Tufts or Stanford?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tufts University
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<p>After coming back from Stanford admit weekend, I'm in a bit of a bind. Loved Palo Alto, and the campus was beautiful, but as a very liberal potential Women's Studies/IR Major, I'm feeling a bit out of place. Almost everyone I met was a engineering/economics major, and I've heard from former IR students that the department is VERY conservative (perhaps due to the influence of the Hoover Institute).</p>

<p>Ultimately, I can either attend Tufts, which has perhaps the best IR program nationwide, or Stanford, which is magnitudes more prestigious but a little too conservative for my tastes. I guess Penn is an option, but considering that I live a 20 minute walk from the campus, I don't think I actually want to go there. Thoughts?</p>

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<p>Tufts is a great school in a very college oriented area, so it’s just a great place to be with a huge variety of people, but Stanford is Stanford. An amazing school filled with smart passionate people. Good luck with your decision.</p>

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<p>^^ Are you saying you believe Stanford would be better (due to prestige) for your long-term career goals, but may be uncomfortable for the short time you are there?</p>

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<p>Not necessarily uncomfortable, but perhaps comparatively more comfortable at Tufts.</p>

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<p>@famouslastwords First off, congratulations! You must be very bright to have gotten into Stanford and Tufts. Based upon that, I’d surmise that grad school plans heavily into your future plans. </p>

<p>Stanford has cache, and when you tell someone you attend there you will hear the ego stroking wow, you must be smart. Almost everyone has heard of Stanford. Tufts on the other hand is well known in the NE and well known in academia as an excellent school (read high acceptance rates for grad school). You should ask yourself what is important to you, and then you will have the answer to the question of where you should attend (a highly personal question only you can answer).</p>

<p>Based upon your post, you already know but are looking for confirmation from others you are making the right decision. It feels strange to turn down a more prestigious school to attend one with a lower ranking (NOT read as inferior). </p>

<p>My 2c for what it is worth (won’t even buy a gum ball these days:-)). </p>

<ul>
<li><p>A schools reputation tends to be heavily weighted by its grad schools, as no one remembers or cares where you got your undergrad degree if you have a Masters or PhD. Does anyone really care where you went to high school once you have a bachelors?</p></li>
<li><p>You will very likely go to graduate school, so what matters is that you attend a school which is highly ranked for grad school admittance consideration. Tufts certainly fits this description.</p></li>
<li><p>You will spend 4 years of your life somewhere that will shape you for the rest of your life. Do you spend it somewhere where you feel (per your statements) closely aligns with your personality, style and interests, or do you spend it somewhere where you feel like a fish out of water?</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Become a Jumbo, feel good about your decision, and look forward!!! You will not regret it.</p>

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<p>

Yes, it’s too conservative, too Republican :)</p>

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<p>Congratulations, and go where you will be happiest, regardless of alleged “prestige”. My freshman D’s good friend and hall mate turned down Harvard last year for Tufts, strongly against the wishes of her family. She has never been happier and says it is the best decision she ever made. Only you can know where you feel most comfortable and will be happiest
good luck!</p>

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<p>I absolutely love Tufts, but here’s my advice re: the political component. Go to Stanford, because that is where you will encounter the best arguments that ‘the other side’ has to offer. If you go to Tufts, you will be around people who agree with you, which isn’t going to teach you nearly as much as you would learn if you are also around people who disagree with you. </p>

<p>The world is full of people who can recite ‘their side’s’ talking points. There are a dearth of people who can understand the other side, communicate with them, and grasp their arguments well enough to offer a rebuttal.</p>

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<p>Just my opinion, as are all our comments here. All of those who post here care about the students making critical decisions in their life, and each person will have a different perspective and different thoughts to consider.</p>

<p>@ariesathena makes a good point, one should always attempt to fully understand both sides of any discussion on a topic, even if the opposite opinion won’t sway yours. You will likely find a higher concentration of those with a conservative philosophy at Stanford, and a higher concentration of liberals at Tufts.</p>

<p>It would be a mistake to think that you will not find those with conservative opinions at Tufts just like it would be a mistake to assume you will not find those with liberal beliefs at Stanford. Yes, there will be a higher concentration of conservatives at Stanford and a higher concentration of liberals at Tufts. They are not homogeneous however, you will find a variety of opinions at both institutions.</p>

<p>Go where you feel comfortable, and where you believe you can further your education in the manner you wish to. You can obtain a very high quality education at both institutions. Both will allow you to get into top graduate schools if that is the path you want to follow. However, your experience over 4 years will vary dramatically based upon the choice you make. Only you can decide which is the best fit. There is no right or wrong answer, and don’t let anyone convince you that there is. There are far too many variables at play, and far too many variables in life itself.</p>

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<p>My son is conservative and is attending Tufts now. He absolutely loves it there. There is absolutely no pressure to follow everyone else. Schools in the northeast tend to be more liberal</p>

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<p>

At least ‘back in the day,’ those with conservative beliefs at Tufts definitely existed (although, often, quietly). I do remember someone saying that he disagreed with the conservatives, but respected their opinions and the way that they worked harder to ensure that their opinions were well-researched and articulated. </p>

<p>It’s a politically neutral thing - people who are going against the dominant campus political culture will often end up formulating better arguments, simply because they will be rebutted, not patted on the back, if they make a semi-lame argument.</p>

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<p>Why in message #4 (which is written by famouslastwords) does the attached note indicate that it was edited by vonlost?</p>

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<p>Hey - rather than offer any tangible advice, I’ll just offer this: I know students who made similar decisions to come to Tufts and wrestled with what you’re wrestling with now. If it would be helpful, I could put you in touch with them and you can just ask, “do you regret it?” </p>

<p>I’m a believer that your ability to rise and achieve depends a lot on how comfortable you feel getting inspired and encouraged by your peer group, so if one school makes you feel better than another, whatever the institution, you should go there. But, I can understand why this is tough for you. Anyway, send me an email, and I’ll connect you
 <a href=“mailto:daniel.grayson@tufts.edu”>daniel.grayson@tufts.edu</a></p>

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<p>“Why in message #4 (which is written by famouslastwords) does the attached note indicate that it was edited by vonlost?”</p>

<p>famouslastwords’ post had a significant typo that I corrected.</p>

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<p>OP, congrats and what a great problem to have!</p>

<p>Time is short, but if there’s any way for you to connect with some professors or students at both schools and ask them what they’d suggest you do
I’d do that. </p>

<p>Students do change majors, so regardless of reputation in one particular field it’s a good thing to choose a school where you’ll feel challenged and happy regardless of your eventual major. If you’d be happy at Tufts regardless of your major, that’s different than wanting to go there only for the IR department.</p>

<p>That said, one of Tufts’ great strengths is that the IR mentality infuses the entire campus, regardless of your department. I also think that the IR-esque offerings of the ExCollege, and especially of the EPIIC program, are utterly unique. </p>

<p>Best of luck!</p>

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<p>Thanks vonlost, I was wondering if there was a bug in the CC software….</p>

<p>Famouslastwords, Here are some things to consider taken from your post: </p>

<p>Despite the fact that you loved Palo Alto and thought that the Stanford campus was beautiful, (which usually lends a strong positive bias to a visit) you still felt uncomfortable. This worries me. People who are uncomfortable rarely excel at what they are doing. </p>

<p>A campus full of “engineers and econ majors” is probably not going to lead to a lot of scholarly debate on IR or women’s studies topics irrespective of political leanings.</p>

<p>Tufts culture is very welcoming, has a respect for alternative viewpoints and a non-combative nature. This is not true of all cultures, especially as you attempt to climb the “prestige ladder”. Defending your views against aggressive attacks or even an implicit bias is not conducive to learning, high academic performance or other campus opportunities.</p>

<p>A reason why “Tufts has one of the best IR programs in the country” is because it matches the Tufts culture (as to which one came first is an interesting chicken and egg problem) and people who are interested in IR tend to be a good match for the overall Tufts culture, irrespective of major. </p>

<p>Because IR is a very broad interdisciplinary major, people are less likely to switch out of the major and more likely to just change their concentration within the major (or switch to another major with an international focus).</p>

<p>There are other opportunities that come along with that culture (overall global perspective, global citizenship and travel abroad are some examples) that are not as pervasive in other campus cultures. Therefore, one can miss out on opportunities to differentiate oneself and excel by choosing an incompatible culture.</p>

<p>For example, Tufts has one of the highest percentages of people that enter the Peace Corps, while Stanford did not even make the list of top schools. With the Tisch College, Tufts is more active on the citizenship scale. There are other areas as well.</p>

<p>At Tufts there is the opportunity to spend a year abroad on Tufts’ program with Oxford. That program is compatible with your interests, would be an amazing learning experience and trumps Stanford in the prestige arena.</p>

<p>The fact that Tufts has one of the” best IR programs in the country” and Stanford does not actually makes Tufts more prestigious (for this particular discipline) among people versed in IR.</p>

<p>A quick look at the course offerings in women’s studies suggests that Tufts is stronger in this area as well which is also another indicator of differences in the respective cultures and opportunities.</p>

<p>According to recent cross admit data, 20% (and rising) of the people who are admitted to both Tufts and Stanford choose Tufts, 24% of the people who are admitted to both Georgetown and Stanford choose Georgetown and 33% of the people admitted to both Wellesley and Stanford choose Wellesley. My guess is that a reasonable portion of these are the people interested in IR and women’s issues. You would not be the first to turn down Stanford on those grounds.</p>

<p>My advice is go where you feel you can excel, because that will be the best for your long term career goals. </p>

<p>Once you are out in the world, it is your achievements rather than the name on your diploma that define you and your career.</p>

1 Like
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<p>My general view is that you should go where you think you’d be the happiest and could do your best work.
However, I also think that it’s pretty hard to turn down Stanford. The Stanford alums I know (which include those with liberal views) absolutely loved it.
Talk about your high class problems.</p>

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<p>Stanford is generally a happy campus - more so than the Ivies (except maybe Brown). My Stanford friends say positive things about their experience, BUT none of my Stanford friends felt at all uncomfortable when they visited and I don’t think that any of them would have had any difficulty turning down Stanford if they did not feel it was the best fit for them - either culturally or academically.</p>

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<p>Go to Stanford. It’s excellent in so many ways that Tufts isn’t. It’s also large enough for you to find your niche and be comfortable. It is a rare opportunity, don’t pass it up.</p>

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<p>This is not an easy choice. Both my kids ended up turning down a higher ranked school for a lower ranked one because they liked the department better. </p>

<p>I’ve visited Stanford, but with a future comp sci major in mind so we weren’t looking for the IR side of Stanford, but my best friend from a kajillion years ago went there and ended up in the Foreign Service. My guess is that if you are interested in the Asian end of IR it might be a better choice. It also certainly has more name recognition overall. </p>

<p>My younger son is doing IR at Tufts now (though he’s on a junior year abroad in Jordan now). There are a lot of things about the IR department which he finds annoying, and has said in retrospect he might have been better off majoring in history and only taking the IR stuff he really liked.</p>

<p>So random stuff.</p>

<p>IR at Tufts requires 8 semesters of a foreign language or fluency. My son is fine with the requirement, but it does eat up a lot of your schedule. BTW he loves the Arabic teachers, but they are extremely demanding - it is probably harder at Tufts than it is at most other schools. (He’s been to 3 different study abroad programs so he can compare.)</p>

<p>IR at Tufts seems to be dominated by political theory which it turns out my kid doesn’t really like as an approach.</p>

<p>IR at Tufts will not give you any credits for courses taken on your junior year abroad if it’s not a Tufts program and they have no programs in the Middle East. </p>

<p>Thankfully he is getting some Arabic credit - he doesn’t need Gen Ed courses since they are all in the area of his major.</p>

<p>No IR credit for EPIIC, by far his favorite course at Tufts, apparently it’s too hands on and real world oriented for the department. But he might tell you EPIIC and the Global Leadership Institute alone is worth attending Tufts for. Here’s the link to the page: [EPIIC</a> | Tuftsgloballeadership](<a href=“Programs | Tufts Global Leadership”>EPIIC | Tufts Global Leadership) This year’s topic is Global Health and Security, it was on Nuclear Issues last year, and it will cover issues in the Arab World next year. The class reads hundreds of pages every week, has speakers who actually work in the field of whatever the current year topic is, and students organize a symposium on the topic inviting leaders and academics in the field to share ideas in the spring. They also run a program aimed at high school students.</p>

<p>Finally Tufts IR isn’t really the Fletcher School.</p>

<p>Despite all his complaints, I think he really likes Tufts, and doesn’t regret attending!</p>