify with a minimal amount of work and possibly a phone call to Tufts.
By the way, I don’t know where @mamapa2 is getting her information from, but it would be really hard to build a case that these two schools were equal for pre-health. Tufts has a whole constellation of grad schools in this area and a much broader array of undergrad programs. It is an NSF REU site for biology. Tufts has one of only two Allen Centers for advanced biological research in the country(the other is Stanford). Boston is the leading biotech hub in the world. MIT and Harvard’s teaching hospital are a couple of subway stops away. Tufts already has a strong neuro program and just completed a new building with neuro as one of the targeted areas.