TUFTS vs. CORNELL vs. DARTMOUTH vs. WELLESLEY

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tufts University
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<p>So here's the deal: I got into Tufts, Dartmouth, Cornell, and Wellesley. Obviously I'm not going to base my decision on the responses that I get here but I would like to perhaps get helpful advice or feedback. I visited ALL of the schools this week and loved them all, but I think my top choices right now are Dartmouth and Tufts and I can't decide between them. I plan to major in psychology.</p>

<p>Here's the basics:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>TUFTS. I absolutely loved it, and I see myself there. The campus is perfect and I love the personal, intimate feel and undergraduate focus of the school. I also like that it is small and personal, which is what I was looking for in college. In addition, it is in Boston, and I lived in Boston for five years before moving to Mexico for high school, so I've been dreaming about coming back to Boston for college (hence I applied to Wellesley as well). I like having the city and having opportunities to meet and interact with other colleges, since Boston IS like a huge college town. However, people keep pushing the Ivy thing and saying that Tufts doesn't have as good academics and opportunities as schools like Dartmouth and Cornell. Personally I don't think this is true but I'd like to hear opinions as well.</p></li>
<li><p>DARTMOUTH. SOO much to do, so many opportunities and music clubs and groups (I'm also interested in participating in music), beautiful campus, outing club, Ivy League, amazing academics, etc. But I'm honestly not feeling the whole isolation thing, and even when I visited for one day I felt so far away from everything and I definitely didn't like that. I also don't like how involved in Greek life it is. But is it wrong for me to give up such amazing academics and reputation just because of isolation and Greek life? Honestly I just see myself more at Tufts, but am I giving up an amazing opportunity?</p></li>
<li><p>WELLESLEY. I honestly haven't done too much research because I don't know if the all-girls atmosphere appeals to me that much. But the cross-registration with MIT, location (near Boston), academics, etc. appeals to me. Don't know if it's worth it to consider it over Tufts, however, since I've just always been more Tufts over Wellesley.</p></li>
<li><p>CORNELL. Also wondering if it's okay to give up the entire Ivy thing and academics and opportunities just because it's soooo isolated. Also, it is so huge and I feel like I want a smaller, more personal feel. I visited and I felt like a little ant because it is just too big for my taste.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>So, what do you think? Any advice or more information on the colleges would be appreciated.</p>

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<p>Sounds like the only objection to Tufts is that “people keep pushing the Ivy thing and saying that Tufts doesn’t have as good academics and opportunities as schools like Dartmouth and Cornell”. Now, if you said that you wanted to end up doing investment banking (Dartmouth) or physical sciences (Cornell) I’d say that those particular schools might hold an edge, and you should consider that. But you’ve not said that.</p>

<p>So all I as a parent can tell you, based on my D1 who’s a junior at Tufts, is that Tufts absolutely, absolutely has great academics and opportunities. She came from a highly rigorous high school, and found that she was being challenged at Tufts. She’s taken grad classes at Fletcher (Tufts’ topnotch grad school in international relations), done the EPIIC program <a href=“EPIIC | Tufts Global Leadership”>EPIIC | Tufts Global Leadership; , travelled extensively, both via Tufts-funded programs and with friends who hail from overseas who’ve been happy to show classmates their home country in the developing world. Gotten great summer internships, had wonderful mentorship from professors, and has made contacts with people in outside firms who’ve told her to let them know when she’s graduating. The student body is, well, from one of her latest texts: “everyone at tufts is awesome and brilliant” which may be a slight overstatement :slight_smile: but she’s said she doesn’t see any difference in awesomeness and brilliance when comparing Harvard students to Tufts students. </p>

<p>I honestly can’t imagine what more any school could’ve offered her.</p>

<p>You’ve got four wonderful schools to choose from. ANY of them will offer you what I’ve just described above. So go with the one which feels like the best fit for you. And congratulations on having such a dilemma!</p>

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<p>OP: I posted a reply on your other thread!</p>

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<p>Great options! Posting on the Tufts board you are likely to get Tufts biased answers. First, Dartmouth is all by itself in a small town in NH. For those who love the atmosphere of Dartmouth that is great (and yes the greek thing is pretty big there). However, you do lose the cross-pollenization you get in a multi-college town like Boston, or the benefit of the varied atmosphere at a huge school like Cornell. Even if you are sitting in a coffee shop downtown it still feels like you are on campus 24/7. </p>

<p>Psychology is going to be strong at any of these schools. Tufts will have smaller into classes than Cornell, but probably bigger than Dartmouth or Wellesley. At the upper levels it probably makes no difference. Tufts is also uniquely strong on the child development side of psych if that interests you. Both Tufts and Dartmouth have nearby med schools if you are interested in medical/biological psych research. Probably less accessible at Cornell and Wellesley.</p>

<p>Music at Tufts is very strong and the school has ties with the New England Conservatory - including a dual degree program. My D2 is a singer and has been totally wowed by the talent, opportunities and the general campus enthusiasm for all kinds of musical performance. </p>

<p>I don’t think the issue is academics or academic opportunities. You will be as challenged as you want to be at any of these schools, surrounded by smart engaged students. The benefit of the ivy is the prestige - more people in the world have heard of Dartmouth and Cornell and know the caliber of the school. People in grad schools, and those who hire undergraduates will be familiar with the caliber and academics of Tufts. A Tufts degree will likely not be less valuable for future vocational plans. But Aunt Ethel or your next door neighbor will not necessarily know Tufts. If that is important to you you should go for ivy and the name recognition. Otherwise you need to go with your heart. Visualize your life at each of these schools and decide which will be the most engaging and fun.</p>

<p>By the way, back in the dark ages when I went to college I turned down an ivy for what most would call a “lesser” LAC. It was the right choice for me, and one I have never regretted.</p>

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<p>This was only posted on the Tufts subforum. I’m no future psychology major but I’m guessing that means something. Nevertheless, I’ll post this for posterity.</p>

<p>Regarding Cornell, I agree that the other schools are more likely to have a more personal feel.</p>

<p>However its location and size may not merit the negatives you attribute to them. There is a lot going on in Ithaca.
And there is a lot going on at Cornell, due to its size. Having myself and two kids now gone through college, my family has found that the combination of small school + small isolated town is indeed deadly. And any size school + big city is deadly; the vitality of campus life is just drained away as students fritter off into the city. But small city + big U is not deadly, there is enough going on, due to the university, yet it stays campus-centered.</p>

<p>We haven’t tried suburb + small school, or suburb+ mid-size school. The key, for me, would be the extent to which the experience stays campus-centered. When D1 stayed over at Wellesley her impressions were people vanished from the campus on weekends. Don’t know about Tufts.</p>

<p>The “feel like an ant” is a common first impression, but it dissipates rapidly as one navigates the sub-portion of campus that they actually need to use. Which generally turns out to be pretty small, initially. While leaving new vistas so as not to be boring later on. Think about it, if that campus size is such a problem, how could you ever get along in Boston? The contrary is, that campus size at a small school that you think is just perfect now may seem boring in two years.</p>

<p>The key appeal of Cornell is its diversity. Look at the registrar’s list of courses at your various choices and compare what there is that you can learn at each of them, as your interests may change and develop, in unpredictable fashion, over your college careeer. My D1 and I both wound up taking courses in several of its different undergraduate colleges, which other schools simply wouldn’t offer. courses relevant to psychology, for example, are offered in two of its colleges (at least), Personally I think its setting is also an advantage, I love Ithaca. but I didn’t realize that before I attended. And I never attended these other schools.</p>

<p>These are all good schools, of course, with various pluses and minuses that reasonable people may variousy weigh.
I’m not saying where OP should go, just wanted to offer what I might and highlight some things that might have been overlooked or weighed otherwise, by me at least…</p>

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First off, congrats!! I’m in the same boat between Tufts and Brown and honestly I say just go with your gut. If you can’t think of a concrete reason not to go to Tufts besides the fact that it’s not an ivy, don’t kid yourself! You’d love it (just based on your post I can tell, it’s the only one you wrote “I see myself there” about).

Sidenote - I am totally biased and am currently convincing myself that all this ebullience I feel for Tufts is worth more than the name recognition of an Ivy (just waiting on financial aid). But if you’ve already visited them all then you know deep down - sounds like you’ve already ruled out Cornell.

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You resurrected a thread from last year. Wonder where the OP chose to go.

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@ilovesushi2014 -

Lets cover the important stuff first:

If you are studying in the library at Tufts and you have a sushi attack, its available - right at the library cafe!

http://dining.tufts.edu/locations-hours/overview/the-tower-caf-at-tisch-library/

and the Tufts Culinary Society has identified some of the cheap sushi places near Tufts…

http://tastytufts.com/2012/01/26/where-to-have-your-affordable-sushi-around-tufts/

and they hold sushi making events :slight_smile:

https://www.facebook.com/events/380784458786140/

Now for the more mundane stuff:

Back in the olden days (before the invention of the Internet and the globalization of the world economy), USNews came up with a ranking system for US national universities based on the “Ivy thing”.

Recognizing that in this day and age some people might be interested in developing a more global perspective,
USNews recently released a new ranking system for identifying the best “global universities”.

Here are the results from the new system:

Cornell is ranked #42 in the world
Tufts is ranked #91 in the world
Brown is ranked #106 in the world
Dartmouth is ranked #242 in the world
University of Mexico is ranked #294 in the world

Since everybody who belives in the “Ivy thing” agrees that USNews is the ultimate authority when it comes to ranking, it should be obvious to them that some Ivies are more “national” than “global” universities. :slight_smile:

So, just think of the amazing opportunity you have to attend what might be the only “Top 100 Global University” that has the smaller, personal feel of a Liberal Arts College.

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/search?page=9&country=mexico&country=united-states

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@RenaissanceMom‌ I totally misread the date :frowning: my bad I was too excited