<p>Can someone compare/contrast? I know of course that both Tufts and BC are significantly more selective than BU (and Tufts is quite a bit more selective than BC?) But can someone address other differences/similarities/strengths/weaknesses? Settings/campuses? I know how late in the day it is to even consider adding more schools to the list, but please humor me. Thank you!</p>
<p>I went to BU as an undergraduate and BC for grad school. They have two very different types of campuses. BU is a city campus and BC is more the typical college campus. I enjoyed both schools. If you want to be right in the city of Boston, BU is the place. If you want an enclosed campus with close and easy access to Boston, BC is the place. BU also has a larger undergraduate population than BC. Tufts is in Medford, a little distance away from Boston; Boston will not be as easy access as it is for the other two schools, but it is still close by. Both Tufts and BU will have a more diverse student body than BC.</p>
<p>Tufts is essentially two stops past Harvard on the Red T line plus maybe a half-mile walk. Boston is easy access. Boston College is farther from Boston, but its T stop is right in the middle of campus.</p>
<p>BC has twice as many undergrads as Tufts and BU has at least twice as many as BC. Tufts has a small undergrad engineering school. Tufts is a 10 minute walk from Davis Square (Red Line stop as mentioned above) with lots of trendy restaurants and nightlife. BU is a big in the middle of the city campus. Tufts is very much in a residential neighborhood, but with easy access to the big city. My son, for whom Tufts was quite a reach, has been working so hard he hasn’t seen much of Boston yet, though he did go to a concert early in the semester.</p>
<p>S2 is at Tufts. The Davis Square T station is a ten minute walk from the “downhill” part of campus (I’ve done it myself), and there is also the Joey (campus shuttle) which takes folks from Davis Square to various points around campus. He has gone into Boston several times and says it’s easy. He used public transit in the DC area before heading to college, so it’s not a big deal for him.</p>
<p>There are a lot of amenities in Davis Square – a great butcher shop, banks, CVS, restaurants, bars, yoga, karate, etc. that I suspect a lot of kids never go much farther from campus.</p>
<p>S2 looked at BU and decided it was bigger (~18,000 UG) than he wanted and that our flagship offered at least as good an education for substantially less money. BU is less selective in terms of admissions than Tufts and BC. There was an article in the NYT a year or two ago about their FA process – basically, the more they want you, the better the FA package. <a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/education/edlife/finaid-pappano-t.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/education/edlife/finaid-pappano-t.html</a> I was impressed they opened up their process for the NYT. All three schools want to be shown the love. </p>
<p>We have friends whose D went to BU in the major S2 is studying and she was very happy. Tufts had stronger IR, a LAC focus and he liked their approach. Tufts has a fairly extensive supplemental app. Never looked at BC.</p>
<p>BC has Business, A & S, Education and Nursing.</p>
<p>BC is big on sports.</p>
<p>BU has engineering.</p>
<p>Boston University has a lot of ethnic (especially asian) food eateries
nearby that are just west of the campus.</p>
<p>BC has a T stop on the northeastern corner of the campus (the end of
the Boston College line on Commonwealth Avenue). There is also a T
stop about a ten minute walk from the southwestern corner of the
campus. And there is another T stop about a ten minute walk from the
southeastern corner of the campus at the end of the Cleveland Circle
line.</p>
<p>Boston College has a nicer main library than Boston University. I’ve
never visited the libraries at Tufts even though I did live near the
campus (in Somerville) for a while. There are parts of Somerville that
are not so nice but Tufts isn’t near those parts.</p>
<p>If you want to do things right in Boston, then Boston University will
be the most convenient.</p>
<p>(Undergrad at BC, Grad at BU)</p>
<p>I don’t know if financial aid is an issue for you but if it is:</p>
<p>Tuft’s offers no merit aid, they are need based only. However their aid package, for my D, was significantly better than BCs.
BC and BU (I’ve heard - but D didn’t apply there) offer much lower aid packages to “local” students.</p>
<p>BC has no engineering program.</p>
<p>wrt finaid, Tufts is need-aware in admissions, but will meet full need if you are accepted. BC is big on D1 sports, and it part of the fabric of the college (no, not to the extent of an SEC school!). Tufts is D3, so ‘school spirit’ is a less; BC is probably more socially conservative than Tufts.</p>
<p>My older D and her husband are Tufts grads ('05). Both had great experiences–academically and socially (they met there as juniors and got married last year). As others have noted, Tufts has a smaller UG student body than the other two and is probably the most selective of the three. It has easy access to Boston, but BU is right in the city and BC borders the city (it’s closer to Boston than Tufts). BC is a D1 school and there seems to be more focus on sports. Tufts is a D3 school and part of NESCAC league–sports isn’t a big part of the campus culture. Many Tufts students go abroad junior year; if you go to a non-English speaking country you’ll need to take two years of the language. Don’t know if it’s similar at BC or BU. </p>
<p>All three can provide a student with an excellent education–if I were choosing, I’d focus on the school that offered a strong program in the area I wanted to pursue and that had a campus culture that was comfortable for me and financially within reach.</p>
<p>small nit/correction: BC’s campus straddles the Boston City line. </p>
<p>Legally, ~half of BC’s main campus (aka “Lower Campus” where the T stops) is in the City limits of Boston. The other (“Upper”) portion is in Chestnut Hill, a village of Newton, MA.</p>
<p>BU has created a University Honors College ([University</a> Honors College | Boston University](<a href=“Kilachand Honors College”>Kilachand Honors College)) that provides a more rigorous curriculum. BU’s Charles River campus (there’s also the medical campus in the South End) is more linear in design. BC’s campus is more self-contained. Tuft’s campus is also self-contained but more open to the neighborhood.</p>
<p>BC also has a campus between Newton Center and Newton Corner. They are also trying to purchase one or more buildings off campus for residences and they’re getting static from Mayor Menino on loss of property tax revenues from such a transfer.</p>
<p>I’d also add, Tufts feels smaller than it is, since Med School, Vet School and probably some others aren’t in Medford.</p>
<p>BC seems to have the best location,Chestnut hill is between Brookline and Newton,two nice suburban towns.</p>
<p>“BC seems to have the best location,Chestnut hill is between Brookline and Newton,two nice suburban towns.”</p>
<p>Like many suggested, it depends on what you like. If you like the middle of the city within walking distance to Fenway park and a chance live in the posh high rise with view of Boston skyline, BU would be the one. BC is also very urban but not exactly downtown while Tufts would be the least urban of the 3 with more of a LAC feel.</p>
<p>[Boston</a> University’s new high-rise dorm - Boston.com](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/realestate/gallery/09_01_09_BU_dorms_open/]Boston”>http://www.boston.com/realestate/gallery/09_01_09_BU_dorms_open/)</p>
<p>I wouldn’t consider BC. Newton is a suburb of Boston with Brookline as a buffer. The part of Boston College that is most urban is the northeast corner. The other three corners are solidly suburban.</p>
<p>Tufts is kind of in the middle. East Somerville is urban while the western part is more suburban.</p>
<p>I’m surprised that no one has mentioned that BC is a Catholic Jesuit school. I don’t know how much impact that has on the student body, however.</p>
<p>I enjoyed our tours of BC and Tufts. Both are beautiful campuses. (Both kids ended up persuing engineering. Even though Tufts has it, for son that was looking it was too liberal-artsy. For the right kid it could be a wonderful blend.) </p>
<p>I’ve read about many students loving BU and its city vibe. We’ve only passed it on the T, and it just seemed too much like a “strip mall campus”. Our kids wanted a more traditional campus and we did not tour BU.</p>
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<p>It served mainly Irish Roman Catholics back in the 1970s but it has changed considerably since then.</p>
<p>We visited and my D applied to all 3. The previous posters described the campuses, so I will add she was rejected by Tufts/deferred EA and accepted RD by BC/accepted by BU with small merit aid. I think a lot of BU scholarships are tied to need; we did not have a lot of demonstrated need. She was struck by the lack of diversity when visiting BC on accepted students day. Plus we would have been full pay there. She was raised in a rather liberal Irish Catholic family, so that would not have been an issue. She ended up at GW (with merit scholarship) and is very happy with her choice.</p>