<p>3 great schools to choose from. Interested in international relations and/or English. From west coast where no one has heard of any of these. Only visited Tufts so far and loved it. Help?</p>
<p>Tufts is well-known for international relations. If you loved it and can afford it, no reason not to pick it.</p>
<p>Haverford is a highly regarded national LAC. Muhlenberg is a nice school but more regional in its reputation and the least selective/well-known of the three. What would they offer you personally that Tufts does not?</p>
<p>Muhlenberg offered the Dana Scholar program and lots of merit $$. Haven’t got Tufts financial aid yet. Interested in reputation. Thanks a bunch!</p>
<p>Since Muhlenberg offered “lots of merit $$” when you have all of the financial aid offers, run them here: [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Award Letter Comparison Tool](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Award Letter Requirements - Finaid) </p>
<p>All of these are great places. You can safely choose the cheapest one if you need to.</p>
<p>Agree with happymom. Finances should be the determining factor. My only point was that if Tufts is affordable for your family and you love it, then there is no problem.</p>
<p>Tufts and Haverford are the two schools with national reputations. If you can go to either of these schools without financial hardship, I’d do that. But if money is a major issue and Muhlenberg is the most affordable, then it is a good school.</p>
<p>Thank you so much! This is very helpful and I am happy to know Tufts and Haverford have a national reputation, which may help for grad school. Looking forward to coming east!</p>
<p>Muhlenberg is a very good school and I agree that if money is an issue, you should go with the one that’s cheapest. But purely for the academics, I’d choose Haverford or Tufts. </p>
<p>Tufts being a somewhat larger school is probably more widely known, but the academics at Haverford are at least as good, and Haverford has an outstanding grad school placement record. I’d say between the two, size might matter. Haverford is tiny (about 1,200 students, all undergrads), while Tufts is a medium-sized university (about 10,500, half grad students, half undergrads). That’s a big difference. Some might find Haverford too small; others prefer the greater intimacy and personal attention of a small school setting. My D1 who is a sophomore there is in the latter camp; she loves it and is getting an outstanding education. We couldn’t be happier. But if you prefer something a bit bigger (without being gigantic), Tufts is an excellent choice.</p>
<p>As others say, wait for FA. It’s not worth taking on debt beyond the Stafford limits (around $6k a year) for Tufts or Haverford.</p>
<p>That said, D1 is a frosh at Tufts, has a close friend at Muhlenberg, and did consider 'Berg. There’s something to be said for being a big fish in a smaller pond, especially one that’s as friendly as Muhlenberg. Have you visited? Maybe talked to a prof with whom you might be working? Do find out what previous Dana Scholars have done, both at Muhlenberg and after. </p>
<p>If money ends up not being an object, then yes, think about if you’d be OK with being a smaller fish in the bigger pond. Tufts’ reputation in IR does at the very least give you access to more academic opportunities and internships. It’s possible for undergrads to take grad classes at Fletcher, and there’s Tufts’ unique [EPIIC</a> (Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship) | Institute for Global Leadership](<a href=“Programs | Tufts Global Leadership”>EPIIC | Tufts Global Leadership), a year-long course that examines one specific issue of global import. </p>
<p>All three are different choices, but there aren’t any bad ones. Unless you take out huge loans! Don’t do that!!! :)</p>
<p>Thanks SlitheyTove. What does your D think of Tufts? Easy to assimilate? Made friends? Good classes? Right choice?</p>
<p>tolstoy, she’s really happy there. Seems to be about 95% perfect. 
</p>
<p>Hope the FA package is workable!</p>
<p>Holy cow- Haverford is amazingly generous with FA- major grant. Muhlenberg is out now. Tufts was fairly generous-but not as much so as Haverford. Darn! Really hoping Tufts would have the best offer! Guess we’ll have to visit Haverford. That would be hard to turn down. Tufts seems to be better fit though- aargh!</p>
<p>Definitely visit Haverford. It’s an excellent school, you’ve got that great consortium thing going with Bryn Mawr right next door, a longer reach to Swarthmore but hey, the option’s there. Short mass transit ride into Philly. You might see if Tufts can bump up their aid to match Haverford’s, but you also might find on visiting that you’re sold on Haverford.</p>
<p>Congrats on having such great choices. No bad ones!</p>
<p>If Tufts is your first choice, contact the financial aid office and tell them they are your first choice, but that the financial aid is a barrier. See if they will sweeten your offer. Schools are sometimes willing to negotiate if they perceive the competition to be a ‘peer’ school - which Haverford is. You lose absolutely nothing if they refuse.</p>
<p>Pretty sure that Penn is involved in a consortium with Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and Swarthmore, so your kid can take classes at Penn too and maybe take advantage of opportunities there. You share libraries with BM and Swarthmore, which is very useful when writing papers.</p>
<p>And personally, I went to a small LAC (not Haverford, but very similar in size) and I absolutely loved it. Would choose it over again. It feels like a family, and the professors are very accessible. They generally get hired because they want to teach and make connections with students.</p>
<p>^ Yes, all 4 schools (Haverford, Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, Penn) are in what’s called the Quaker Consortium. Haverford’s closest relationship is with Bryn Mawr, though, partly because the distance (1.6 miles) makes the logistics of taking classes at both schools (“the BiCo” they call it, for “Bi-College”) pretty easy, partly because they’re just twinned themselves in a way that makes everything pretty seamless: staggered class schedules to allow transit time between the two campuses, a unified online course registration system so you can sign up for classes on either campus without any extra paperwork or approvals, many joint and/or coordinated majors and curricular coordination at the departmental level to maximize what can be offered to BiCo students in any given semester, lots of joint ECs or ECs on one campus open to participation by students from the other campus, etc. You can even take your major on the other campus (even if it’s offered on your own), swipe into the dining halls on either campus with a single I.D., or elect to live on the other campus if space permits. Fewer Haverford or Byrn Mawr students take classes at Swarthmore because it’s more of a schlep (25-30 minutes) making scheduling more difficult, and there are some extra bureaucratic steps involved, but some students do take classes there, especially in areas like linguistics where Swarthmore is uniquely strong. Haverford students can only take classes at Penn if the class isn’t taught in the BiCo; still, some do, and it’s great to have that option available at a small college where the curriculum is necessarily going to be more limited.</p>