I saw that Tufts was ranked 27 by US News and World report (32nd on Forbes). For me at least, I saw tufts to be deserving of a much higher ranking. Is this the ranking most people see it as? Where do you think tufts deserves to be on this ranking and what are its peer schools in prestige.
Um… that’s a really good ranking. Don’t buy into this “T20” hype that some people around here seem to be stuck on. There are way more than 20 great colleges in the US.
In terms of recognition in nation publications, Tufts makes a nice appearance in this Forbes article:
I will have to say that while Tufts’ students are definitely of a higher caliber than what it is ranked at (probably around 15-25 along with schools like Georgetown, Emory, WashU), the administration ultimately does not know how to improve Tufts’ graduate programs or fundraise properly. They can barely afford to pay their dining hall workers, as there was a protest earlier this year to help dining hall workers receive the payment package they deserved.
The main reason is that Tufts is lacking in endowment in comparison to many of these aforementioned schools (with the exception of Georgetown, which has established name recognition in DC), which is likely why it is increasing its entering class size yearly to generate more endowment from student tuition. To reach the same caliber as these other schools, Tufts needs to work on stronger, research focused graduate programs as well as generate more funding. Small classes, the liberal arts focus, and the high academically student body are what make Tufts special, but these are not the factors can get Tufts to be ranked as high as these other schools. Tufts really needs more funding and better graduate programs for itself to even be ranked close to these other schools which have similar undergraduate student bodies. Look at UCLA, CMU, Emory, USC, Cornell, etc. These schools all have higher endowment and better graduate programs even though their student bodies are academically similar to that of Tufts. I think the administration is trying (https://tuftsdaily.com/news/2019/04/17/tuition-fees-increase-next-academic-year/), but for Tufts to really improve its ranking and become a T20, it still has a long way to go in terms of endowment and grad programs.
To counterbalance the point about graduate programs, if Tufts’ undergraduate college were ranked as a LAC, it almost certainly would be in the Top 5. The academic quality of the student body is on par with Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, Pomona etc. and the faculty and institutional resources are fantastic.
If Tufts were in the U.S. News National Liberal Arts Colleges category, it might place highly, but I’d think outside the top five. By admission statistics, Tufts would be pretty typical of many of the top ~20 schools. By ACT score profile, for example, Tufts matches Hamilton (#16) and slightly exceeds Bowdoin (#5). By the percentage of students enrolling from the top 10% of their high school classes, Tufts places near (but just below) both of these schools as well. However, in an example of another component statistic, alumni giving percentage, Tufts would be outside the top 100 among NLACs. More substantially, Tufts’ endowment per student, which indirectly contributes to several USN metrics, falls somewhat below that of fellow-NESCAC Trinity (#46).
Seems that Tufts needs to recruit a top-notch, track-record-proven development head. Everything will change when the university gets that sorted. Endowment/student would rise. Dorms and other facilities could be upgraded and expanded. Maybe they could go back to need-blind admissions.
@merc81 - Endowment per student can be a very inaccurate proxy for instructional spending per student (some schools spend heavily on administration and amenities). There is a website where instructional spending can be directly accessed. https://www.howcollegesspendmoney.com/about. I created a report for the top 20ish LACs, exported it to a spreadsheet and averaged the last two years to smooth the data. I added Tufts and Trinity. If you take out the Naval and Military Acadamies (aircraft carriers and tanks are expensive) Tufts is ranked #4 and Trinity spends quite a bit less than the lowest ranked school I included.
*United States Naval Academy 48244
1.Williams College 44875
2.Middlebury College 43731
*United States Military Academy 39147
3.Swarthmore College 38335
4.Tufts University 37820
5.Pomona College 37689
6.Wellesley College 37651
7.Amherst College 37639
8.Harvey Mudd College 37030
9.Smith College 34047
10.Washington and Lee University 33517
11.Hamilton College 32944
12.Bowdoin College 32376
13.Claremont McKenna College 31146
14.Carleton College 30846
15.Vassar College 30182
16.Haverford College 29947
17.Colby College 28351
18.Grinnell College 27926
19.Soka University of America 27502
20.Colgate University 26445
21.Davidson College 26000
22.Bates College 25855
23.Connecticut College 25368
Trinity College 23402
Seriousely? Rankings are fairly meaningless, especially when they are developed by people who have little understanding of academia or academics.
This is exactly demonstrates my point. Except for the last bit recommending need-blind admissions, not one of these points will improve the quality of teaching and research at Tufts, and not one will help the mission of a college, as an academic institution, yet all will increase its ranking.
Tufts is ranked 29th this year in the USNWR rankings, tied with UNC Chapel Hill and the University of Rochester. It seems quite difficult for Tufts to move the needle, given that many higher ranked schools appear to be able to improve more quickly. Tufts appears to be treading water.
Tufts almost should be on the LAC list. Maybe Dartmouth too…