I am stuck between Tufts and Amherst. I am looking to major in business/economics field. Can someone give me pros/cons of both?
AFAIK, neither one of them has a business major. They are both liberal arts schools (except for the engineering at Tufts). Both are great college areas, but Amherst is in a rural environment with a great college town, while Tufts is adjacent to Boston. Tufts is also a little bigger. Both are amazing schools. I think it comes down to personal preference. I wouldn’t think that either one would give you any material career advantage over the other one.
In what sense are you stuck between them? Have you submitted applications to both of them?
I actually play football and both schools are supporting my application meaning that I have basically been accepted into each school. The football aspect does not matter to me. I just am trying to get a feel for each school.
You would do best at either of these schools if you have broad academic interests.
Amherst is purely undergraduate focused and has a strong economics program.
Tufts is certainly not weak in econ either.
(“Economics Departments at Liberal Arts Colleges”; US Economics Departments." Analyses from IDEAS. Available online.)
Tufts isn’t just “somewhat” bigger than Amherst, it’s about quadruple the size of Amherst, even if you don’t count the graduate students on its Medford campus. Amherst operates from within more of a campus bubble than Tufts. Thats true of most LACs and some people find it appealing. Tufts, like many eastern state, private universities, started out as a LAC, but I think its proximity to Boston may be a confounding factor.
Academically they are both strong schools with a slight edge to Amherst in most rankings. Can you go spend time at both schools? They have very different “feels.” Amherst is a small school in a charming but tiny town surrounded by other small schools in small towns (with exception of U.Mass Amherst which is a big school in a small town). I know two city kids, for whom it was too small and they transferred to mid size schools in cities. Tufts is a bigger school in a suburb of Boston. Cambridge and Boston are probably 20 minutes away (though I’m not sure how often Tufts students get off campus).
I don’t know Amherst at all. My son was at Tufts. A large number of students major in international relations, many with an econ focus. (IR and Econ are the most popular majors.) http://provost.tufts.edu/institutionalresearch/tuci/student-outcomes/top-undergraduate-majors/ Tufts students tend to be very engaged politically and interested in discussing policy. Davis Square a ten minute walk from campus is a hopping place, and you have everything that Boston has to offer as well. Class sizes with a few exceptions are small. My son had very few TAs. Study abroad is very popular and Tufts runs four of its own study abroad programs.
Can you visit? They are really very different and I think you really have to spend time at each to understand how you’ll feel about either.
Neither school has business. I believe they both have economics. The main difference is one is a LAC and one is a mid-sized university close to Boston. It is a matter of personal preference which environment woudl work better for you.
My D seriously considered and visited both.
The area immediately around Tufts was so-so but Davis Square was cool and proximity to Boston was appealing. Amherst is a small town but it’s a college town with another school with 25K kids so it’s pretty lively, and well served by public transportation to the other 5 schools (and bus/train service direct to big cities).
Econ is Amherst’s most popular major. At Tufts it’s IR but Econ isn’t far behind.
As far as football…Amherst is #1 in NESCAC this year (and most years I think) but Tufts is #3, so not a huge difference there though of course there are other factors for a potential player.
There aren’t any TAs teaching at Amherst, all classes are taught by professors. There are student TAs who help grade papers and such.
IDK if financial aid will be a factor. If so Amherst likely has the edge there since it doesn’t put loans in FA packages.
You’re going to hike up and down hills at both 
Tufts isn’t quadruple the undergrad size of Amherst - it’s 1800 v 5200. Plus on any given day there are +200 students at Amherst from the other 4 colleges.
They are both great schools with really low acceptance rate and very high GPA/SAT/ACTs.
Amherst is harder to get into, their raw admit rate is lower, and on top of that they are smaller so a larger % of the class gets in on athletics, etc.
But both are highly, highly selective - anyone getting into either would be a competitive candidate at just about any school in the country.
Amherst is always going to score higher on the prestigosity scale and the various rankings. It’s comparing a perennially ranked #1 or #2 LAC v. a school that’s outside the Top 25 national. In addition, Amherst has a status going back generations, while Tufts is more of an up and comer as far as really top tier ranking, selectivity, yield rate, etc. (I think even 5 years ago Tufts had a 26% acceptance rate, and 10-20 years ago it was much higher). I’d think that of kids who are lucky to get into both, most would pick Amherst. But Tufts is a great school.
If you have full support from the coaches at both schools, you must have visited both of them.
What did you think?
At risk of derailing, I must chime in to mention that this isn’t actually the case. It’s quite possible to be a supported (“tipped”) recruit without visiting.
True. “Must have visited” is a bit of an overstatement.
Although most do seem to visit.
I would think esp. for fully supported (“slotted”) recruits, as opposed to recruits who are only promised a “tip.” Coaches don’t get too many slots (generally, 14 or so for football and 2 for all other sports), and as a coach I wouldn’t want to risk one of my few slots on a kid who hasn’t even visited the school.
But, with NESCAC, there’s almost no hard and fast rule for anything, recruitment things vary quite a bit from school to school, and even coach to coach within the same school. So, I have no doubt it is possible to be a tipped recruit, or even a slotted recruit, without visiting.
Anyways, if the OP visited both, it would be interesting to hear his impressions.
Well, if you’re going to get technical about it, Tufts has ~1400 graduate and professional students on its Medford/Somerville campus, which would bring its total foot traffic to around 7000 students.
I already visited Amherst in early December and liked it. In a few weeks, I will be visiting Tufts so I will make my decision afterwards. I am leaning towards Amherst right now, but I have to visit Tufts first. My one concern with Amherst though is how small it is and the social life.