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</p>
<p>That’s interesting; in my experience, no one here has heard of Rice.</p>
<p>Interesting point. Is it Boston College that they are familiar with or is it simply that they know Boston is a great city and therefore any college with Boston in the name is automatically assumed top notch? If so, the University of Paris and the University of London would be top notch. Hmm maybe we are on to something. If only Tufts had called themselves Medford College…</p>
<p>That’s silly. People have heard of BC because of sports. But again, there is a distinction between a lay person and an educated person (to clarify, some people read more than others or are in the medical field or business world and know what Tufts is or what BC is). It’s funny people on here are assuming fact by their own experiences. Your anecdotal evidence doesn’t qualify as fact. </p>
<p>But Tufts is more selective than BC. Tufts not only has a higher acceptance rate (even though more people apply to BC) but they also have more people in the top 10% of their class and they have better average SAT scores for accepted and entering students.</p>
<p>Although we all have anecdotal evidence, it does give insight that regional factors play a huge role. In the Boston area, people will definitely see schools differently than in other parts of the country and even the world.</p>
<p>I also don’t understand why Rhodes Scholars are indicative of anything. For example, Tufts and Harvard tie with Fulbright scholars this year (17). Does that mean anything? (Hint: no).</p>
<p>“…there is a distinction between a lay person and an educated person.” Nice example of elitism!</p>
<p>There are 8000 Fulbright scholarships handed out annually whereas only 32 American Rhodes Scholars are selected each year.</p>
<p>[Fulbright</a> Program - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulbright_Scholarships]Fulbright”>Fulbright Program - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>[Scholarships</a> Home](<a href=“OURS National Scholarships – University California, Berkeley”>OURS National Scholarships – University California, Berkeley)</p>
<p>I would definitely disagree that after Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT (HYPSM) Tuft and BC are the most prestigious schools. </p>
<p>There are still Columbia, Cornell, UPenn, Brown, Dartmouth, the little Ivies (Amherst, Bowdoin, Bates, Colby etc), Caltech and the list just goes on and on. </p>
<p>I went to school in Cambridge, MA, and and around town we think BC is just decent. Better than BU, but no rock star status.</p>
<p>ickglue; Did you go to Lesley University or are you just too modest to say that you went to Harvard or MIT?</p>
<p>ha ha ha…I didn’t want people to think I was being biased or self-centered, so I left out where I went to school. </p>
<p>I went to Harvard.</p>
<p>You realize that Tufts is a little ivy, right?</p>
<p>And collegegrad1980’s…Rhodes Scholars have been around since the 1900. Tufts wasn’t even called Tufts University until like the 1950’s or whatever.</p>
<p>For some reason, there was a debate whether Tufts is a little Ivy (or the “little three”??) by my Amherst friends. But it could be just typical New England snobbery. </p>
<p>I think it has something to do with Tufts not being a LAC anymore or something.</p>
<p>Are you saying that they elected not to give Tufts College any Rhodes Scholarships from its founding in 1852 up to the name change in 1954 or that they have failed to include all the many they won prior to changing their name to Tufts University in 1954? I fail to see how the name change has any relevance.</p>
<p>Tufts is a good school no doubt, but I’m surprised your doctor mom didn’t think of Duke immediately. Maybe she wants you in Boston?</p>
<p>Duke and Notre Dame are top schools. While not ranked as high, Tufts has a very good national reputation along with fellow Massachusetts schools Brandeis, Holy Cross, Smith and Wellesley. Amherst and Williams while not known as well by the public belong in academic circles with the very best.</p>
<p>My point is that Rhodes Scholars doesn’t indicate academic prowess of a school. Institutions like Tufts weren’t good back in the day but now are becoming academic superpowers.</p>
<p>Tufts is a little ivy. The little ivies are based on the NESCAC. Tufts was once the size of a liberal arts but now is a national university. While still small, it’s an in between niche between liberal arts and national university. Here is the NESCAC website:</p>
<p>[New</a> England Small College Athletic Conference](<a href=“http://www.nescac.com/about/about]New”>http://www.nescac.com/about/about)</p>
<p>
I think you would have to include Wellesley along with Amherst and Williams as belonging in the very best, unless you think there is a meaningful distinction amongst the top 5 LACS (ranked by USNWR, Williams and Amherst are #1 and #2 this year, and Wellesley is #4).</p>
<p>OP: Yeah, so? Who cares if your mom thinks some people have more prestige? At the end of the day, if you get an MD, your a doctor. People who went to ND are doctors, so are people from BC, Tufts and Harvard.</p>
<p>Tufts is a “Little Ivy”?! NESCAC are the “Lttle Ivies”. A dozen colleges are the “Public Ivies”.
BC is one of the “New Ivies”…Ivy here, Ivy there, it gets more than tiresome…pretty soon every college will have some sort of “Ivy” moniker – once again proving that that is the standard by which all others are judged. </p>
<p>Sad that we cannot see that they are emerging in their own right, setting their own standards! Ivy - shmivy!!</p>
<p>^ Yes. Thank you Leanid.</p>
<p>Well said, Leanid.</p>
<p>It’s hard to believe some of the nonsensical “reasoning” being thrown about this thread. But alas, a number of people are caught in the US News web of ficticious “prestige.”</p>
<p>Agree Leanid. Enough with all the Ivy. There is only one ivy league. There is no such thing as a public ivy, a jesuit ivy, a little ivy, etc. The rest are just great schools, but they are not ivies and it immediately discredits people when they try and say it. It is like when someone says a school is the “Harvard of the __”, which is just as rediculous. </p>
<p>Tufts and BC are good schools, but not ivies and certainly not top 10 schools.</p>