<p>Hello! I have quite the dilemma. First of all, how should I choose between RPI and Tufts? Likely for chemical engineering, but the thing is, I'm not completely set on that. (Maybe switching to another engineering or just pure science.) Also, I applied to Carnegie Mellon for science, not engineering... Although I could change to engineering there as well. So, thoughts? Please help me, I am adrift...</p>
<p>Also, I'm female. I do fine in liberal arts subjects but I don't looove them. Not sure how I'd fit in with the nerdiness of RPI, but the same goes for Tufts. RPI seemed to have very nerdy characters but also normal people as well. Like, you could be social if you want to. Tufts seemed to be very... Opinionated? Or maybe everyone came off as gay, liberal, and in international relations or political science. (Okay, I'm generalizing. But how do people find a place to fit in?)</p>
<p>Older son went to CMU, and applied to RPI, younger son is at Tufts (and yes he’s an IR major.) I have friends with kids at RPI, and a friend of my older son’s just graduated from Tufts in chem eng. She got a good job at Pfizer and by all accounts loved Tufts. </p>
<p>Is Tufts a little bit dominated by all those IR majors? Probably, but I see it through my son’s lens, and most of his friends and EC activities go back to having been in EPIIC as a freshman. That said, there are plenty of other types at Tufts, he’s roomed with kids with entirely different circles of friends. I think one of the attractions of Tufts is that the engineers are politically engaged and find ways to use their skills in international settings. </p>
<p>CMU also has a lot of different types - but there’s a bit more of a divide between them. There are definitely lots of artistic types (drama, art, architecture, music all have top programs) as well as the engineers and computer scientists. The regular scientists and humanities and social scientists tend to get a bit lost in the shuffle there. But if you want to do something interdisciplinary, my impression is that the culture really does facilitate it, but it’s also easy to just hang with kids in your department. (very different from my college experience, where none of my friends were in my major.)</p>
<p>My impression is that RPI is the nerdiest school of the bunch. Really no one goes there unless science or engineering is their primary interest, though they’ve done some great things (like the new art center) for those who want to apply that interest to other fields. Academically it’s a great place for a budding scientist - the young woman I know is now a grad student at Cornell. She was able to get research positions every summer and thanks to a pretty generous AP policy graduated in 3.5 years.</p>
<p>My son also evaluated CMU, RPI and Tufts.
He had the same concern, that Tufts wasn’t quite “nerdy” enough. On the other hand he thought CMU and RPI seemed too nerdy: he didn’t see enough people talking to each other or walking in groups or smiling. He is now at WPI, which he describes as “happy nerds”.</p>
<p>We tried to tell him that at Tufts you get the best of all worlds. Great professors and course offerings in anything you might want to learn as a second major or a minor. And it will seem nerdy enough once you start hanging out with the kids in your major. </p>
<p>He eliminated RPI from consideration, in part because he didn’t like the location or the vibe. He got waitlisted at CMU (college of computer science), but was ambivalent about the place anyway. He got into a bunch of other schools including Bucknell, but the decision came down to Tufts versus WPI. Now that he has been in nerd heaven for almost a year I think he would have chosen Tufts if he could do it over again. In general, he loves WPI, but realizes he is missing out on a broader experience at Tufts.
The good news is that he got decent merit aid from WPI :-)</p>
<p>So, you need to consider this:
1 - does RPI have good offerings in all subject areas you could imagine studying? Would the overly nerdy atmosphere start to annoy you even if you found plenty of like-minded friends?
2 - Will CMU let you into engineering from science??? One thing we hated about CMU was that if you applied to engineering you couldn’t switch into the ECE program or the computer science program. We asked several times and the answer was “it is not impossible” , hardly reassuring, and since he was undecided on his major we didn’t like that situation at all. So, MAKE SURE you can go from science to engineering, don’t assume it. You can go from engineering to science easily enough I’m sure, since it is less competitive.</p>
<p>I think the bottom line is that you will fit in at any of these schools. At RPI you will be find some “normal” people, though they may seem like the minority. At Tufts the engineering geeks will be in the minority, but there is still enough of them to make an impact and provide some balance. CMU is a mixed bag, I think their liberal arts programs are much bigger than RPI, but nowhere near Tufts.</p>
<p>You will fit it anywhere, it is a question of what kind of environment and location you will enjoy the best.</p>
<p>madeofstars (great user name btw 
), my D1 is a Tufts frosh who started off as a wannabe IR major and just declared as a STEM major. Like you, she does well in liberal arts fields but doesn’t enjoy them as much as she enjoys other courses. She does love how people at Tufts are interested in the world around them and what’s on the front page of the NY Times. Liberal, yes (though Karl Rove just spoke on campus). Lots of IR majors, yes…but that influence percolates throughout the entire campus, as others wrote above. Gay, dunno about percentage but she’s got gay friends and teachers and it seems unremarkable. </p>
<p>She’s found a lot of girl nerd type culture, and mentors (both male and female) who are very interested in bringing more females into technical fields where they’re underrepresented. </p>
<p>There are opinionated types for sure, and people who aren’t so doctrinaire. People study/are interested in intellectual/nerdy things, but people also do social things as well.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your replies! I appreciate your takes on Tufts in comparison with the other schools.</p>
<p>I called CMU today and they told me that transfer from science to engineering is possible, but discouraged. I can’t say that I would have definitely stayed in engineering at CMU if I’d begun there, but I also found this answer to be unreassuring… From my info session Tufts seemed quite different. The main thing with switching to liberal arts seemed to be the language requirement, and they seem to have good support for undecided students beginning in engineering, the only issue being whether to begin in a more physics or chemistry (EE vs ChemE) field, and even then they allow transfers to make up the requirements over the summer.</p>
<p>RPI does offer all courses of study that I might be interested in, although they don’t offer languages (not necessarily a problem, it’s kind of a “I don’t get to take a language” vs. “wait, I don’t have to take a language” thing).</p>
<p>This reply seems unjustly brief, but I very much appreciate all of your responses. They’ve actually done a lot to assuage me! BeanTownGirl, I too considered WPI briefly before deciding that it’s just a little too close to home for comfort. :D</p>
<p>All the different campus environments seem foreign to me at this point, but I think that I’m really overanalyzing everything. Seriously, thanks to everyone!</p>
<p>It’s hard to switch into engineering in a lot of schools because they have so many required courses in sequence, and most schools will have an intro to engineering course geared for freshman that leads to specialties for the next three years. It’s hard to catch up. I also think they just don’t like to encourage students to count on being able to switch, because they couldn’t accommodate everyone if all the student rejected attended CMU anyway in the expectation of being let in once they were there. It’s generally pretty easy everywhere to switch out of engineering though.</p>