My son is not the party type though he is very smart and social. He applied to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, UPenn, Columbia, Tufts, MIT, Amherst, Brandeis, Wesleyan, Brown, Duke, and Columbia. He got rejected from Princeton, Columbia, MIT, and Duke. He got into Tufts, Brandeis and Wesleyan (his two safety’s), and UPenn. He was waitlisted at Brown, Harvard, Yale, and Amherst. He personally believes Tufts doesn’t have as big of a title as UPenn but is willing to consider the two as his final choice since we have to put in a deposit which they will keep if gets into any of the four schools he is wait listed at. He has 3.95 GPA in all AP classes, is captain of the Speech and Debate Team, has a leadership position in Model UN, and was on the Student Senate. He is very into biology and wants to major in it and possibly have a career in it. His best friend is going to UPenn but me and my husband have our own motives at hand because we think why should he go to UPenn if Tufts is in our backyard and is just as good? Also, when we were at a wedding and told everyone he got into UPenn with a likely letter (at the time) everyone got it confused with Penn State which made us think it wasn’t that well known. He just thinks that the kids from his school who got into Tufts aren’t as intelligent as him but the ones who got into UPenn are. He is a very intelligent boy and very hard working. What do you guys think, does Tufts have as big of a title and is UPenn that widely recognized as an Ivy? If you were him what would you do?
P.S. Harvard was his first choice.
Here’s one gauge of how strong Tufts is for undergrad biology:
http://college.usatoday.com/2014/09/13/top-%C2%AD%C2%AD%C2%AD10-colleges-for-a-major-in-biology/
As a bio major, my D has been able to conduct research for credit under the aegis of wonderful professors, who encouraged her to apply for the selective on-campus Summer Scholars program, which she was accepted into. As a frosh, she was encouraged to be a Writing Fellow by an amazing TA; she is now helping undergrad and grad students with their writing-based work in Community Health and Biology.
This is just the kind of attentive school Tufts is. And she’s only a rising junior.
BTW, at my D’s mid-atlantic high school, the stronger academic students typical get into Tufts while Penn takes our athletes, from what I can tell. As far as “intelligence” goes, Tufts students are up there with Penn for tests scores among admitted students:
https://colleges.niche.com/rankings/smartest-students/
http://www.businessinsider.com/smartest-colleges-in-america-2014-10
There was also a recent thread that listed the top schools based on combined SAT/ ACT scores. Tufts was around 20th.
Tufts is also a great fit for a student who doesn’t want an overwhelming party scene. Mind you, it’s there if desired. But the school is so diverse, with students so grounded and friendly and accepting, it’s easy to find your niche.
Tufts may not be an Ivy, but it holds its own reputation-wise against U Penn among those who matter: grad school admissions offices and employers.
Here’s a Payscale list of how well Tufts grads do in terms of income—a bit better than U Penn grads:
http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report-2014/full-list-of-schools
As far as location, Somerville/ Davis Square is about as great a place to go to college as any. So much to do. Harvard Square and Boston minutes away.
And don’t take stock in what people say at weddings.
One Mom’s take. Good luck to your son!
Tell him to go to UPenn.
I was accepted to both as well…
And I would chose penn over tufts, even though both are great
Both Tufts and Penn are excellent schools… but in terms of reputation/prestige, Penn is on an entirely separate level. If money/finances are the same/similar for both, he should go to Penn. Employers, grad school admissions committees certainly know the difference between Penn and Penn State.
^^^Agreed. They are both fine schools but UPenn is absolutely a level above Tufts.Anyone who matters (employers, grad schools) knows the difference between Penn and Penn State.
Thinking ahead to job recruiting, I wouldn’t want to go where my school isn’t the star attraction in the city.
Completely agree. Anyone who is educated in academics knows the difference. Average persons like those at weddings may not. Tufts is good. UPenn is amazing. Penn State is just known for its sports and scandals.
Agree with the above posts. It is really more important what you do while in college than where to go for college. Assuming that your son intends to take his college education seriously and is determined to do very well wherever he goes, Penn is at a whole different league than Tufts (sorry to hurt that Tufts alums out there). I have no doubt that Tufts is a fine school and many, many Tufts students do very well. But so do Penn grads. And in addition to that, it carries a lot of weight when they apply to grad school, PhD or medical school. You say that your son is interested in biology. Perhaps he wants to be a doctor? If that is a possibility, Penn is consistently a top 5 medical school, and you will need to flip the next page to see where Tufts is…not that rankings matter a whole lot. It really shouldn’t if the two choices are, say, within 10 places. Go for the fit, and not the rank/prestige. But if the 2 choices are 20-30 places apart, you may want to think twice…?
Penn is certainly well known. And yes, some people do mix it up with Penn State–it annoys the Penn State folks too. 
I’ve got a senior at Tufts and honestly I can’t imagine that she could’ve been more challenged or been surrounded by brighter people during her college years. But Tufts was her first choice. She was determined to take advantage of every opportunity there, and she has. If both Penn and Tufts are affordable for your family and your son prefers Penn, let him make the choice for himself.
Congratulations on his having such great choices!
In terms of job recruiting, you want to go where the biggest job market is. Boston has a better job market than Philly -especially for Biotech, where Boston is #1 in the world.
That is probably why Tufts consistantly outperforms UPenn in industry salary performance (despite Penn having Wharton and an undergrad business major).
Here is the latest (2015) data:
Tufts is in the top 10 and UPenn is in the top 30.
Note that Tufts undergrads do research in MIT labs as well as Tufts labs and intern at Mass General (Harvard’s teaching hospital) as well as Tufts’ hospital. Then there are all all the leading edge biotech companies/labs…
http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/bachelors
Tufts is #2 in the Boston market, behind MIT and ahead of Harvard.
In general, industry uses different criteria when evaluating universities than academic administrators, so polls of academic administrators (i.e. USNews rank) yield different results from polls of industry recruiters.
According to a Wall St Journal Poll, employers do know the difference between Penn State and Penn, and they rate Penn State (with about 40,000 undergrads) higher.
With the exception of a couple of industry segments, the Ivies are not as highly regarded in industry as they are in academia, because many of their undergrad programs are geared toward feeding academia rather than industry.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704358904575477643369663352
Lots of people (including New York Times columinsts) do confuse Penn with Penn State - even at the most inopportune times…
And kids who go to Penn thinking that USNews rank = prestige end up really frustrated…
http://www.thewire.com/national/2011/11/penn-service-announcement-its-not-penn-state/44753/
“You say that your son is interested in biology. Perhaps he wants to be a doctor? If that is a possibility, Penn is consistently a top 5 medical school, and you will need to flip the next page to see where Tufts is…not that rankings matter a whole lot. It really shouldn’t if the two choices are, say, within 10 places. Go for the fit, and not the rank/prestige. But if the 2 choices are 20-30 places apart, you may want to think twice…?”
The OP is attending as an undergrad, and as such, needs to consider the strength of the undergrad bio programs—not so much the med schools. Unless Penn has an early acceptance-type program to its med school as Tufts does? BTW, when I think of Penn, I think of a stronger nursing program. One of the best.
@Mastadon I am a UPenn alum and I have never had even one significant time (which I would include job hunting and grad school applications) when Penn was mistaken for Penn State. What a “man on the street” might think is not really important – Penn students are secure enough to know where they are and why it is a great school and it is more amusing than frustrating really. As a matter of fact when I was at Penn people sold joke t-shirts that said “Not Penn State”. It is something people deal with now and then but it certainly not a reason to decline an acceptance from Penn. And as an aside, I’m not so sure about the Penn State “athletic superiority” cited in one of your articles – after the Jerry Sandusky/Joe Paterno scandal I’ll gladly take Ivy League athletics thank you.
At my school, everybody thinks that UPenn is the football school…and very few people know that it is Ivy League. If you say “Wharton” they know what you mean but otherwise…on the other hand, I am likely at a dumb high school…
Frankly based on your description I think your son would enjoy Tufts more- slightly nerdier but still social, less animal house than Penn, the “Party Ivy”. But since you posted this and not your son, we don’t know if this reflects reality.
But Penn is a bit more prestigious, especially outside of New England. I think depending on “fit” it might be a better choice than Tufts.
We live in Cambridge and my Daughter is going to Tufts and we are thrilled. She was WL at Harvard, which would obviously be hard to turn down, but honestly I don’t think she’d love it there. Really only Brown (rejected) would have been a serious competitor to Tufts for her.
Both great schools. Here in NYC, no one confuses Penn for Penn State and generally speaking Penn is more sought after by the top students than Tufts. That said, size is an issue. Penn is big – @ 11,000 undergrads. Also, it does have the “work hard/play hard” reputation and although they say that only @ 30% of the students are involved in greek life, anecdotally I hear about a lot of kids pledging frats at Penn.
Penn has a medical, vet, and dental school on campus. Tufts has an excellent medical school.
In terms of research and job opportunities, both universities and both cities are wonderful. It is a tough choice.
PS - Penn is more of a party school than most Ivies, but in the dorms there are not that many parties. On the edge of campus and off-campus, there are a lot of frat parties of course. Penn is around 25% Greek from what I understand.
@ormdad
Congrats to your baby Jumbo!
Tufts also has a vet and dental school.
@Happy1 Just to clarify, the WSJ article (not me) suggests that recruiters prefer Penn State to Penn, not that employers confuse the two, so your experience does not necessarily contradict it.
It is Penn’s name that results in confusion between the two schools, and it bugs some of your fellow alums enough that they have proposed changing the name of the school.
http://www.thedp.com/index.php/article/2011/12/questions_raised_on_penns_name
In terms of sports leagues it well known that in 1982 the Ivy league dropped from Division 1-A (Penn’s level) to the newly formed Division 1-AA because of lower academic standards (relative to state schools) resulting in rampant grade inflation (hence the addition of the extra “A” in the division name) 
If you want to claim that the Ivy league is better than Penn State’s league, (due to more of an emphasis on academics than sports), then it would follow that NESCAC division 3 (Tufts’ league) is better than the Ivy League - because it shifts the balance even further…
In terms of the t-shirts and Penn’s students being secure, here are some quotes from a UPenn student in the UPenn student newspaper - it offers interesting insights into the UPenn culture - as do your comments in this thread.
http://www.thedp.com/article/2013/09/pretentious-pennsylvania