Tufts vs. Georgetown vs. Dartmouth

College Search & Selection
1

I was blessed with admission to all three of these institutions (my top choices) but am having a very difficult time deciding which one be best for me. I would love to study abroad - and possibly continue my work after college abroad - therefore I would love a school with good international ties. I am trying to double major in international relations and ComputerSci. Luckily, tuition will not be a problem so cost is not a factor. My major focus is settling on a campus where the culture is accepting of difference.

TUFTS

  • When I visited, I loved the feel of not being in a city and yet having the privilege to be ten minutes away from Boston. The campus feels super natural, and I loved the pattern of traditional brick buildings.
  • I totally got a humble and intellectual vibe from the students where ego and pretension seemed nonexistent.
  • The IR department at Tufts has a supreme rep and the school has a strong alumni network
  • I also love the fact that not only does Tufts have a social scene (greek life), but the scene extends to Harvard, MIT, BU.
  • This may be personal but I also love the fact that Tufts’ invaluable academics seem to be given much more focus than the athletics - although I have heard that Tufts athletics is rising - (I would want a much greater nerd presence than athlete)
  • only con is that some of the facilities at Tufts are super old and worn out.
  • I would also join the orchestra as I play the cello and the Granoff music center is amazing.
  • also love political activism and I have heard that Tufts students are very active within the community and Boston and tend to lean more liberal than conservative.

GEORGETOWN

  • absolutely beautiful campus - great location being so close to DC (warm)
  • SFS has an insane rep for international relations and the opportunities to work in the DC area post graduation
  • The student population did feel diverse but I felt overwhelmed by the amount of preppiness in terms of what the average student was wearing on campus. I have heard that there is a sum of conservative students who come from very pretentious backgrounds but that may just have to do with it being a Catholic college.
  • I do feel that Georgetown focuses too much on having a good reputation and ranking - comparing itself to other schools when it should be focusing on all the great things it has to offer.
  • The alumni network here is very strong and many seniors get internships immediately
  • Students here are very political as well and stand up for many pertinent issues which I appreciate

DARTMOUTH

  • definitely the most beautiful campus out of the three - however the town of Hanover seems super super isolating.
    (the biggest con is the location for me)
  • the greek life at dartmouth has a rep for being really good
  • would be interesting to be in a cold snowy environment for the majority of the year (love nature)
  • there is no international relations major but I talked with the admissions rep when he visited my school and was relieved to know there are other options.
  • the student body is super diverse and down to earth - but I really dont want the same problem with Georgetown where some of the students are very ostentatious or pretentious and come from money/legacy.
  • was not expecting to get in to Dartmouth and my essays did not show a ton of interest so I would love if someone could englighten me with what this school has to offer
2

“My major focus is settling on a campus where the culture is accepting of difference.”

“…there is a sum of conservative students who come from very pretentious backgrounds but that may just have to do with it being a Catholic college.”

Please go to Tufts.

3

Sounds to me like you want to go to Tufts. I will say one of my most favorite professors when I was at Hamilton is now director of the Tufts program in Madrid. If you have any interest, do go. :slight_smile:

We just recently toured Georgetown. I loved it, and the opportunity just to live in Georgetown with transportation provided to DC for four years is kind of priceless. However, if you have an issue with pretentious people, you are not going to like DC very much. The whole town is pretentious.

4

Go to Georgetown. If you want to work in IR, it makes no sense to go to Tufts as an undergraduate. The Fletcher school is where the IR rests at Tufts (not undergraduate). Also, while you may think you are close to Boston and the college scene in Medford, you are not ( I laughed at the part where Tufts connects to the BU, MIT and Harvard college scene, don’t know where you got that idea).
Boston is also well known for being pretentious in the sense that people think they are worldly when in fact they really aren’t ( there are a lot of local yokels). Boston is a small city when compared to a major metro and opportunities for IR are few and far between (unless you want to be a Prof in which case I’d say Boston is for you). If you wanted to work in finance would you study in Minneapolis or New York/London? If you get any internships which lead to jobs you will be better positioned in DC than elsewhere. Plus Georgetown has the school of foreign service so there are multiple options.

Have no opinion on Dartmouth. Other than it is very cold in winter.

5

Hi! Congrats on your acceptances! I’m a first year at Tufts, so if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me.

Both Georgetown and Tufts are great in IR. As an undergrad here, you get to utilize many of the resources Fletcher has to offer. Tufts is first and foremost an undergraduate focused school, so they cater to us. You’ll get to take Fletcher classes as an undergrad, and other amazing classes offered through the IR department.

Social scene: I actually find enough on campus to keep myself busy, but I do have friends at Northeastern and Harvard and I end up there some Friday/Saturday nights. I’ve heard that Dartmouth frats tend to be exclusive and that they’re really the only source of parties (correct me if I’m wrong). I’m not too familiar with Georgetown.

My guess is that Tufts is the most liberal of the three, and that the students here are definitely the most eccentric out of these three schools. Very down to earth, but there are the occasional preppy kids. People here are very accepting of “differences”: there’s a huge LGBT community, a good mix of student types (the occasional athlete, nerdy kid, geek, socialite, hipster, artist, etc.). Having the SMFA brings even more student diversity to the campus. Also, although everyone here is insanely smart, they don’t flaunt their intelligence. It’s rare that I hear students comparing GPAs or scores on papers/tests, which fosters a very supportive and collaborative environment. It has definitely been a break from my competitive high school.

Based on the information you gave us, Tufts seems to be where you’re leaning. Honestly, you can’t go wrong, but if you have any questions or concerns, please reach out! Good luck :slight_smile:

6

My son’s GF will be graduating from Tufts this May as an international relations/German double major. She’s had wonderful internships and internship offers, such as working for the German Marshall Fund in DC last summer, working for a MA congresswoman during the academic year in the Boston office, an offer from the Council on Foreign Relations in NYC, and just was awarded a Fulbright.

Regarding Tufts and how its students interact with Boston and neighboring schools: I can speak for my son and his friends’ experience. They socialize both in Boston and Cambridge, as well as in Medford (Davis Square), and work in those locations. He has friends majoring in STEM who are working in labs at Harvard and MIT, such as the Broad Institute. Friends who are majoring in International Relations who have had internships at the Harvard Kennedy school of Govt during the academic year and also at the Harvard Law school, as well as at Fletcher. They also work at govt offices in Boston during the school year and on the Hill in DC during the summer.

In terms of socializing, Tufts students eat, see movies (like Harvard Square’s Brattle Theater’s Bugs Bunny all-day event), go to museums, and to bars and parties in Cambridge and in Boston. They get free admission to the Harvard museums and to the BMFA, both of which my son visited often cuz he took some art history courses and took his GF on dates. My son and his friends have also attended Celtic games. Every time I’ve visited my son during his four years at Tufts, I’ve stayed in Cambridge bc it’s just 10 mins away from Tufts and two stops on the subway. Tufts students also attend the annual Head of the Charles Regatta, the most prestigious collegiate rowing race, to support their teams. It’s usually held on tufts’ parent weekend and it’s a blast to attend.

Not sure where Happytimes2001 is getting his/her info, but I’m presuming he/she has no affiliation with Tufts because he/she isn’t well informed. I can’t speak to Georgetown or Dartmouth bc I’ve never had a student there, but I have visited both and can say they have lovely campuses (my older son applied to Dartmouth and my Tufts student had an internship in DC last summer, so we ate in Georgetown. It’s reminded us a lot of Greenwich, CT. A cute, upscale town within a city. Neither of my kids applied to Georgetown bc its vibe is the antithesis of what they were seeking; oldest had brown, uchicago, and penn as his top choices, was accepted to all and chose Brown; and youngest had washu, tufts, USC and Ucla as his top choices, was accepted to all and chose tufts).

What I can say is you have excellent choices in all three schools. They each have very different vibes, as you noted. I think you have to spend time figuring out which suits you best.

1 Like
7

Dartmouth has better career center but Georgetown is also great. You gotta select one of these. Both have great name and will provide great opportunities to work abroad

8

Just a few more observations. I really didn’t get a conservative vibe from Georgetown at all. Jesuits are not known for their conservatism. Lol. Of the two people I know who went to Georgetown, one is a gay atheist who went to GTown for grad school and is teaching English in Japan. He loved GTown and speaks very fondly of it still. The other befriended the Kennedy family, became a speech writer, and now is a prominent in international aid work. If you want to be involved in politics, I do think Georgetown is probably the way to go, though it sounds like Tufts does provide some great opportunities too.

I would cross Dartmouth off the list, though. Doesn’t sound like it appeals to you. Good luck with your decision!

9

Also important to note is that Tufts has a very strong study abroad department. Top 10 in the nation, 8th if memory serves.

Tufts is also very strong in CompSci, so if that’s something you really want to major in, I would definitely consider that. I have no idea about Georgetown’s CS.

One of my friends who did an overnight at Georgetown who happens to be gay was paired with a homophobic host. He’s at Tufts now, needless to say. Not trying to to throw shade at GT — it’s obviously an amazing school.

I’d agree with the above poster — Dartmouth doesn’t seem like a great fit.

10

georgetown

11

@happytimes2001 -

Adults mocking college-bound teenagers on social media is generally frowned upon in our society- just ask Laura Ingraham

For the record:

Your post was not only uninformed, but pretentious - in all senses of the word.

The notion of a “local yokel” does not exist in the mind of a global thinker - so its use tends to be self incriminating.

The notion that a career is tied to a sense of physical place rather than a sense of acquired knowledge is a 20th century concept. Clinging to that notion will be a mental handicap in an increasingly virtual and global economy.

If you want to make a financial analogy, then the CEO of the largest bank in America went to college in Medford - not New York. He went to grad school four and a half miles up the street Boston.

In the field of IR, the Diplomat in Residence for the New England Region resides in Medford - on the Tufts campus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplomats_in_Residence

12

@purpleflurp4879, don’t go to GU (only because S was waitlisted :slight_smile: ). Kidding aside, SFS is the real deal for IR, especially if you are thinking about going to work for the State Dept or want to be in the thick of things for internships relating to government and/or international business. That being said, SFS is extremely rigorous. You likely will not have the ability to double major in anything, much less Comp Sci.

GU is known for having a stringent required course load that includes humanities and religion. In SFS, you will also be required to take multiple foreign language classes and pass second language proficiency tests. I am in favor of the Jesuit philosophy of education which seeks to provide a well rounded education, but if you want to double major, you might consider Tufts or Dartmouth.

Alternatively, if you are committed to IR and have a passion for D.C. and government, GU may be the way to go. In terms of diversity, GU will have a student body from not only fifty states but from around the world. Students will come from a variety of political perspectives and many will not be Catholic or Jesuit.You might be right about lack of diversity in the socioeconomic area. Many students, perhaps a majority, will come from privileged upper middle class to wealthy backgrounds. Good luck.

13

@mastadon What a silly response. Place has bearing on education. So if you are educated in Geneva or DC it is going to be different than Medford MA near Boston. I’m sorry that you were offended by an opinion. I think many people who cannot handle other opinions carry their own baggage. Perhaps, that is why you made a reference to a political show on a posting. Strange indeed. Or perhaps you think Tufts is the best place for the OP, in which case you should have cited why rather than attacking someone else’s idea.

I’m sure there are CEO’s across America who have gone to a college in every state, city, and nation. That doesn’t make a place important or unimportant. One single person does not demonstrate a formula. Again a ridiculous synopsis.

As to the 20 th century concept of working near a hub related to your career, perhaps you should tell that to the people who work in and around Silicon Valley ( many from home). I’m sure though technology does not tie them to a place they recognize that hubs of like minded people doing similar things helps their career. Or those who work in Geneva for NGO’s.

Perhaps the reason you thought my post was pretentious is that you don’t understand it. You are locked in your own world of ideas where no one else’s can penetrate and you are angered by anyone else holding a different opinion. So sad really. Perhaps that is where your Laure Ingraham reference is coming from. Maybe you should go back to watching TV 7x24 and talking about your idea of a global world with people who agree with you.

As for me, I will stand by my opinions. Sounds like there are other people on this thread who have direct and informative opinions regarding many of these schools which the poster might find useful. And some might even have 20 th Century ideas. Oh my.

14

My daughter is @ Georgetown, and my son is @ Tufts. Both applied to Dartmouth. Georgetown is preppy, but students from all backgrounds can find their niche. Tufts is more laid back, a bit more “nerdy” and the students are very sincere. My son’s friend went to Dartmouth and lasted only one year, so I don’t have a good reference there.

All three of these schools are excellent and you would not go wrong with any. Yes, there are some pretentious, stuck up, kids at Georgetown (probably more than the other two) but there are also a large number of outstanding humble and down-to-earth kids as well.

15

While Catholics tend to be conservative on many issues, they are not pretentious.

16

Since your “major focus is settling on a campus where the culture is accepting of difference”, I am surprised that you do not have any large state universities on your list.