NYU or Tufts?

College Search & Selection
1

I know this is extremely late, and that I have just about three days until making my final decision, but I have narrowed down my top two schools to NYU and Tufts, receiving $0 in financial aid from either school (yikes). For NYU, I was accepted into my college’s (non-engineering) honors program, and for Tufts I was accepted into the engineering program. I am undecided still as to whether I want to pursue engineering in college, still…

I realize these are two markedly different schools in countless ways, but I still have tremendous amounts of difficulty coming to a decision.

I plan on attending a semi-prestigious graduate school, if i don’t pursue a pre-health profession, yet I cannot figure out which university would be a better fit or better choice, etc. based on all the factors: diversity, location, study abroad opportunities, etc., etc. I’m a pretty outgoing person, but i’m not looking for somewhere with a huge emphasis on frats and definitely not looking for a extremely competitive academic environment.

send help + advice pls!

2

Do you need financial aid, and just didn’t get any? Or do you not need any aid?

In either case, have you looked at your own likely cost of attendance including transportation? Is there any price difference that matters to your family?

If you are at all interested in engineering, all else being equal, choose Tufts. It is easier to move from engineering to another major than it is to get into engineering later on if you start with a nonengineering major.

Both of these can prepare you for grad school. Don’t worry about that.

And, of course, if you and your family are going to have to take out more debt than the standard federal student loans for either of these places, you should just kiss it/them good-bye and head to an affordable option.

3

I’d do Tufts. Boston is cheaper than NY, and I agree with the above post.

4

If you want a traditional college experience. Campus. Tradition and some sports. Tufts.

5

I live on the West Coast, so transportation differences are minimal. I was also admitted to Northeastern which for some reason I am now strongly considering for engineering given their co-op program and ideal location in Boston. I was quite reluctant to immediately commit to Tufts because of where it is and trying to avoid another suburban life experience which I’ve lived for the past eighteen years…

Any strong feelings/thoughts/ideas on Northeastern vs Tufts engineering? Also, is the party scene drastically different at both campuses because of their location/size differences?

6

Tufts has Boston access but the reality is that most don’t go into the city that much. Tufts isn’t suburban exactly though, and there’s still stuff nearby. But if you want the city life, I think Northeastern is the choice between the two easily.

As far as engineering, Northeastern is more of a STEM-focused school though both will do just fine and have solid engineering. Co-op does go a long way professionally to help in engineering specifically at Northeastern (and other engineering schools with co-op). Northeastern also allows easy major changes if you choose something else.

Despite their differences, all three schools here will offer great study abroad, engineering, diversity, and location (with NYU being the pure city school, Northeastern the city school with a campus, and Tufts the suburban school near a city).

Given the relative comparability of options, what does your gut say? It seems like it’s going against Tufts if you were reluctant to commit. What does it say about NYU vs Northeastern?

7

Have a senior at tufts. He and his friends socialize all the time in boston and his GF has her semester internship in the city, as do many of his friends. The reality is that tufts students are in the city, as well as Cambridge and Davis squares, a lot.

8

Time to clear up some misinformation.

Tufts students are quite diverse. Some are “city types” some are “outdoorsy types”.
Many are in between, and some are both.
The “city types” are in Boston - a lot, starting freshman year
The “in betweeners” usually end up increasing their time in Boston over the course of 4 years
The “outdoorsy” types tend to head to the MIddlesex Fells Reservation or to Tufts’s lodge in the White Mountains
The campus of Tufts’ Museum School (SFMA) is downtown next to Northeastern.
Tufts has a joint degree program with the NEC which is downtown - on the other side of Northeastern.
There is a regular (free) shuttle running between the Medford/Somerville campus and the Museum School.
Tufts art and music students go downtown frequently when they take classes at the SMFA and NEC.
A small number of students cross enroll in classes at BU - which is downtown.
Internships are popular at Tufts. and 90% of Tufts students have at least one internship.
Some degree programs require internships and many encourage them.
Tufts will give academic credit for some internships, Career Center credit for others.
Tufts has a program where they pay a stipend for unpaid summer internships.
It is pretty common for Tufts students to have internships during the semester, often in Cambridge or Boston
Research is popular at Tufts. Probably 60-70% of Tufts students do research, some of it in Cambridge & Boston
Club sports teams will play Boston based schools and other clubs will schedule activities in Boston

My daughter had:
Two summer internships
two in-semester internships (one working in Boston for 20 hours per week and one working remotely for a company in New York City)
A “winternship” working for a company in New York City over winter break
She worked over two winter breaks at the same company she had a summer internship.
She received academic credit for one of her in-semester internships by writing a paper about it and defending it before a committee.
She also spent a summer plus a semester abroad.

She did not do research.

She visited the Medford Hillside, the various squares in Somerville and Cambridge as well as Boston often.
She would periodically “escape” by hiking in the Middlesex Fells or going to Walden Pond.
She went to Cape Cod, the North Shore and the South Shore, but did not make it to the Harbor Islands.
She made it to New York City a couple of times.

In contrast, some of her classmates rarely ventured beyond the various squares in Somerville and Medford.

The amount of time you spend in Boston depends on what you like to do and whether or not that type of activity is more readily available in Somerville and Cambridge - which some people actually prefer to Boston.

9

Congratulations on such great options.These are all very competitive schools.

Below are my impressions based on living the area and attending NEU (years ago).

NEU really is close to everything in Boston, either on foot or by T, has a nice campus despite being in the city, and solid academics. Very professionally focused and great co-op opportunities. If you don’t go into engineering you would still have plenty of options to chose from. At ~15k, NEU has three times as many undergrads as Tufts (~5k), but roughly half the number of NYU (~27k).

Tufts has wonderful academics with a liberal arts emphasis. A Tufts degree is very highly regarded in the northeast region, but I don’t know how well known it is in CA. In comparison to NEU, Tufts is not super convenient to Boston. I just did an Uber estimate from campus to Copley Square and it was $20 (which seems really high so it could be prime time right now and perhaps would cost less on the weekend). Boston Traffic and travel on the red line can be difficult and time consuming. But again, an outstanding school.

NYU has little or no campus feel and the engineering school is in Brookline and at a completely separate campus. Don’t know much more than than, other than NYU housing process can be difficult to navigate.

I would check out the Niche reviews for each school and see which one appeals to you. Think about what type of campus will give you the most energy. Find out the number of people in the engineering programs at each school. Cross check the course requirements for each. Check the attrition rates within engineering as well as the process to transfer between majors. Also, see what types of research are underway that you might be interested in. This is a big decision, and you have to put some time in to really get a feel for each school, particularly since you live across the country. Best of luck!!

10

The Uber fare was taken in the middle of rush hour, that is why it is so high . It is not representative

Travel on the Red Line is more efficient than the Green Line - because there are fewer stops per mile.

The distance between Davis Square and Park St is 4.5 miles (6 stops) and it takes 18 minutes
The distance between the Northeastern stop and Park St is 1.6 miles (6 stops) and it takes 12 minutes.

The walk from Tufts to Davis Square is .5-1 miles depending upon where you are on campus (10-20 min), or there is a shuttle to Davis Square that takes 7 min in normal traffic.

The walk from NEU to the subway is .2 miles (5min) from one spot on campus but I do not know the campus well enough to create a range.

In both cases some time will be wasted waiting for the subway.

11

Northeastern has 4-5 stops on 2 lines on campus or close (5 min or less from somewhere on campus) so no stop is ever more than a few minutes away, where it takes realistically 15-20 minutes to get to the Davis stop walking or waiting for the shuttle. Add in the travel time distance and you have the difference in feel.

While a Tufts student can get to Park Street in 35-40 minutes, Northeastern gets there in 15 usually. If Tufts students want to go anywhere outside of Downtown (places such as Fenway, South End, and many other more happening areas than the financial district) it adds onto that 40 minute time, sometimes topping an hour. The 15 vs 40 difference may not seem big, but it’s enough to make going into the city a day trip or more of an event than a daily part of life like schools like Northeastern, BU, and Emerson have. BC faces similar challenges that Tufts does. The end result is that a lot more of the population ends up staying closer, usually keeping to Davis/Harvard square with Central in Cambridge being the place for most bars and the like. For reference, even Northeastern can get to Central 10 minutes faster.

Again, Tufts is far from your strip mall suburb and there is lots to do in Davis/Harvard/Central Square, but it simply takes more time and effort to get into other areas of Boston for daily life. It depends on what people want when they say they want a city: the access or the daily life.

12

@pengsphils - Just out of curiosity, how many times have you been to the Museum of Fine Arts?

13

@Mastadon

Somewhere between 10 and 20 probably. About six times to the ICA, and twice to Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and Museum of Science. What’s the relevance?

14

My tufts son went to the BMFA most frequently when he took an art history class. He took the shuttle from tufts directly to the BMFA that’s provided to primarily serve the BMFA/tufts art students but all tufts students can take it.

I don’t think someone should make this college decision based on a difference of 15 mins into the city. Harvard students don’t complain about their trip into the city, either. And most harvard stem grad students aren’t losing sleep over the fact that that some of them need to commute every day into boston for their labs. Not a big deal at all.

Tufts and northeastern have vastly different vibes bc they, on the whole, attract a different type of student body, one a lot more pre-professional (northeastern) and the other more a learning for the sake of learning type (tufts). Choose the one that fits you best.

15

Many people prefer living on the left bank of the Charles River in “Camberville” (i.e. Cambridge plus Somerville) rather than on the right bank of the Charles River in Boston. The left bank has a more liberal vibe, offers a different mix of amenities and it tends to be less expensive. It is also the center of the technology corridor that is forming along the Red Line as Tech industries and start-ups migrate into the city from the suburbs.

People tend to cross the river only to access the amenities that are not available locally and they tend to use the most convenient path (the Red Line).

For context, Somerville ranks 16th in the nation for population density (ahead of both San Francisco and Boston). It has a population of 76,000 and an area of 4 square miles. Cambridge ranks 26th for population density (just behind San Francisco, but ahead of Boston). It has a population of 105,000.and an area of 6.5 square miles. Somerville ranks second in the country for density of young people and artists, while Cambridge ranks third. As a result, there are lots of things for young people to do, all located in a very small area. Note that this does not include the populations of Tufts, Lesley, Harvard or MIT.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population_density

For better or worse (depending on your interests), both Cambridge and Somerville are ranked among the top 20 hipster cities in America.
https://www.cbsnews.com/media/the-19-most-hipster-cities-in-america/15/

Somerville’s vibe has been compared to Brooklyn
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2015/07/30/sorry-but-people-in-somerville-dont-feel-like-theyre-in-brooklyn

Both cities were classic “streetcar suburbs” that grew up around the turn of the century and, as a result, they are organized around “squares”. The major squares in “Camberville” are listed below, in order of popularity.

For context, it is about two miles from Tufts to Harvard and about two miles from Harvard to MIT.

Davis Square (near Tufts, on Red Line)
Harvard Square (at Harvard on Red Line)
Inman Square (between Harvard and MIT, will be on Green Line Extension)
Central Square (between Harvard and MIT, on Red Line)
Union Square (near Harvard, will be on Green Line extension)
Porter Square (between Harvard and Tufts, on Red Line)
Kendall Square (at MIT on Red Line)
Teele Square (near Tufts) and

Ball Square (near Tufts, will be on Green Line extension)
http://archive.boston.com/yourtown/specials/square_face_off/

The top 6 squares are among the 17 most livable Boston neighborhoods. They are described in the article linked below. The bottom 2 are not really residential, but they are walk-able from Tufts.
https://www.thrillist.com/lifestyle/boston/what-boston-neighborhood-should-you-live-in

Powderhouse Square and the Medford Hillside abut the Tufts campus and Medford Square is walk-able.

A few more squares will be connected by the Green Line extension which will terminate on the Tufts campus near Medford Hillside. Here is a map:
http://greenlineextension.eot.state.ma.us/documents/about/ProposedMap/projectMap.pdf

16

The relevance is that I was testing an algorithm for explaining how students flow within the Boston area and wanted some input from the “right bank” of the Charles River :slight_smile:

17

Northeastern was under consideration for my daughter. We ruled out the benefit of the COOP program when we saw that the early career salaries were lower for Northeastern than Tufts, despite the fact that Tufts had a much higher percentage of Arts and Humanities Majors. Going to school for an extra year in order to earn a lower salary did not seem like a benefit.

The culture at Tufts was a better fit, the student body seemed more cohesive, and there seemed to be more going on on campus and the immediate surrounding area.

18

Personally, I really dislike NYU. You will not get any kind of traditional college experience there.

If you really want to be urban, go for Northeastern. There’s a tram stop right there on campus. I don’t think Tufts is suburban, becasue getting to Boston is pretty quick. You can see it from campus. Tufts feels like a real college, and NE is bigger and busier. I like post 16 by @Mastodon . Let us know what you decide.

19

@Mastadon I agree with your analysis. But Somerville and Brooklyn being compared to each other ? Tufts is a better take for a lot reasons. Somerville is not one of them.

20

Not sure if construction is on schedule but for what it’s worth, Tufts is scheduled to have it’s own T stop on campus starting in 2020 and it is in basically the same location as the new engineering building on College Ave. I am a Tufts grad and worked summers and internships in Boston regularly while a student - it is no big whoop to get into Boston proper and it’s a pleasant walk to the T down a commercial drag with restaurants, coffee shops and the like on most days (plus there is a shuttle). Somerville has great restaurants, ice cream, etc. - the college bases are well covered and because Tufts is in a neighborhood apart from the downtown, these are also places where you can easily find your classmates. It does not feel suburban but you do have a “real” campus with a quad and green space - think more Carroll Gardens then Dumbo if you want a Brooklyn comparison.

My daughter looked at both Tufts and Northeastern and I think I would focus on the differences between the programs over the commute as it will have a much bigger impact on your next 4 years. Because of Northeastern’s unique Coop program, kids leave campus for semesters regularly and friendships are frequently interrupted plus it’s an extra year of school to receive the same degree. Tufts engineering program is very well regarded with brand new facilities- I know two current engineering students who are really happy there. One has been offered a full-time job at Google after she completed an internship there. Did you get to visit all 3 school’s campuses? You really can’t go wrong but go Jumbos! Congrats on 3 fine choices.