So I haven’t actually started my freshman year at tufts, but in the recent months I’ve zeroed in on what I want to study: environmental science and architecture. I love tufts and the students there, and may even prefer it overall to Brown, but Tufts isn’t very strong in architecture. Brown has a new architecture concentration and since it’s designed to be a cooperative one with RISD, it seems pretty strong. But Tufts did recently acquire the MFA, which could potentially make Tufts’ architectural studies major, particularly the studio portion, amazing. On the other hand, Tufts’ environmental studies program seems to trump that of Brown’s.
I plan to go to grad school straight from undergrad to get my mArch degree. Does anyone know if Brown’s placement into mArch programs is better than Tufts’? I would probably apply to schools like Ivies, MIT, Rice, WashU, Cambridge, and Oxford (I did get into WashU for undergrad and their architecture program is great, but it’s very hard to double major if one major is architecture. Plus, I couldn’t see myself in Missouri).
That’s about it. Thanks!
This is the kind of worrying that people do when they are ‘between’. You haven’t even started studying those subjects yet. Speaking as the parent of a student who wouldn’t even apply to a given college (b/c the only interesting thing about it was X, and she wasn’t really interested in X), and who is now about to start grad school at that very college (yes, to study X): enjoy this time of thinking and imagining. And when you are actually taking arch & enviro classes, allow yourself to keep refining what parts are the most interesting to you- there are a lot of directions you could go.
Grad school admissions are very, very different than undergrad. Your admission to grad schools will be based much more on the case you can make for yourself in that field.
Also, by then you will know more about you and your subject and the type of program you want. You might find, for example, that Georgia Tech’s program (ranked #18 in the world) suits you better than Cornell’s (ranked #21 in the world), or that you prefer Delft (#3) over Harvard (#7). The student above turned down the #2 and #4 ranked programs in her field, choosing the one ranked #9 b/c it was the best fit for her interests (tbh, I don’t think there’s a meaningful difference between, say, the top 15-20 programs in most subjects, but the point is, there is more than ranking to consider). I know another student who turned down Cambridge for Manchester for her PhD, b/c the leading expert in the world in her particular specialty is at Manchester, and the work he will do there will be genuinely cutting edge.
tl;dr: " Does anyone know if Brown’s placement into mArch programs is better than Tufts’?" There is no meaningful difference.
At least Tufts has an architectural major. If you plan on attending grad school, it won’t even matter whether you were at Tufts or Brown, and I’m sure both schools have fantastic placement for jobs and grad school. An undergrad degree in architecture isn’t even necessary to become an architect.
But why even worry about this if you haven’t even gotten into Brown yet? Go to Tufts and if the department or education seems inadequate to you, by all means, apply for a transfer. But you haven’t even been accepted to Brown let alone experience Tufts. You are putting the cart before the horse.
Thanks guys! I think I’m overthinking this… I haven’t even started school yet. And, who knows, maybe I won’t even be interested in these subjects come my sophomore year.