My D was accepted to UC Berkeley with Regents, Tufts and WashU. With the Regents Scholarship she will have priority enrolling in classes and a faculty adviser. I would like to know, with these advantages, will she still have a better experience at Tufts or WashU?
It looks like it’s down to size and location for your D. My D attends Tufts and her advisors have been very attentive as far as choosing courses, etc., and most gratifyingly, steering her toward fellowships, internships, symposia and the like. Communication levels are high. There hasn’t been an issue with her of getting shut-out of classes, which can be a problem at Berkeley, from what I hear anecdotally (not an issue for a Regents, I assume). The Somerville/ Cambridge/ Boston experience is pretty incredible, and my D avails herself of all of it.
Is there a money difference for you between these options?
Living in CA, and I know a couple of kids that are presently Regents Scholars at Berkeley, I find it humorous that being a Regents Scholar means you get “priority enrolling” and a “faculty advisor”, as if that is unheard of in college and such a bonus. That shows what a poor state the UC’s are in. At Tufts, everyone gets their classes and everyone gets a faculty advisor- one for undergrad and another in your major. Being a double major, my Tufts junior daughter talks to all 3 of her advisors regularly- even from Paris where she is studying. Most of her classes have anywhere from 2-15 students. Yes, she had a class last semester with only one other student- talk about getting to know your professors! So I agree with gondalineNJ- Berkley and Tufts couldn’t be more different, you have to know what you are looking for in terms of your major, location and the environment you want.
Can’t speak to the other schools, but my son is in Letters and Sciences at Cal and not a regents scholar. They have “peer” advisors, but he quickly got to know his favorite professor who has been very helpful as a faculty advisor - steering him to a great summer internship his freshman year and research work this year. The problem with Cal is a student has to do the work themselves, other schools are far more helpful to young students navigating these waters by themselves.
He has never had a problem getting a class he wanted (including that the class had to start after 11am, because he is not a morning person). He went in with enough AP credits to be given “Sophomore” status his Freshman year, which helped with priority enrollment. But even his friends who had to wait a week on enrollment because they didn’t have that boost got the classes they wanted (I know because they are taking all their math and computer classes together).
Congrats to your D. All good schools!
My son is at Tufts and we are from California. If your D is doing engineering, Cal is the best. World reputation, close to high tech companies. My company takes all Cal students for internships as long as they are in ECE. Expect high school continues though at Cal.
If she is interested in premed, Tufts is better. It has own med school, she might have better chance to get in when goes under here. Also Cal is too competitive, it might hurt her GPA which is essential for med school.
Son’s friends complained the UC profs are not so good since they focus on research not teaching. But if a student is self motivated (I bet your D is), it should not be a big problem. Money is also a big consideration. If you are in state, Cal is better choice, expense is way lower.
Thank you all for your input. To answer “fromcalifornia” and add to the question, my daughter is very self motivated, the x of the question is that she has no idea what she wants to major in. At all! She loves humanities and she loves math. We’re not evaluating financials at this point but which school would give her the best opportunities to explore and find who/what she wants to be when she grows up.
TuftsTuftsTuftsTuftsTuftsTuftsTufts. No question.
Without knowing what she wants to major, private schools are better.
I don’t know WashU, overall at privates, she can take classes in different areas which are interested her, then decide the major by the sophomore year. Usually she can get in any class she wants.
Was she admitted as UN-decide at Cal? If she is not admitted in ECE at Cal, there is no way she can get in ECE later on. At Tufts, I don’t know if it’s easy to move from art & science to engineering school, but definitely it’s possible (but Cal has the best engineering reputation). She can study CS since she likes math, almost impossible at UC if she is not admitted by CS dept. If she likes humanities, Tufts might be better choice over Cal due to Boston location. Boston has the most bio-tech companies in US, south SF is the second.
WashU and Tufts, both are privates. I like Boston better. But WashU has very good reputation and excellent progs, you have to decide between these two. Maybe other parents can give your input on WashU.
Cal math prog is really good.
She applied as UNdecided to Berkeley, but they ask to declare something so she declared political science and computer science as alternative. On the hand holding, she would be coming in from a public high school. How much different in navigation it would be, I don’t know. I know that at WashU switching majors and minors, and mixing them up is not a problem. Berkeley has the advantage of the prestige (although people say it’s not important in undergrad), the lower cost and close to us. The other two, we’re on our way to visit. I don’t know how realistic these visits are, since they’re really trying to convince you to enroll. I’ll report on the experience later.
Any other thoughts anyone might have is very much appreciated! Thank you!
My son, a freshman at tufts, was admitted to washu last year with a writing merit award, which would have paid for his & our transportation all 4 years from the east coast. It was hard to turn that down more for the perks involved. Both schools are excellent. However, I would recommend that you search the washu forum for computer science threads. I recall reading last year that they’re having difficulty with that department.
I went to Cal eons ago. D1 will be graduating from Tufts in May.
Visiting all the schools will help, because if she ends up hating the environment of one school or enormously preferring another then that factors in to the decision. Cal is local for you, so it should be easy to talk to some students with Regents (ask the admissions office for help setting this up) to find out about their experiences and level of support.
D1’s experience at Tufts has been incredible. Came in intending to be an IR major, took an intro CS class the first semester having never programmed before, and was hooked. She has a humanities minor, took a class at Fletcher (Tufts’ IR grad school), was involved in http://www.tuftsgloballeadership.org/programs/epiic , travelled all over the world mostly via funding from the school (or with friends who have family in another country), and has mostly enjoyed Boston. She’s had great, supportive advisors. That said, the snow thing has been hard this year. We are a CA family and have always said that all you need is good clothing to manage in cold weather, but after this winter she is ready to move back to sunnier climes.
Have your D poke hard at how it will feel being far away from home. We were able to afford to have D1 fly home for Thanksgiving and Spring Break. If that isn’t in your budget, how does she feel about that? D2 attends a school that’s less than an hour’s drive from home; she’s said repeatedly how reassuring that is.
All three schools are excellent. All will reward a student who is determined to take advantage of opportunities. I wouldn’t go into significant debt for Tufts or WUStL, but I would value the extra attention that they provide.
Congratulations to your daughter on having such wonderful choices!
Thank you SlitheyTove, and for taking the time and being so informative! We’ll be leaving soon to visit the schools. I’ll let you all know what happens. I’m concerned with the distance and the weather. She, as any 18 year old, thinks she’ll only need a good jacket and good boots.
Since D1 has a lot of friends at Cal, I asked for her thoughts on comparing the two schools. Her comments (without having seen what I wrote upthread 
):
“I think the biggest difference is that at Tufts it’s a lot easier to be involved in tons of very different things, whereas at Cal people usually pick one activity and then that activity is where all of their friends come from and what they spend all their time outside of classes doing. Tufts doesn’t have the college sports/football culture (it exists but it’s not as pervasive at all, I’ve been to two football games in 4 years). At Tufts, almost all of my professors have known me by name, and I am on first name terms with them–that doesn’t happen at Cal unless you really really work for it. At Tufts, when you’re walking around, you’ll see a ton of people you know, whereas at Cal, you have to plan to meet up with the people you know (small school vs big school). Both have fun social scenes and provide access to great opportunities, so there’s no wrong decision! Obviously I think Tufts is worth the money because I’ve had an amazing college experience, but it’s a personal decision about where feels like the right fit.”
I have no experience with Tufts. I went to Wash U undergrad (had been a midwesterner in high school) and then Cal for grad school. For me, I liked being at the private school for undergrad. I just felt like my hand was held more as far as getting classes, having things paid for in advance, and just the cleanliness and upkeep of the campus. At Cal OTOH I actually felt like I fit in much more, and vastly preferred living in the Bay Area to St. Louis. So… no clear answer in general between the two. It kind of depends on the kid. I’m glad you are able to visit the schools to see what she thinks.
I have a son and daughter at Tufts, a junior and a freshman. Both absolutely love it. We visited WashU, which is also a fabulous school, but Boston has much more to offer than St. Louis. My son majors in CS in the Engineering school, but has friends who came into Arts and Sciences and then transferred over to Engineering. My daughter hasn’t decided what she will major in yet. So that’s an attractive thing about Tufts, the ability to move between the two schools without hassle and the flexibility to explore different study options. And one can major in CS in Arts and Sciences as well as in Engineering. The Tufts Thanksgiving break is relatively short compared to some other schools, if you’re planning a trip back to CA then. There are kids at Tufts who don’t go home at Thanksgiving and there is some accommodation made for them to eat out. But it can be a long haul to leave home from late August to mid December for a freshman depending on their personality. And airfares tend to be very expensive around the short Thanksgiving break. There are lots of kids from California at Tufts. This winter has been especially harsh, and though it’s snowfall reached a new record, the winters can be a downer for some kids, not so much (or at all) for others. My kids tolerate it okay but we had them home for a long weekend in February and again went to Florida over spring break just to get away from the snow this year. The students at Tufts are really friendly and not competitive, and there’s a really nice balance between being academically rigorous and having fun and enjoying life. Enjoy your visit.
I have a junior at Tufts premed. He loves the school. Most of his professors know him by name. And he had amazing research and travel opportunities paid by Tufts. My younger daughter is going to washu for business in the fall. She’s completely in love with washu and wouldn’t hear of any other schools. She applied ED. Washu campus is beautiful. Everything looks very well taken care off. Tufts is a little run down. Dorms much better at washu. Tufts dorms are pretty bad. Food at washu is amazing. In terms. of academics you can’t go wrong with either school. I think Boston is better then St. Louis. And I’m not thrilled with the fact that washu is so far away from us. Tufts is a 4 hour drive. Son just drove home for the holiday weekend. Can’t do that from washu.
Both Tufts and WashU are very far away from us. One is 6 hours by plane the other is 4 1/2, whereas Berkeley is a 45 min drive. And she has the Regents scholarship there. It’s a very difficult decision. We’re on our way to visit both.
@proudworriedmom - I’d love to hear what you decided. We are laboring over the same decision between Tufts and UCB. My D was pulled from the UCB waiting list. I wanted the Tufts experience for her but despite yeoman’s efforts at savings, money is still an issue as we are just $4k above qualifying for any financial aid at Tufts. My D does not know what she wants to study and I was looking for a more nurturing environment for her than the monolith I imagine Cal to be. She is less concerned about that and feels she will meet more people like her at Berkeley than at Tufts where we anticipate a socio-economic demographic that skews lower and higher. I’m not sure the expense of Tufts is justifiable for an undergraduate degree.