Washington U vs Tufts U... question about students and social life

Hello, These are the 2 schools I am most interested in. Aside from the obvious difference in the location, can anyone tell me if the schools are similar in terms of the type of kid that attends or are there big differences in the social life. Also, any insight to pre-med at these 2 schools would also be helpful. Thanks so much.

I currently have a friend doing pre-med at Tufts and while I am not doing pre-med at Washu I have many friends that are. The biggest difference I can discern is that Washu’s pre-med program is much more rigorous, but this comes with the fact that Washu has a stronger med school in general. Also, my friend that is currently going to Tufts said himself that Washu is also much more selective, take that for what you will since I have never attended tufts or any other university I can’t really contrast the student body, but I can say for a fact that the people here are very chill, ambitious, and kind. There is no sense of cutthroats that I have heard from other pre-med programs. If you have any further questions feel free to message me.

I ended up choosing between these two schools, so I have some things to say about each.

You’ll find all types of people at each school, but I think there are generally more artsy/hipster kids at Tufts, partially because of the SMFA but also just because Tufts draws that type — very intellectual yet quirky. I think WashU kids are much more pre-professional by nature — smart, but in a more obvious way, if that makes sense.

The social scene is also more Greek life centric at WashU. I’ve heard that a lot of the social scene comes from frats, and if you’re not into that, there are a lot of dorm parties. At Tufts, about 10-15% of students participate in Greek life, compared to WashU’s 40% (I believe). A lot of the social life at Tufts comes from parties thrown at a bunch of sport houses, like lax house, hockey house, soccer house, etc. On top of that, there are the frats and sororities too. Clubs and other groups also throw parties from time to time, and dorm parties/get-togethers happen pretty often. Off-campus juniors and seniors throw parties too.

I’m not a pre-med major myself, but both schools have a great rep for that. I have heard that WashU’s pre-med track is more rigorous, but it’s still pretty hard at Tufts too. Tufts also has an early admission plan for pre-med students: at the end of their sophomore year, they can apply for admission into Tufts med school and can start straight away after their undergraduate time is up (I believe 30% of kids are accepted through that, versus the normal 2% for applicants from schools other than Tufts).

I found the kids at WashU to be less interesting when I visited as opposed to Tufts. I feel like Tufts students often have more depth to them, and I think it is at least in part due to the supplemental essays Tufts requires from its applicants. Students Tufts accepts are often accepted due to their creative/interesting essays. WashU doesn’t have supplements, so they often look toward numbers for admission decisions.

That being said, both student bodies are brilliant; I don’t think you’ll find a measurable difference in intelligence between the two populations.

@Kiriel your friend said that WashU is more selective, but Tufts has a lower acceptance rate, if that’s at all of importance to the OP. I know a bunch of kids at Tufts who were choosing between the two schools, actually.

I think it’s also important to note that Tufts is a “hot school” while washu is rather stagnant.

Parent of a WashU freshman who was considering Tufts. He would have been happy to go to Tufts if he was rejected ED from WashU. I think his goal was to deface the cannon and maybe Jumbo but I digress.

My opinion is to go to the school that is the best fit. Although from what I hear from the kid WashU isn’t really the big time party school, especially in the dorms. Then again everybody is worried about their GenChem and Calc midterms.

Tufts does have the lower acceptance rate, but that may be symptomatic of Tufts Syndrome. And I think that WashU isn’t stagnant in regards to applicant numbers, especially in California. Fletcher School has the higher ranking than WashU PoliSci but Olin, Brown, and the med school have higher rankings.

“Aside from the obvious difference in location” yes, but that may in fact be your best indication of the “type of kid” who goes there. If social life is important, one idea is to choose the place you would rather live: Boston or St. Louis. They are worlds apart.

Medford is not Boston.

Tufts may have a lower acceptance rate, but WashU kids have higher average test scores. All sorts of conclusions can be drawn from both tidbits.

WashU might seem stagnant, but it’s hard to climb rankings when your peers are Vandy, Rice, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Emory, CMU… and schools like Northwestern, JHU, Brown, Cornell, and Dartmouth are ahead of you. You tend to see movement within a peer group, but it’s hard to move up into the next group. (which makes UChicago’s rise so phenomenal… although many would say they were top-5 or top-10 all along…)

@prezbucky that’s true… do you know if Tufts’ middle 50% ACT is super-scored? I know WashU’s is.

And I don’t know about you, but I would call Emory, Rice, GT, and CMU all peers of Tufts; I’ve met a bunch of kids here who chose between those schools, and I know many that chose between Ivies, Stanford and UChicago too (myself included).

@Tufts2021
Tufts does superscore the ACT, Emory does not.

Close enough, @Parche The scale is much smaller in Metro Boston. My son and friends are in and out of the city all the time, a few T stops away from everything. I’ve lived outside of St. Louis for 20 years and I can tell you there isn’t much here. The blandness may kill me yet.

With that said, obviously WashU is a great school and any student would be very fortunate to attend.

@Tufts2021
List of schools in the top 30 that superscore the ACT:
California Institute of Technology
Duke University
Johns Hopkins University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
New York University
Tufts University
University of Chicago
University of Pennsylvania
Washington University in St.Louis

Binky – Fair enough regarding T stops between Medford and the Hub. I lived in Boston and have spent a fair amount of time in St. Louis. There is plenty to do in both. Our student loves St. Louis – and spent last summer living and working there. There are many neat places within walking distance of the Wash U campus. I wouldn’t say that about Tufts. One of the challenges that Wash U students have is venturing away from the Wash U bubble – if they do, they will be well-rewarded. Soulard, Tower Grove, Forest Park, Jefferson Gateway NP, Central West End, etc. are easy enough to get to. Both Tufts and Wash U are outstanding schools and have their own appeal. Our student found St. Louis more to her liking – to each their own.

Most important decision point is to find your comfort zone – wherever that may be.

Delmar Loop has an eclectic selection of restaurants and entertainment venues within walking distance of WashU.

Hamurtle – absolutely! Our student lives on Delmar – great places to eat, shop, go to concerts. 10 to 15 minute walk to campus.