I’m super excited to go to my ED school, which you may have guessed by my handle is Tufts. However, lately I’ve been feeling some regrets about it.
I love Tufts so much and I think it’s a great fit, but it bothers me that it isn’t ranked very highly at all, that job and internship placement isn’t amazing (many companies do not do on campus recruiting there), and that it’s a super expensive school, more so than Harvard ($66k vs $63k, respectively).
Yes, fit and loving the school is all fine and dandy, but a very large part of the reason to why I am going to college in the first place is to help launch my career in whatever I want to do. Especially because I’m not 100% what I want to do, I’d like to have the comfort of knowing that my school is well respected and that I will not have issues later on in my career because of my college choice.
Bottom line, I am beyond thrilled to go to Tufts next year, but I have some concerns.
Have any of you guys experienced something similar with your schools?
With respect to some of your concerns, you might find it reassuring to see that Forbes included Tufts in its article, “10 Expensive Colleges Worth Every Penny”:
Yeah. I’m having a similar experience. I got in ED to Wash U and while I know I will have an amazing time there, I do have a few regrets. Mainly, I’ll never know which schools I could have gotten into. There were some other schools (in particular Brown and Yale) that I also really liked but didn’t think I stood a chance at. In addition, there were some other good schools that I stood a better chance and schools that I may have even gotten merit at that I also really liked. Overall, I think this is just inevitable buyer’s remorse and pretty normal for anyone who has just committed to a college.
It’s somewhat frustrating that Tufts and Wash U don’t have the greatest name recognition amongst the general public but I don’t think that means you will have issues with career placement. Tufts will be well known by employers. Also, Tufts’ location near Boston can be very beneficial in regards to internship/career placement. Overall, Tufts is an awesome school. Congrats on your acceptance!
I think there’s always a case of the grass being greener on the other side in these types of scenarios, but your admission to Tufts should not be overlooked by any means. The cost of a particular school doesn’t always match up with prestige, and you were admitted to one of the most prestigious universities in the U.S. in Tufts. Don’t forget about all the tons of students that turn down Ivies for schools like Tufts every year… you’ll be among the best of the best!
There the grass thing and the bird in the hand. If you are asked to choose between every pair, you will consider one better. If you got into a really good school. Rarely would one school be superior in all respects in every dimension. Stop weighing merits. Get on with your life.
Be happy that you got into one of the best schools in the nation. So many others would kill to be in your spot. Not sure why you think going to Tufts won’t launch your career. It’s #9 in terms of highest mid-career salaries for grads of any college according to Washington Post I believe. Although it is already very prestigious, its reputation is still on the rise, and may even rival the reps of Harvard and MIT in the years to come. Many kids every year turn down schools like Harvard, Stanford, Penn, Brown, Dartmouth etc. to join Tufts’ amazing student body. My friends who go there are in love with the school, even if they had doubts before starting. 83% of students get into their first choice grad school. Sounds like very good outcomes to me. Don’t take your acceptance for granted. You’ve earned it.
Posts like this make me believe Tufts Syndrome is real (the claim that admissions offices will turn down apps from kids they think will get into their higher-ranked competitors since they expect the kid will enroll at the other place).
The OP is bothered “that it isn’t ranked very highly at all” because it is almost embarrassing to publicly admit you are going to a school ranked 29th in National Universities. Can there be any doubt that the OP and kids like him would throw the Tufts letter in the trash if they had an acceptance to a higher-ranked school?
@badgolfer , great points. OP says he loves Tufts. . . . until he doesn’t.
At least @jumbo2022 is honest about motivation for going to Tufts being to “launch” a career. His second thoughts aren’t about being in Medford (not Boston) for four years, but more relate to not applying to a school ranked a few spots higher by a magazine.
Time to stop looking in the rear view mirror and focus on what is ahead of you.
Enjoy your acceptance, get a Tufts hoodie, and go on to have a great 4 years there.
I just talked to a kid who applied to a very highly rated school at which he had a major legacy hook. Not surprisingly, he got in. Now is thinking he could have “done better” and gotten into HYP. He is not seeing the school where he’s been accepted for what it is – an excellent school that will be a great fit - but is viewing acceptances as “prizes” or some sort of means of establishing his value. Don’t fall into this trap – you’ll always be unhappy. You may not have gotten in had you applied RD. You would be sorry, no doubt, if you’d been deferred or rejected.
Tufts is a great school with a very talented student body. Make the most of it. You are lucky indeed.
My D’s bf graduated from Tufts and at 23, he was making 6 figures doing some sort of computer thing. His 2 friends, who with him and my D, also graduated from Tufts and are doing as well.
