<p>accepted to both</p>
<p>yeh, really different in many ways....putting city versus remoteness aside, any opinions?</p>
<p>academic interests include English, maybe philosophy, music, or psych</p>
<p>may like the greek scene</p>
<p>If you like frats, go to Colgate. If you like academics, go to Tufts.</p>
<p>lolabelle-- are you a Jumbo?</p>
<p>Colgate's not ALL Frats...they're very availible, but the academics here are TOP NOTCH. Even though Tufts is a small university, there's no way it can match the personal attention from professor you'll get at Colgate.</p>
<p>i should clarify that i enjoy the occasional party or 2, hence my mention of greek scene, but i have no first hand clue.</p>
<p>how about school spirit at each?</p>
<p>or how happy students are? i have older acquaintances from my school at both that seem very happy....is this a true sample?</p>
<p>some one has to have an opinion or 2 to help me out!</p>
<p>In my book, Tufts would have a big edge in both location and academics. But it depends on what YOUR priorities are.</p>
<p>An adult friend (who went to Haverford) told me recently, "you have your whole life to live in a city, go to college in a small town."</p>
<p>Colgate has very good alumni network but school is very rural.</p>
<p>is Tufts better academically?
generally speaking I thought Tufts & Colgate were about even reputation wise, given they are very different types of institutions.</p>
<p>Anyone know how good English departments are in either or both?</p>
<p>When I was choosing schools, I thought that the academic reputation of the two was similar or that whichever might be considered better; the difference was not enough to choose on that basis. I get the impression that Colgate has more school spirit from rallying around the rural community and Div-I sports. From going to Colgate and knowing many people who went to Tufts, I think I would enjoy the environment a lot more at Colgate and would agree with the point that you have your whole life to live in a city, but not to live in a such a unique community, but that's the kind of thing only you can decide for yourself.</p>
<p>You sound that you would like Colgate much better. Colgate has a smaller school experience. it also has a very good English dept. with approx. 10% english majors per year. It has a more preppy atmosphere which you may or may not like.</p>
<p>Tufts has the best of both worlds: the facilities and money of a research university but the feel and size of a LAC. As a result you get very individualized attention as the undergrad education is emphasized. </p>
<p>The English dept here is fabulous. I'm a double-major. PM me if you want</p>
<p>thanks lolabelle....I may contact you before I come to official visit days later this month.</p>
<p>& thanks everyone. even though these schools may seem very different, this is a tough decision, as both have interesting possibilities in my eyes.</p>
<p>My three choices are also Colgate and Tufts, but I've also been accepted at Bowdoin. I'm actually leaning toward Bowdoin. Any advice?</p>
<p>I think Tufts is generally better regarded academically than Colgate even though Colgate has come up in the rankings lately. Traditionally Colgate was a safety school among the LAC. Not so with Tufts. Also if you are planning to go to work after college before grad school, Tufts has a bigger national name.
But you can't go wrong with either and should pick the one that you think you would like more.</p>
<p>"Traditionally Colgate was a safety school among the LAC."</p>
<p>I don't mean to offend you, but this simply isn't true... Colgate's "traditional" reputation was slightly better than its current reputation, (from what I understand, anyway.) During the 60s, 70s, and early 80s, Colgate was considered on par with Amherst, Williams, etc... There are old CC threads dedicated to this, if you're interested.</p>
<p>Conversely, for awhile, Tufts was considered an Ivy safety school... This changed during the past five or so years.</p>
<p>Academically, Tufts and Colgate are regarded similarly... That is to say, very highly.</p>
<p>"Colgate's "traditional" reputation was slightly better than its current reputation, (from what I understand, anyway.) During the 60s, 70s, and early 80s, Colgate was considered on par with Amherst, Williams, etc" </p>
<p>I think I would generally agree with that but moreso because Williams and Amherst have really appeared to have risen in stature in the last 30 years, more than Colgate has really dropped. Since Colgate is larger than almost all LACs and has a tradition of playing the Ivy schools in sports, it just has a little more of a small university feel than most LACs; resultingly, its overlap schools for candidates are more Dartmouth and Cornell than Williams and Amherst, although certainly is both. Meantime, Tufts is probably more primarily in overlap with those also applying to Brown, Columbia, Yale and much less any LAC.</p>
<p>"Also if you are planning to go to work after college before grad school, Tufts has a bigger national name."</p>
<p>I'm not sure how much I agree with this. I think both schools are fairly well regarded and maybe give the slight edge to Colgate because of a more supportive alumni network. I know in the different Wall St positions that I've had that I've met many more people from Colgate than Tufts.</p>
<p>not that SAT scores for incoming freshmen line up precisely with academic quality, but was looking at SAT (M+V) 25%-75% ranges reported in us news....for freshmen classes entering fall of '05 (college classes of '09).</p>
<p>Tufts 1330-1480 (calculated midpoint of 1405)
Colgate 1280-1430 (calculated midpoint of 1355, 50 points lower than Tufts)</p>
<p>I also looked at Tufts factbook (couldn't find one for Colgate) and learned that Tufts has had a huge SAT increase over the last several years-- like 100 points on the 1600 M+V scale, from a little over 1300 midpoint to over 1400 lately. I don't know what Colgate's numbers were during Tufts' ramp-up, but I'd guess nowhere near the Tufts numbers.</p>
<p>so, to those of you in the know, is the difference in SAT ranges reflective of the relatively better academics at Tufts? Or has the Tufts change in student selectivity been so recent that the Tufts academic experience has not yet caught up? From what I read, Colgate academics seem steadily very solid.</p>
<p>"I don't know what Colgate's numbers were during Tufts' ramp-up, but I'd guess nowhere near the Tufts numbers"</p>
<p>I'm not sure what you mean by that, but I would interpret it as the opposite is true. From what recall, Colgate's median SAT was 1340, 1330, 1320 in the previous four years; so, if what you say about Tufts' increase is true, they probably roughly had very similar SAT median 4-5 years ago, but Tufts has increased faster since then. </p>
<p>I'm not sure how you expect the academic experience to catch up to a rise in SAT median. Probably 80% of the profs remained the same and the course offerings probably even moreso over that time period. I don't think HR depts for different firms are tracking USNWR or SAT avgs and suddenly started changing their recruiting schedules.</p>