<p>Why can't you visit? Its important.Where do you live now? Could you make arrangements to talk to engineering students at Duke? Name recognition could matter, depending on where you are ultimately planning to live. Tufts is not as well-known on west coast.</p>
<p>Duke's campus is beautiful. I don't think you will find it as conservative as you imagine.</p>
<p>I agree with previous posters. You continue to say how much you love Tufts but with Duke it's about prestige and rank. My D is very, very happy she turned down JHU and chose to drop off the wait list at Stanford because Tufts was where she loved to be. Tufts may be in Medford, but it is definitely north-east, liberal, Democratic. My freshman (now Sophomore!) D was in the city a lot! Go with your feelings and stop second guessing!</p>
<p>The name of either school won't get you past the first 25 seconds of conversation on the west coast, unless you are talking about basketball.</p>
<p>The difference in rank is made up mostly of the fact that Tufts exists in the shadow of Harvard, and most of the so-called peers who do the ranking wouldn't know how to find the bus to get there from Harvard Yard.</p>
<p>Duke is asking for a decision on friday if they give me the new fin aid offer on monday, or for a decision monday if they give me the offer by tuesday.</p>
<p>Monday I have an AP test, this week I have a ton of school work to do, and thursday/friday/saturday i have a Model UN conference at the United Nations I've been planning on attending for months, and I've put about $172 into attending. So I virtually have no time to attend. I could leave monday night if they gave me the offer monday but i really, really don't want to miss tuesday/wednesday if i'm going to miss thursday and friday already. I've missed so much school already. I understand college is for the next for years, but organizing a trip now would just be impossible.</p>
<p>Of course OP loves Tufts - OP was set to go to Tufts and has had over a month to begin loving it, while OP never got the chance to visit Duke. </p>
<p>Find out more about Duke. My guess is you would love both schools if you had an equal opportunity to do so.</p>
<p>What about travel costs? If Duke comes in with similar aid, do they budget enough for travel? Is one closer to home or easier to get to? Travel can add a lot to school costs and FA packages don't usually budget enough in to account for that. It may be something else to consider. (That being said, if you like Tufts - go there!)</p>
<p>X
Can you fly down on Sunday and return Tuesday night? If you tell Duke your intentions, they may give you the extra days.</p>
<p>Both are terrific schools. I just think you'll avoid regrets if you visit both before making final decision.</p>
<p>It's really a shame you don't have time to visit Duke because that would probably clarify things for you.</p>
<p>One thing you might consider is where you want to work when you get out of college. If you want to stay in the Northeast, going to Tufts would be an advantage because employers would know about the school. My daughter has a friend who just graduated from Tufts engineering with a 4.0 and didn't have any problems getting a job in the Boston area. My husband, who has a MSEE from Tufts, didn't even have to look for a job when he graduated. The dean of the engineering program recommended him for a job which he took. The dean also gave him consulting and lab instructor jobs while he was in graduate school. The nice thing about the engineering program at Tufts is that it's small and you get a lot of personal attention. I believe the engineering program at Duke is very good, but a Duke degree might be more valuable if you are working in the south.</p>
<p>definitely ask Duke for the extra weekend, so you can visit. $200k investment is surely worth a plane ride.</p>
<p>Well, I know this is going to sound ridiculous, but on sunday I was planning on going to an amusement park, monday I have a model congress trip, and on tuesday I had won tickets to a yankees red sox game...so if i missed all of those, yes, I could probably visit duke. I don't know if they will give me extra time to go down memorial day weekend, that's a while from now.</p>
<p>I think if I visit duke I will end up liking it a lot, and then making my decision even harder (currently I am leaning toward tufts, but I havent seen dukes new fin aid offer)</p>
<p>On another note, I don't think I would ever want to live in the south. I would be much more likely to live in the northeast. I do plan on going to graduate school as well, which makes me feel like my terminal degree will be the only one that will matter. Though, if both schools are similar in cost, it's hard to choose again.</p>
<p>For someone trying to make a huge decision, you have some pretty trite excuses about not making the trip to Duke. You really don't want to visit, so don't and just move on with your choice of Tufts. Sorry to sound unkind, but when I hear about amusement parks and baseball games and then you are asking for advice on where to go to college, I have to question how serious/mature you really are. Go back and read your own posts. You have already made your decision.</p>
<p>Unregistered - I don't think you realize how close Tufts is to Boston and Cambridge. It's a ten minute walk from the Tufts campus to the subway to Boston. My daughter goes into Boston every day, mostly because she is in the dual degree program, but she would still go in all the time if she weren't.
It takes less than 1/2 hour to get into Cambridge and probably 40 minutes or less to get into Boston. Many Tufts students go into Boston every weekend. One of the main reasons my daughter picked Tufts was its proximity to Boston.</p>
<p>blucroo, I do take offense to that comment. I want to visit Duke very much. I am appauled that you question my intentions. I have put a considerable amount of money into that amusement park trip, and I am committed to the model congress trip. This is not to mention I never said I wouldn't miss them. Any sensible person would regret doing the same thing, and I was simply pointing out the fact that I had previous engagements I would have to cancel. I'm not even sure if I will have that long to make my decision anyway. If I get my fin aid offer today, I have until friday, which is before all of that and in the middle of my Model UN trip to the UN in NYC.</p>
<p>I don't appreciate you questioning my maturity. That being said, I am at fault for putting my reasons for not being able to attend Duke on a message board, to have inconsiderate people such as yourselves ridicule me for them.</p>
<p>This is a serious decision for me, and if I feel that I need to visit, I will. Duke has not sent me my final aid offer, and I have a week from when they do. When I know my absolute deadline, I will plan accordingly to whether I need to visit or not. (E.G. If their offer comes nowhere near to tufts, there is no point in me visiting, which is why I canceled my trip last weekend after their offer was 10K less than Tufts offer) </p>
<p>If Duke does not respect my inability to visit in the time I am allotted, and does not offer me additional time to plan a trip, then that tells me something about the university. They have already placed me on a waitlist, while Tufts wanted me originally. This sort of this is important to me. I want to be at a place where I will feel comfortable.</p>
<p>I am not made of money, and a trip from north carolina to new jersey is time consuming and expensive. Again I thank you for your own very trite and unecessary remarks. I will visit Duke if I find it feasible and necessary.</p>
<p>Xeneise~it does seem that you are leaning toward Tufts, so maybe that should be your decision. I sense a little bitterness about Duke having originally waitlisted you--that's a normal reaction. It also says that you have an emotional interest in sticking with Tufts.</p>
<p>That being said, I will say that if the money is the same, and you have the opportunity to visit Duke, you may change your mind. We have been to Tufts, and S1 did not apply there--just finished his soph year in engineering at Duke and LOVES it!!</p>
<p>I would be happy at Tufts and call it a day! (especially if it ends up to be considerably less money but I would choose it even if even up). </p>
<p>When we visited Duke we couldn't get out of there fast enough! Maybe it was the time we happened to be there but the students didn't show the remotest friendliness and we didn't like the way the freshman dorms were so segregated.
Later, reading Tom Wolfe's didn't help us cahnge our mind!!!
On the other hand I have worked with many students from Tufts and they seem like happy, normal, friendly college kids. And I love the emphasis on community service.</p>
<p>Only the OP can evaluate the $$ part of all this after the final aid offer comes in. I just want to say that my "liberal" son has just finished his freshman year at Prattt (enigineering) and is VERY glad he went to Duke. You will find all sorts of people and points of view--political, social, religious,...-- on campus, and son has found that his peers are all able to talk about their differences without rancor and with genuine openness to understanding the other's point of view. He had not felt like a minority in his views, BTW.</p>
<p>I was was surprised to read one of the comments about Duke's students being unfriendly. We were struck by the opposite on all 3 visits prior to S's enrollment!</p>
<p>Good luck with your decision, OP!</p>
<p>Yes Jacksonmom, Tufts is about 40 minutes from Boston. Close, but very different from being in the city.</p>
<p>xen: sorry to have offended. I just feel like you are asking for advice, then answering your own question (I count 5 posts where you favor Tufts) and though the great majority of parents are giving you suggestions and offering the advice you seek, you keep coming back with.........."but.................."</p>
<p>From re-reading your posts, I believe you have made your decision and are making yourself crazy second-guessing your choice. You can't go wrong with either choice, but it is time to choose and then move-on, celebrate, get onto Facebook and enjoy the end of senior year.</p>
<p>Unregistered: I can get to DOWNTOWN BOSTON in a car/cab from the Tufts in 10-15 minutes depending on traffic. Same time on subway. There is no way Tufts is 40 min. from downtown Boston. The city plays a huge role in your life when you're a Tufts student; It would be different at Wellesley or Brandeis which are not subway-accessible, but not Tufts</p>
<p>blucroo, it's quite alright. One of the methods I'm trying to use in determining which school is for me is defending the school that people are not telling me to attend. For instance, in this thread, I've recieved a lot of pro tufts remarks, which is probably mine own doing, but the purpose of that is to interject my own observations of why Duke would be better.</p>
<p>Many of the people I talk to in my town immediately jump at the mention of Duke, and then I have to explain to them that Tufts is a great school to, and that there would be many positives of attending.</p>
<p>I'm trying to use this method to carefully analyze the pros and cons of the situation. IF Duke doesnt really, really wow me with money, I think I am going to Tufts. If the offer is substantial, I'll do everything I can to be able to visit. We'll see.</p>
<p>I would also like to thank everyone for all of their comments, and any additional insight would be appreciated.</p>