Wellesley vs. Tufts

College Search & Selection
1

Hello. I have been fortunate enough to get off the waitlist from Wellesley College, and have been given the weekend to think over this offer of admission. I would like insight into which school would be better for me, so any insight would be much appreciated!

Points of consideration:

  1. International student, am Asian. (so I can’t visit either schools)
  2. Fortunately price will not be a hindrance, so financial aspect does not have to be considered.
  3. Psychology major, will definitely want to go on to grad school.
  4. I will want to work in either the US, Hong Kong, or Singapore in the future.

Questions (it’s fine if you don’t answer every question!)

  1. Grad school placement - I searched up online, and it does seem that Wellesley has a slightly better grad school placement, is that true? Of course, I do know that grad school is mainly dependent on my own efforts.
  2. Name value/recognition - it seems pretty shallow, but since both schools are great, which school has more of a “name value” in the US? What about internationally, esp. in the countries mentioned above?
  3. What do you think are the pros/cons of attending a women’s college?
  4. Social scene in both schools - I had a feeling that both Tufts and Wellesley does not have a particularly great party scene, which is fine by me. What do most students do on the weekend? How many hours does an average student study per day outside of classes?
  5. Job placement - What does life after each school look like in terms of job placement? How will employers think of each school? Or strength of alumni network of each school in the US and the Asia region?
  6. Stress - I hear conflicting reports on Wellesley’s community - some say that Wellesley is a really supportive bunch, but others say that there is too much stress, grade deflation, and competition within each other. Is this true?

Which school should I attend? Please help!

2

I can’t give you specific answers to all of these questions, but I can tell you that both are very highly respected schools and you can’t go terribly wrong with either. So, you can feel good that you have two great options. Both schools are relatively close to Boston so the social scene and things to do will never be a problem when you learn the bus and train system. Boston is a great city. Tufts has great name recognition on the Medical school side of things. Tufts is somewhat hilly, so expect to do a lot of stairs and get strong legs!

3

Graduate school admissions in psychology are heavily impacted by the research background of the applicant. A place like Wellesley is well-suited to providing you with opportunities to work with faculty on their research, and to begin to design your own work. Perhaps investigate opportunities for summer research, and student/faculty grants, at both schools, and consider what routes you could take in gaining that hands-on empirical work experience. Both great schools – congrats!

4

I’ve heard that for much of the 20th century, wealthy/powerful Asian families preferred to send their daughters to the top women’s colleges (the traditional “Seven Sisters” schools) for an American education, and that these schools still have prestige in Asia for that reason. Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, for example, was a Wellesley grad. But I’m not Asian, so you might be in a better position to know if this is true.

5

Wellesley is more of a traditional “destination” for the daughters of the powerful and wealthy. There you will have more access for example to mixers at the Harvard Business School, Harvard College and MIT.

Tufts has a self-contained social scene and is very liberal.

6

Tufts is excellent, but Wellesley is in a class by itself - even among the best of the women’s colleges. It is an exceptional institution.

7

Visited both, found the tour guides at Wellesley to be more easy going and naturally confident. Tufts guides seemed hell bent on showing us how whacky they were - which wasn’t very whacky at all to be honest.
Does Tufts offer accommodation for all four years? Is that an issue?
I think both schools have great reputations.
Tufts is in an nice area. Wellesley is one of the most amazing campuses in the North East.
I think Wellesley can cross register at MIT?
Pros/Cons of all women’s school is up to you and how you’d feel about it. I visited twice, my daughter did an overnight and loved it, said her host was a great person and her friends welcoming.
Wellesley has a terrific alum network.
But for an offer that was too good to turn down elsewhere she would be attending Wellesley this fall.
Check the psychology dept offerings at both schools.
You are going to get a great education at either school but I would favor Wellesley everyday.

8

As an international student you will have very limited opportunities to work in the US. You will have your OPT, but after that you will be expected to either find an employer willing to sponsor you for a work visa (very difficult) go to graduate school, marry an American – or return home.

9

You can’t go wrong academically at either. A friend started at Wellesley with enthusiasm
(recruited athlete) and hated it. Transferred to Tufts and loved it. Found the size and single sex nature of Wellesley stifling. It’s pretty much up to the individual. Others would say Wellesley is practically perfect in every way. Another friend loved it so much she got a job there after graduating.

I would focus more on what kind of environment you want because that’s where they differ the most.

10

Agreeing with @gardenstategal: the two are peer schools on just about any metric that will matter career or grad school wise.

One thing to think about is how much you want to engage with the college community. Both places will be welcoming, but it will be easier to fly under the radar at Tufts- just put your head down, find the other students from whatever your country is & do your four years- than at Wellesley, where people will be hoping that you will get involved with the community, get to know a range of people, etc. There isn’t a right or wrong answer- it depends on what you are looking for from this experience, your own temperament, etc.

11

Grad school. Zero difference.

Prestige It varies in different disciplines - it goes either way. Tufts has a great name in medicine and that cascades into popular culture. 20 30 40 60 years ago when madam kai-Shek or Hillary Clinton attended it was Wellesley by a country mile. Now not so much. But still elite level

Pros/cons.

Feminism and access to world class political activism thru Wellesley. Very serious and known to be competitive. Sense of safety and privacy in all women’s environment. World class

Cons. No men. no real collegiate spectator sports scene Very quiet and no walkable shops restaurants or anything city like. Perhaps fewer Asians. That you will have to look up. It just seemed like tufts has a larger Asian presence on campus than Wellesley when we visited with my d this past year (we visited both and tufts twice)

Social scene. Tufts.

Job placement. Perhaps Wellesley but splitting hairs

Stress. Usually self induced. But see previous answer referencing the serious competitive vibe of Wellesley.

Theee are generalizations and I never went to Wellesley obviously. So who knows.

12

Wellesley has double the Asian population of Tufts. The stats are available in the CDS.

Wellesley

39.2% White
23.3% Asian
12.9% International
11.8% Hispanic
6.23% Two or more races
6.19% Black
0.17% American Indian

Tufts

56.5% White
11.9% Asian
10.3% International
6.61% Hispanic
5.81% Race/ethnicity unknown
4.65% Two or more races
4.23% Black

13

Well there you go. So that’s a pro for Wellesley for sure. Thanks @warblersrule

14

As the parent of a tufts senior, I don’t think the above comment about tufts–put your head down, find students from your country and do your four years–rings true at all. It’s actually a really strange comment. Tufts is full of super engaged kids both in the classroom and out. But like at any college, including Wellesley and tufts, people engage with academics and extracurriculars only to the extent they want to. It’s self-driven.

The primary difference between these schools is that one is single-sex and the other co-ed, which does affect one’s college experience in myriad ways, both in the classroom and out. Decide which environment you’d prefer.

15

@RenaissanceMom, to be clear I wasn’t saying that as a description of Tufts at all!

The OP was asking for ways to differentiate the 2 schools. There are (obviously) quite a lot of ways, but this is one that I have experience with.

What I was saying is that for a student who wanted to put their head down and simply do the academics of college, it might be easier to do that at Tufts compared to Wellesley. Even if just by sheer numbers (2x the population), choosing to stay under the radar is easier in one than the other.

I work a lot with international students, and have been involved in various ways with students in several countries, and have seen them (including my own children, when they were the international students) adapt in different ways. The whole concept of active involvement in the campus community is simply different in the US than it is many (actually most) other places.

My genuine apologies if you thought I was being disparaging about Tufts, or suggesting that the students (as a whole) were not engaged in their community- I truly was not.

16

Wellesley has twice the percentage of Asian students, but Tufts has more than twice the undergraduate population of Wellesley, so Tufts actually has a larger Asian population

Tufts’ Asian community has facebook pages for student clubs for China, Hong Kong and Singapore that you can check out.

Wellesley’s Asian community has a facebook page for a student club for China that you can check out.

CC will not allow facebook links to be posted, but you can google them

17

@kj5793 Where I live in Southeast Asia Tufts has strong name recognition, due, I think, to the strength of its International Relations program. So, I would give Tufts the edge for name value in Asia. Wellesley certainly has some high profile alumna plus a higher USNWR rating in its category (#3 in LACs) than Tufts does in its category (#29 in National universities).

The major issue here though, is not prestige but experience. I would agree that the major points of differentiation between the two schools would be women’s college versus co-ed, small liberal arts college vs mid-sized private university. You’d get an excellent education with superb graduate school and career opportunities at either one, but the overarching culture and ambience would be different.

18

@kj5793 ,

What you should really be asking yourself is this: do you prefer a college or a university (there is a difference)? One is a liberal arts college. I am assuming that you know what this means. How else would Wellesley be on your radar? The other is a university. Tufts’ undergraduate size is small in comparison to a large public university, but Tufts is still very much a university.

Both schools are excellent, but begin with that essential question: college or university. Both schools are equal in terms of grad school future, job placement, and prestige/name recognition.

I don’t know why, but my Spidey Sense tells me that you’ll choose Tufts. You seem to have more doubts about Wellesley (as a women’s college, as a place that might be too stressful). Plus, you were already accepted to Tufts, right? You’re wondering if you should lose the deposit at Tufts to go to Wellesley instead, correct? If you can, let us know what you decide.

19

No clue on name recognition overseas. But the schools are in the same general class, so the most important thing in terms of job/grad school placement will be YOU.

Regarding pros/cons of a women’s college, it wasn’t what I sought as a young person, but in hindsight I can see the value of coming into your own academically in an all-female environment. It’s just a different – and more supportive – environment, especially if you are just finding your voice. I wish I’d considered it back in the day.

The Wellesley campus is one of the most beautiful I’ve seen.

20

Congratulations to your acceptances!!! It’s exciting to have several good choices.

I think collegemom3717 made a valid point about it being easier to stay under the radar at a larger university.

I’d like to offer a few thoughts, though I would like to point out that I have not been to either university.

Tufts teaches larger courses than Wellesley.

If you look at the course schedule for the psychology department at Tufts, you will notice that many intermediate and advanced courses have a capacity in the 60-150 student range and actual enrollment between 40-140 students. At Wellesley, the corresponding courses are capped at 15-30 students.

[Wellesley Course Browser](https://courses.wellesley.edu/)
[Tufts Class Search](https://sis.uit.tufts.edu/psp/paprod/EMPLOYEE/EMPL/h/?tab=TFP_CLASS_SEARCH#class_search)

Large courses have their advantages: they have lower expectations about participation and it becomes easier to get into the courses you want. When departments force courses to be small, some students won’t be able to get a seat in their preferred course or with their preferred instructor.

Large courses also have disadvantages. In particular, large courses make it much harder to get the professor’s attention, which is particularly important if you are interested in graduate school. (For letters of recommendation, research opportunities, advice, etc.)

If you are confident and proactive about approaching your professors outside of class, large classes won’t hold you back. However, if you consider yourself shy, it is much more likely that your professor will learn your name, take notice of your performance and approach you with opportunities if you are 1 of 15 students rather than 1 of 60.

My experience at a different women’s college

I got my undergraduate degree at Bryn Mawr. I think the main benefit of the women’s college environment for me was that it felt less intimidating to try new things. I signed up for a computer science class with absolutely no programming background, and I was surrounded by other students who mostly didn’t have any experience either. (I liked it enough that I completed a minor in CS and now have a programming job. I did not see that coming in high school!)

Some of my classmates got very preoccupied with the lack of co-ed dating opportunities and spent much of their time off campus. I have to admit, I didn’t mind that so many people went off campus to party. It meant that the dorms were usually quiet enough to sleep, even on weekends. :slight_smile:

I would choose Wellesley over Tufts, but that’s solely because the smaller college setting is a better fit for me personality-wise.