I recently stumbled upon Tufts’ common data set (https://provost.tufts.edu/institutionalresearch/files/CDS_2018-2019-Final.pdf), and I noticed that many important sections were left blank.
According to the 2018-2019 common data set, Tufts does not consider SAT/ACT (section C8A) for its first-year admissions which is not true. After some research, I found that Brown made the same exact mistake which translated into a ranking drop that year. Brown checked ‘require’ for SAT/ACT in the subquestion but did not mark ‘yes’ to the main question, “Does your institution make use of SAT, ACT, or SAT Subject Test scores in admission decisions for first-time, first-year, degree-seeking applicants?” Tufts made the same mistake for this year’s CDS, and it is very likely that Tufts’ ranking will suffer on the US News this fall if the admissions office does not fix it soon.
Moreover, Tufts apparently does not offer PhD degrees according to the 2018-2019 Common Data set, and that is obviously not true (Section A5). I found that other important sections, other than these two, were also left blank, and all these appear to be clerical mistakes on the university’s behalf. I’m left wondering, why is Tufts keep making mistakes on its CDS which the US News uses to rank schools? If Tufts is continuing to participate in the US News, why don’t they take necessary time/ effort to fill out the document thoroughly as all other schools do?
It almost seems counterintuitive when other schools are playing the ranking game, Tufts is continuing to make mistakes in “simply” reporting its data to the US News to its detriment. Simply looking at the CDS, I think that it shouldn’t be that difficult to fill out this document (after all, other schools don’t seem to make mistakes on CDS as frequently as Tufts has done recently)… Also, not that the US News ranking is be-all and end-all, but it is definitely an important metrics which shapes the university’s public reputation and prestige, ultimately the undergraduate’s tangible quality. I certainly think that Tufts’ recent clerical mistakes have impacted the university’s selectivity and ranking which could have been avoided entirely. So why is Tufts continuing to make these mistakes??
Any thoughts on this? I like that Tufts doesn’t care much about its rankings, but I think that they shouldn’t make obvious mistakes such as this.
I believe someone could give them a call or email the admissions counselor who filled out the common data set and ask why, as his email is listed in the CDS as alexander.most@tufts.edu. While I do not know when Brown did not fill out the box, I do think that it may have been to other factors (such as not reporting top 10% of class rank, I know Brown did that one year and led to a ranking drop). After all, Tufts did fill out the box indicating that SAT/ACT scores would be required and that’s only assuming if “yes” was filled in the previous box.
Also, I believe that Ph.D. degrees are not considered in U.S. news ranking of undergraduate institutions. And why the SAT/ACT score ranges in the common data set are different from those on the admissions website are also of concern.
I assume the SAT numbers on the website are those of admitted students while the numbers in the common data set are those of attending students. College Board Access has the same SAT data as the common data set.
Institutional reporting departments fill out the CDSs, not admissions. Colleges are not required to fill out CDSs at all, and can choose to only fill in certain sections. Further, there is great variance as to how schools calculate certain CDS values, for example. average GPA.
Bottom line, there is no oversight of CDSs, nor is there any penalty for incorrect information. I have found most IR departments are responsive to questions about CDS content.
I’m the one of the people who reached out to the office of institutional research and the admissions office to fix the lack of top 10% information on last year’s common data set. If no one else has contacted the person listed above, I’ll do it no problem
@ucfdefere You might as well do it. Especially since they already know you.
It seems that their institutional research dept. is either under-staffed or sloppy. I like the idea of this informal, unofficial “citizen review board” reviewing the school’s submission every year and following up.
Updating this thread to say that I haven’t contacted Tufts nor do I plan to. I don’t really know how I would approach the school, and I’m burnt out about what happened with the top 10%. I’m past my phase of obsession with Tufts’ ranking, so if anyone else feels the need to contact the admissions office and the center for institutional research that’d be great
While on this topic, I also saw a massive discrepancy in SAT scores, if one compares CDS with the Tufts Factbook (https://provost.tufts.edu/institutionalresearch/files/Fact-Book-2018-19.pdf). This all seems far too sloppy to be accidental.
It would be more impactful if you said what you thought the discrepancy is. I saw no discrepancy for 2018-2019 between the 2, certainly not one that was “massive.”