I feel bad

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tufts University
1

<p>I worked so hard in high school and did so many activities, but I was rejected from all of my top choice schools. This one kid I know at my school is going to WashU, which is more prestigious and well known (and higher ranked) than Tufts but he did not work as hard as me or had the depth of ECs that I had. I also know a lot more people who didn't work so hard or cared so much about everything as I did but are going to higher ranked schools. </p>

<p>Anyone else feel this way? I love Tufts, but its so annoying that there are a lot of people going to more well known and prestigious schools but did not really bust their butts like I did... I got into more prestigious schools than tufts like Georgetown and JHU, but I chose Tufts because it with my personality and I liked it the best. However, people are now giving a hard time with questions like "who chose Tufts over Georgetown?"...</p>

2

<p>I know <em>so</em> many talented and hard-working students in my class that chose to go to Rutgers (we live in NJ) over schools they got accepted into, INCLUDING Tufts, BC, and Cornell. Simply because they'd rather save their $$$ for graduate school, and their outlook on their own finances aren't too peachy considering the way our economy is going right now.</p>

<p>So be honored that you got accepted into prestigious schools like Georgetown and JHU - they're signs of four years of your hard work. But honestly if you were to ask my friends why they would invest so much time, energy and money into working their butts off for 4 years only to land in the state college in which most people get in in our school without working hard, and they will say that high school would be otherwise meaningless. </p>

<p>So don't measure your hard work to the name of the school you are going to. Nobody's putting a gun to your head, demanding that you choose the most recognized school. You know yourself that you will thrive in Tufts, and quite frankly there is not one school that is for every intellectual, not even Tufts. </p>

<p>Congrats on getting into Georgetown and JHU - not many people have the luxury to say they even had those options. Though you're right, all my friends who got into Tufts are going somewhere more highly ranked/well-known, and when a few of my friends ask where my top school was and I reply 'Tufts,' some of them even tell me not to bother trying so hard for a "#29" school. But you know what? Not to sound harsh but they're not going to be seeing you learn and live at college. So go learn at a place where you'll be happiest - otherwise, how can you even learn?</p>

3

<p>all i can say is DOT DOT DOT....blink....blink.......</p>

<p>it saddens me that college has become a battle for "who's going to the most highly rated school" </p>

<p>I was expecting to love Brown (because it had been my first choice on paper) but upon visiting realized it was defiantly not the place for me. I absolutely positively loved Tufts and never looked back on my decision. I know I am about to have the best four years of my life because i chose what was right FOR ME not what was right for me to impress other people. </p>

<p>there are plenty of people who would kill to be in your shoes and many regard tufts as highly prestigious. In all honesty the difference between all these top schools is minute when it comes to prestige and academics....all of these school are among the top in the nation and you will get a stellar academic education at each and everyone. What it boils down to at this point is what kind of environment you want to be at, what kind of people you want to be around and what kind of undergraduate experience you are looking for.</p>

<p>I truly hope that this whole superficial way of evaluating colleges (based on subjective ratings) disappears in the future and that people start to realize what is at the core of college: an extraordinary education where you will thrive and grow as a person.</p>

4

<p>i don't know where you are from, but where i'm from, nyc, tufts is just as prestigious as washu. and if it makes you feel any better, i'm a freshman at northwestern right now, which according to US News is "better" than tufts, and I applied to transfer and am anxiously waiting for my decision</p>

5

<p>^what don't you like about Northwestern?</p>

<p>I think maybe it has been part of the CC forums, which tend to concentrate on super elite schools and follow US News Report rankings like scripture...</p>

<p>
[quote]
What it boils down to at this point is what kind of environment you want to be at, what kind of people you want to be around and what kind of undergraduate experience you are looking for.

[/quote]

yeah, I knew Tufts was the right environment for me, but a lot of people seemed to want me to go to the most prestigious college I got into...</p>

6

<p>I don't think WashU is more prestigious than Tufts, but maybe that's because I'm from MA. It's certainly not far below Georgetown or JHU in prestige, either. Prestige is a fairly unimportant factor anyways, but when you're comparing Tufts to Georgetown and JHU based on prestige, you're really just splitting hairs.</p>

7

<p>
[quote]
yeah, I knew Tufts was the right environment for me, but a lot of people seemed to want me to go to the most prestigious college I got into...

[/quote]

perhaps you shouldn't give so much weight to other people's opinions... :/</p>

8

<p>Milkmagn,</p>

<p>Do you realize that the college rankings that are driving everyone insane are just one magazine's brilliant marketing tool to sell issues and laugh all the way to the bank?</p>

<p>It is all so arbitrary, and like SAT's, just an effort at reducing everything to a common denominator. What is most important is that you attend a school where you will feel comfortable and where you can learn best. </p>

<p>I have been in academia for over 20 years and as my daughter spent time deciding where to apply, not once did we look at the magazine rankings. We concentrated on curriculum, faculty, size of school, location, extracurricular activities, type of students. We did our own analysis, reviewed common data, became thoroughly familiar with the websites of the schools and their school newspapers and we visited. </p>

<p>My own daughter, who has worked very hard, had some wonderful choices. Ultimately she chose Swarthmore over all the other schools, including Tufts, because we felt that a smaller school (1500 students) would be a better choice for how she wanted to spend her undergraduate years. She picked Swarthmore over some of the other smaller schools because it offered her more opportunities in her areas of interest. Had she decided that a bigger school would have been better and had selected Tufts, I would have enthusiastically supported that decision too.</p>

<p>It is so sad that with such wonderful choices you should feel bad because you are being influenced by such a superficial factor....</p>

9

<p>S. also worked his butt off throughout HS, and did very well. His GC recommended some top schools (and we visited a bunch), but from first visit knew Tufts was exactly what he wanted. When decisions came out that year, he got the "why didn't you apply to any Ivies?" question from some of his classmates. It got on his nerves a bit, but he never doubted his decision. There are plenty of people here who are unfamiliar with Tufts (and Williams and Bowdoin AND Washington U, for that matter), but he wanted to pursue IR, and knew it was the right school for him. </p>

<p>I think you'll find that people from different regions, and even schools within regions, have widely different views of certain colleges. From our HS, quite a few students go on to Cornell. Because of that, I think some people here almost take it for granted. Could this be the case with Tufts at your NE school? Every place is different. Don't worry about what others think. When you set foot on campus in the fall, you'll be in a whole new world. You say you love Tufts, and chances are good you probably will.</p>

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<p>^Yea... Like 10 kids out of the 180 something students in my class are going to tufts... a lot</p>

<p>My parents aren't making things better. Whenever someone asks them where I'm going to college, they sigh and say "he's only going to tufts"</p>

11

<p>Sheesh! We are thrilled our son is at Tufts, and feel he is getting an amazing college experience there. Since he applied ED we'll never know what other schools he may have gotten into, but what the heck.
If it makes your parents feel better they can always tell people ALL the schools you got accepted to, before you made your choice. I still think this feeling will pass once you get on campus. Maybe it's buyer's remorse...</p>

12

<p>Milkmagn,</p>

<p>You need to educate your parents. They are obviously not familiar with the academic world and are probably being influenced by worthless pop rankings. </p>

<p>Tufts is an outstanding institution that is highly respected in academic circles. It is neither easy to get into Tufts, nor should it be thought of as a back up. You will have an opportunity to study with amazing faculty and will have smart peers.</p>

<p>The value of an education should not be reduced to "branding." Hold your head up high, perhaps they will follow if they see you beaming with pride. You should feel elated to have been invited to join the Class of 2012.</p>

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<p>I don't normally reply to posts anymore, but I feel this deserves a response.</p>

<p>USNews' rankings are meant to sell magazines. Yes, we're ranked 28th in the country by them. Okay. </p>

<p>Now, let's look at the facts:</p>

<p>Tufts is one of the most selective colleges in the US. USNews hardly gives that any weight. They only admitted 25%, and the average for the incoming class will be in the former half of the 1400s.</p>

<p>We compete directly for students with Cornell, JHU, Georgetown, Wash U, and Northwestern. Who cares if one school admits 22% versus 25%? Even the dastardly USNews said that we're actually more selective than Georgetown, I believe (b/c of their four-school set-up). If you look at SATs, admits, student type, it all averages out. I chose Tufts over JHU, and I haven't looked back. I know students who chose Tufts over Cornell, JHU, etc. And as many chose the other way around. </p>

<p>Prestige? I get glowing commentary on Tufts from people whom I work with in the research libraries of Harvard. There's a reason why the term "Cambridge Triad" is growing in usage. Wherever I go, which is usually in academia, I mention Tufts and get immediate, highly positive reactions. Yes, I know it seems important now, but who cares if 'average joe' has never heard of Tufts, but knows of Johns Hopkins? If you go to Tufts, Georgetown, JHU, etc. you can be assured that you are going to an elite, highly selective university. Okay, so if I were to walk into, let's say Chicago, and drop Tufts' name, versus Wash U, I might get a confused look. But, go to New York and the logic will flip. </p>

<p>So, what's the next step?</p>

<p>Look for the "intangibles" -- do you like the campus? Are there any professors you have heard whom you would like to work with? That's what will get you ahead in this world - working with leading faculty. Want Madeleine Albright? Go to Georgetown. That M.D. who publishes in "The Lancet"? Johns Hopkins. Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Alex Vilenkin, or Robert Sternberg, well, Tufts will be your new home. </p>

<p>If you'd really like to learn how USNews ranks the schools, its really quite simple. They send out a questionnaire to administrators at schools across the country. Think Johns Hopkins is going to rate a competitor (Tufts) highly? Of course not. Think someone out in Kent State University will have heard of Tufts. Probably not. They will have heard of Johns Hopkins, and so will rate them highly. At the end of the day, it doesn't mean anything. </p>

<p>As for 10 out of 180 - you must be at a very competitive high school - my school was lucky to get one or two into Tufts or JHU each year.</p>

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<p>^it is a competitive high school, but I think the fact that a lot of them did not apply for financial aid helped...</p>

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<p>I can understand how you're feeling. But in the end it seems like you're happy with your choice. And I'd like to share some little known facts about the rankings.</p>

<p>WorldbandDX brings up some great points about why the rankings are flawed - much of Tufts' ratings will come from other schools, who may not know its name as readily as that of Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, etc. But there are some additional criteria in determining the ranking that are questionable.</p>

<p>One is the "alumni donors" section. This is supposed to be a measure of alumni satisfaction; if people leave the school and then donate money, they either A. really loved their time here and are grateful, B. are now successful enough that they can part with their money, or C. both. But all this measures is how many alumni gave back money. Because of this, there are actually schools that call up alumni and say, "If you just donate 1 dollar, our ranking will go up." Seriously. They ask their alumni who don't want to make a big donation to donate one dollar in order to increase the ranking. It's like saying that if the endowments between School A and School B are equal, then in School A, where one alum donated 10 million dollars, will have a lower ranking compared to School B, where 10 alumni donated 1 dollar each. </p>

<p>Another rank-booster is how many students were in the top 10% of their class. Schools become encouraged to take more students from unranked schools, private/parochial schools that don't rank, over the qualified students from schools that rank who don't make it into the top 10%. It's unfair to applicants, but when your school is a brand and a commercial product, and the rankings unfortunately influence the competition between schools for the top students, schools will start trying to mold themselves to the rubric of the rankings, working within that framework to try and come out on top. Some schools will try to actively misrepresent themselves in order to get a higher rank...and others benefit disproportionately from the system (think, for example, about how someone at a college in Kentucky is probably more likely to heard of UNC Chapel Hill than Tufts, most likely because of college basketball. Does that really mean Tufts is a worse school?). </p>

<p>So the rankings are deeply flawed. Unfortunately, many people don't know any better. And even though the schools at the top of the list are all of such good quality that it's tough to differentiate, some end up at the 30 slot, and it looks like there are 29 colleges that the reader would rather go to.</p>

<p>Something in our culture, maybe, has stoked this need to care about how you rank. I know kids who were hell-bent on going to a "top 10" school. But really, 10 is such a subjective number! Why not top 11, or top 9? The second a school hits 11, it's off the table? Ridiculous. Schools are all different and have their own qualities - if Tufts were ranked number 1, would it make sense to go here and major in business? When we don't have a business program? No. </p>

<p>So anyway, the rankings are flawed but people do take a lot of misplaced store in them. When I had to tell people senior year that I was headed for Tufts, I also saw something in their eyes like disappointment that I wasn't going somewhere with a big ole name that factory workers could recognize. And that persisted - until I got here and realized that Tufts is really the best possible place for me, in terms of the academics, the people, and what I want to do with my life. It no longer bothers me because I know the value I'm getting out of being here. Hopefully when you come up in the fall, you'll begin to feel that way too.</p>

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<p>I am lucky and glad to be admitted to Tufts 2012! One of my friends is choosing Tufts over Cornell (with same FA package). Another got waitlisted at Tufts, but got into JH, and she is deperately wanting to go to Tufts.</p>

17

<p>There are a lot of posts in this thread with which I agree a great deal, but I want to come back to an issue I feel strongly about.</p>

<p>What makes Tufts great is not that students choose us over other competitive schools. Trying to justify picking Tufts by finding examples of other students that have made that choice is a red herring. That's looking at the causal relationship the wrong way: students choose Tufts because we are unique, not the other way around.</p>

<p>The big issue here is where do **you* want to be*? Not where do others want you to be. You said that Tufts is a good match for your personality - good! That's the right way to pick a school. Stop worrying so much about making decisions that will recieve recognition from others (either with EC or with your college), and look more for the opportunities that help you grow. Not only is that an important step for your own development, but it'll help you connect with your future classmates at Tufts. Generally speaking, I find the people at Tufts to more concerned with actual growth and achievement than with the recognition for that growth. In my mind, that distinction is a cornerstone of what defines our community and why I have been so drawn to Tufts for the last 6 years.</p>

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<p>who cares dude? college prestige is unimportant</p>

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<p>I'm from NYC and attended private school, and i totally disagree, in spite of WashU's higher average SAT score/GPA, Tufts is more prestigious than WashU on the east coast.</p>

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<p>S turned down his first choice school, UPenn, after attending the two school's admitted student days. He also turned down Cornell. He has not regretting his choice. </p>

<p>As for parents and students saying "only Tufts", they create their own problem. I usually get the opposite response from people of "How did your son get into Tufts?".</p>

<p>PS D has been getting letters about once a week from WashU. I have been throwing them all away because I had never heard of the school. :)</p>