<p>OP has Tufts syndrome before even attending.</p>
<p>You just haven’t been around enough professionals yet who know of Tufts. Even being in a totally different industry, professionals know about certain schools. Someone posted earlier about U-Chicago. I work in the software engineering industry and know about U-Chicago and its MBA program.</p>
<p>…and WISHED I had the credentials to attend.</p>
<p>Who cares who knows about your school, Tufts is a great college, if people don’t know about it so what. My older S is going to Caltech, many of our relatives had never heard of it, does not mean it’s not a great college.</p>
<p>Employers and grad schools know the great schools and thats all that matters.</p>
<p>Knew about Tufts from my home country- across teh globe-One of the well known accomplished diplomats we have is a PhD from Tufts- He is a writter(authored many books) and a well known international diplomat- I knew about the university through his biography that came in news papers etc when he held in a high possition at UN long back. He belongs to the same city and community we are from, so had a keen interest to follow his story. He came to Tufts school of international diplomacy for masters and finished his PhD from there!! During spring break, I visted Tufts with my S who is a junior. Such a beautiful campus and so much the university has to offer. You are in a good place!!</p>
<p>TuftsStudent wrote:</p>
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<p>LOL!</p>
<p>Maybe that’s because they’re all “smart kids.”</p>
<p>
another LOLer.</p>
<p>OP, it does not matter. Learn not to worry about what others think. </p>
<p>And trust me after you get your first job no one cares or even asks where you went for undergrad. All that matters then is YOUR performance on the job.</p>
<p>Carleton College? Is that a 4-year school?</p>
<p>As kaliamom noted, those who count know … and that’s what matters.</p>
<p>It goes both ways.<br>
“Purdue? That’s an Ivy League school, right?”
“No. Big Ten.”
“But it’s private, right? On the east coast?”
“No. It’s a state school in Indiana. You’re thinking of Princeton”
“No. I’m sure Purdue is Ivy League”
“Ok. I’m sure you’re right. I thought I was in Indiana all that time.”</p>
<p>My favorite scene from the movie “Diner” involves two ordinary guys out for a ride in Maryland horse country, and they pull over and have an brief exchange with a pretty rich girl out riding horseback alone. She is extraordinarily composed, and charge of the exchange the whole time.</p>
<p>She bids them goodbye, tosses her head, and rides off.</p>
<p>I think it’s Mickey Rourke who delivers the classic line to his buddy: “Do you ever get the feeling that there’s something going on that we don’t know about?” Or it might have been Kevin Bacon. </p>
<p>In any case… that’s you going to Tufts, in the eyes of those who haven’t heard of it.</p>
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<p>That’s good. You want to be going to a school that the smart people know about.</p>
<p>Compare your situation to this: </p>
<p>“Nobody knows my university except the dumb kids”</p>
<p>Now in which situation would you rather be?</p>
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<p>Your high school counselor should be fired.</p>
<p>Haha I go to an average non-rigorous public high school in a pretty rural northern CA town. The counselors are more concerned about people graduating than for people getting into top schools. Most people who go to college from my high school end up at the local junior college (like 25-50% of graduating class) and then overwhelming majority of the other college students go to CSU or UC. Maybe 20 students are going to privates, probably half that amount east-coast or Midwest privates, and maybe like 4 of us to competitive privates (UChicago, JHU, USC). We’ve had one girl in the past 12 years or something go to Yale, a few accepted to Cornell but none attended, and a few accepted to Pomona and Claremont-McKenna. Considering UChicago is a top-tier newcomer I don’t blame her too much, but I’m glad she knows now!</p>
<p>Virtually no one here in south Texas has heard of the college our son attends. And that he turned down UT Austin to go there? Well, that’s just proof that we are crazy!</p>
<p>He just finished his second year at Northeastern and it’s a great fit. That’s what counts, not how many people have heard of the school.</p>
<p>LOL. My D1 goes to Haverford. How’s that for obscure? Not even the smart kids have heard of it. She gets a range of responses when she answers the inevitable question about where she goes to school. Most common is the blank stare, as if she’d just spoken some incomprehensible gibberish. Next most common is the puzzled look, which can mean either, “What on earth are you talking about?” or “I have a feeling I’m supposed to know this place, but I’m just drawing a blank.” Then there’s the group that blurts out “Oh, Harvard!” as if correcting her mangled pronunciation of her own college’s name. </p>
<p>She got used to it pretty quickly, and now she’s got a quick little canned response to the question, “Where do you go to school?” Instead of waiting for the blank stare, the quizzical look, or the pronunciation lesson, she now simply says, "Haverford. It’s a small liberal arts college near Philadelphia. Most people have never heard of it.’ That way if they have heard of it, they feel special, even if they couldn’t have exactly placed it; if not, they don’t feel as if it’s something they should have known. And it avoids the Harvard confusion because most people associate Harvard with Boston, not Philadelphia, and no one thinks of Harvard as a school no one has ever heard of. </p>
<p>Do I care? Not in the least. She’s there for the academics, which are outstanding, and not for the bragging rights. I didn’t raise my daughter to be a braggart.</p>
<p>No one around here ever heard of DD’s college either (Santa Clara) and when told about it, most asked how she got accepted to a UC. Ahem…it’s not a UC.</p>
<p>While most folks around here know about BU, I can’t tell you how many people think Boston University is part of the UMass public university system. It’s not.</p>
<p>What possible difference does it make if others know your college?</p>
<p>lots of people think my school (William and Mary) is private… even some people from VA, doh!</p>
<p>^ haha well to be fair W&M was a private school for some time.</p>
<p>Most people in VT haven’t heard about Grinnell, or Carleton or Pomona or Reed. I could go on and on.</p>
<p>I know several people who went to Havorford AND they are all really smart. </p>
<p>Soccerguy - I went to W&M too and I have had arguments with people who insisted that it is a private school. I think a couple of them still think I’m wrong. </p>
<p>If we’re going to start discussing the surprising things that people don’t know, we’re going to be here for a very long time.</p>
<p>My DD just finished her freshman year at Tufts. The only ones at her large public HS who seemed to know of Tufts were the top 4 students in her grade (top 1%) who applied. In general when asked, we tell people she attends Tufts, a school in the Boston area.</p>
<p>My DD recently changed doctors (to an adult dr) who it turns out went to Tufts Med School. His comment when he heard she’s a Jumbo was oh, tough school. He then asked her if Tufts kids still took orgo at Harvard over the summer because it’s easier there. She laughed because she has classmates who plan to do just that.</p>
<p>If you get a chance, look into Tufts’ summer study abroad program in Talloires, France. She’s been in France since mid May and is enjoying the experience tremendously. She’s taking 2 classes and living with a French family. She traveled to Paris and Lyon, had a couple class trips, did several hikes in the Alps and despite a fear of heights, she went parapenting/paragliding off the mountain. </p>
<p>Good Luck at Tufts. My DD preferred Tufts over several of her higher ranked schools. It just clicked for her. She’s seems very happy with her decision to attend Tufts and isn’t concerned with what others think. Then again, her brother turned down Yale to attend Brown (PLME 8 yr program). People have questioned my kids’ decisions but they chose what was best for them. We’re not fixated on rankings around here.</p>