My son applied to Tufts ED and was deferred. In the meantime, he was accepted to Union in their Scholars program with very generous merit of $30k per year. He’s looking for small class sizes and strong community. Although we could handle the cost of full-pay at Tufts, I’m struggling to compare this to the honors program plus very generous scholarship at Union. He is interested in getting a Master’s and the scholarship would essentially pay for that. Any thoughts? And yes I realize he hasn’t been admitted to Tufts yet, so this may not even be a decision he has to make.
We can hope Tufts doesn’t come through …make life easy.
Do you like Union?
I’d check on outcomes at both. Obviously for engineering, both are smaller than your normal high pedigree school but both are great. Tufts is a higher pedigree school. It’s why Union offers your son $$ to try and equal the playing field.
Or if one has a specialty your son likes.
But it is a lot of money and from a return POV, Union likely the better bet.
Plus if going to grad school, that will matter more.
Btw many say they will go to grad school for engineering and after the first semester that plan changes. Heck nationally depending on the study, 40-60% drop the major so make sure the school has other areas of interest too.
Unless I’m Warren Buffett, I’m choosing Union unless he despises the school.
Good luck
1 Like
Union would seem to make the better choice based on the stated criteria and comparative costs.
We do like Union a lot, which is why it’s a potentially difficult choice (especially given that Tufts was originally his first choice). Even without the difference in cost, Union has a lot going for it. Thanks for your input!
Thanks, that’s how I feel as well. I just think that if he gets into Tufts that he might feel he should go because it’s so much harder to get in.
Tufts is a money school. 2/3 don’t get any aid. So they say we meet need but they are need aware meaning if you need too much, they can turn you down for that.
So being full pay gives you a leg up.
Both are fine schools. Tufts a little more name recognition but still not widely known nationally.
For either, engineering will not be known at all as it happens typically at state flagships or larger high end private universities. In fact USnews ranks tufts 65 of schools offering phd and union 22 of schools that don’t.
I will tell you college costs more than they say. I think $3-5k but it’s student dependent. Uber. Trips to town. Trips to spring break. Outside of school dining. Doctors if the campus health stinks.
Unless you learn no Union engineers are getting jobs or they don’t study what interests him, we’ll the monetary difference is big.
But it sounds like you’d like Union it’s why I hope he gets rejected. I wanted both my kids to get rejected somewhere…to make sure he applied ‘high’ enough.
Let us know when you hear from Tufts
Ps your last note. Where you get in …not relevant. Fit = relevant. In other words, taking selectivity out, if he prefers Union outside of cost, that’s where he belongs. Selectivity doesn’t equal happiness for four years
1 Like
Then this is a easy choice. If he was only reluctantly willing to attend Union that would be one thing, but if its a place he likes and they’re throwing in $30K/yr as a sweetener I don’t see why you’d say no (assuming he is pretty sure he wants to be an engineer). The engineering classes are going to be very similar due to the ABET requirements. Sure there’s a boost to have Caltech or MIT on your resume, but employers who hire engineers view the majority of engineering programs as essentially equivalent. In hiring interviews it’s easy to tell who knows the material and this is what they care about, not where it was learned.
The less he knows about engineering or the less he is sure it is a fit then the more the importance of alternative majors and the reputation of the school rises in making a college choice. You’d want good bailout options.
Union, like many colleges these days, appears to have a 5-year program where you end up with a BS and MS. This is what I’d recommend he do.
1 Like
As a subjective aspect to consider, engineering students at Union will find themselves in some highly appealing interior spaces in Union’s recently constructed science and engineering complex (click on image for additional photos):
2 Likes
Thanks, I agree with your point on fit - it just may be harder to get that across to a 17 year old who may be more swayed by rankings. It’s a good point that he is choosing between a school like MIT and Union, and that there is less of a difference between Tufts and Union in terms of rankings/reputation that we have to weigh vs cost.
Thanks, this is helpful. It makes sense that since both schools are ABET accredited that the classes would be similar, but Union would offer smaller classes in the intro classes, which is what he is looking for. In terms of alternate degrees, Union has plenty of options such as computer science or economics that would interest him. At Tufts he would actually have a hard time switching to Arts and Sciences because they have a language requirement and he hasn’t kept up his second language. And yes, the new Union engineering/science building is quite nice!
Both schools were on my non-engineer’s list too. The nod went to Union! We really liked this one. (DS didn’t attend either, btw.)
One other thing to consider is academic calendar. I thought that Union’s looked a bit easier to manage. And it made it easier to do an internship during the semester.
I think the overall vibe is a little more “fun” at Union and a little more “quirky” at Tufts but I am guessing most students at either could find their peeps at the other.
I do think it’s hard for kids to tease out how much prestige is influencing their sense of a place. The narrative around this is everywhere.
I hope this becomes clearer for you!
1 Like
Congratulations to your son! While I do think Tufts is more well known than Union, especially outside of the Northeast, it is nothing to sneeze at or feel like you are “settling”! It’s wonderful that he was selected for the scholars program and given merit. Another thing to consider is that he may be more likely to do better performance wise at Union than at Tufts. Selection for the scholars program and the merit aid indicate that the school sees him as a strong candidate. Why not go to a prestigious school where he is a stand out student instead of a perhaps slightly more prestigious school where he isn’t?
1 Like
Thanks, you have some good points! Funny how things work out, since if he had been admitted to Tufts ED, he wouldn’t have known about this great opportunity at Union.
1 Like
One thing to consider is that (I believe) Union is on a trimester system while Tufts has semesters. Does he feel he could thrive in both?
FWIW we liked Union a lot (terrific engineering/science we felt) although my D ultimately attended another LAC.
2 Likes
Even this is soft, and only really applicable to the first job. According to College Scorecard, most of the well known programs have similar mean salaries at 2 years.
1 Like
Thanks, he doesn’t have a preference between trimesters and semesters, but I think the trimester system is nice because he’ll have a smaller number of courses to focus on at a time.
1 Like
It might be interesting to consider the concern regarding relative difficulty of admission and rankings without a judgment as to the value of these aspects. To do this, an illustration comparison can be used so as to not attempt to compare across categories: Tufts shares its U.S. News engineering ranking with the Rochester Institute of Technology, a school with a 74% acceptance rate.
2 Likes