I am seriously considering applying to Tufts University ED. However, I am a bit concerned over its prestige. I hear that it only really carries a name around the north east, but also that it is an up and coming school. It only has a 14% acceptance acceptance rate which is just around 4-5% higher than Brown, Duke, and Dartmouth, so I am wondering if I should apply early to somewhere else more prestigious. (I haven’t visited Duke or Dartmouth, but I really loved Brown). What are your thoughts? How does Tufts compare to the Ivies/elites? Is it worth an ED over a better school?
EDIT: Also, I am curious about job recruitment at Tufts. What kinds of companies recruit there? I read on another post the JP Morgan does. Is this true? What about other companies like Google?
A better question to ask is how good a fit Tufts is for you. You are blinded by prestige and rankings at this point.
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As someone who has lived both in the US and outside, I can tell you Tufts is really well known especially globally because of its world class IR program. One thing you have to know is this- College is what you make of it. Going to Harvard or one of the top ivies does not guarantee future success. Like the previous post stated, at this point you should invest your time in finding a school that is the perfect fit for you. Tufts’ star is one that is starting to shine even brighter, as time passes a degree from Tufts will be more valuable than it was years ago. Make sure you visit each school and only apply ED if your heart is 100 percent set on a particular school.
You are totally asking the wrong question. What does “prestige” even mean? Very much focused on the wrong thing. And, do not apply ED to any school that you are not in love with.
Tufts, overall, is probably not as prestigious as Duke, Dartmouth or Brown. But it’s close and moving up. All these schools have remarkably different characters, though it has been said that Tufts most resembles Brown, and I would venture that a number of students who attend Tufts didn’t get into Brown (most Ivy admissions people will tell you that fully 75% of their applicants are qualified to succeed at their school, but that with legacies, development and athletic considerations crowding the field, the vast majority of qualified applicants don’t get in). However, Tufts is still a highly ranked school and its graduates apparently do quite well in their chosen fields.
Your ED dilemma must take into account a number of factors: When you apply ED you must be ready to say “yes” to the school if it accepts you. It is a binding agreement, and you must sign off on it, when you apply. Reneging on an ED admit, unless for truly legitimate reasons, could poison the well for you at other schools you later decide you like better. If you are applying for FA, ED is often not a great option. Also, as a parent of an ED1 admit to Tufts, I have observed that while ED increases chances of admission, there is no point in aiming too high. Numerous students at my D’s very rigorous high school shot their ED bullet too high, missed and were deferred into RD (or outright rejected), leaving them to scramble in an ever-increasing RD applicant pool. If you are going to aim high for ED1, you should have an ED2 backup (also binding) or be prepared to go into factory-application output mode.