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Well, you could throw a baseball into Boston from either MIT or Harvard. Just saying; don’t base any acceptance decisions on that fact. :)</p>
<p>One good measure, IMO, is % of students in top decile of their HS class. Brandeis & BC is more than 80% in top decile, while BU is 55% – clearly, a significant difference in the amount of A’s earned by the matriculants.</p>
<p>A few decades back, BC was barely even with BU academically, and significantly behind Tufts and Brandeis. But things have changed. </p>
<p>BC, Brandeis, and Tufts all had the same US News Peer Assessment ranking a few years ago, and are always within a point or two now. Tufts folks are used to being in the shadow of Harvard and MIT.</p>
<p>If the current trend continues, they will have to get used to being under BC in the Boston pecking order, and you can tell they are really ticked off about it. </p>
<p>The problem is that Tufts is an interesting school, but it doesn’t have enough distinctive characteristics to give it a strong identity to differentiate it from a lot of other colleges and universities (like BC does with the bigtime sports, the beautiful campus, and the Jesuit atmosphere). If you’re not taking IR at Tufts, what do you have that’s special? It also has a name that a lot of people can’t get past.</p>
<p>Once again…BC straddles the Boston/Newton line.</p>
<p>Umm, I disagree. BC has ALWAYS been ranked between the 30-40’s in US news and world report. Tufts has ALWAYS been ranked between 22-29 in US news and world report. Tufts has a good pre-med, IR(of course), and is seen as a research university but small like a liberal arts.</p>
<p>BC is an excellent school, but claiming that Tufts is somehow less is silly. Tufts is 2nd for the number of undergraduate alumni who are fortune 100 CEO’s (Despite not having a business school), ties harvard and JHU with the number of Fulbright scholars (17), and is easier to access Boston than BC. BC does straddle the newton/Boston line, yet the greenline has sooooo many stops to get anywhere. The redline is where the quote “Brain power triangle” is (the Harvard, MIT, and Tufts).</p>
<p>I think judging things on names and PA scores is silly because US news has a point system. A lot of people in the midwest haven’t heard of tufts because they aren’t sports oriented (BC is literally the good sports college in Boston…hands down). Yet despite this, Tufts still maintains a strong rating because it makes up for it in other areas. BC would have to jump 5 points to tie Tufts in US news…their score is 67, Tufts, 72… (Tufts would need 5 points to tie georgetown). But rankings are stupid. I think Tufts does have an identity…it’s a niche of quirky smart kids. Heck a good sports team and jesuit already is an identity (notre dame?)</p>
<p>I am not saying BC is a bad school. I am not even saying you should pick tufts over BC. I am saying it’s wrong to just belittle a school. In the end, it’s all about fit and at the end of the day…rankings don’t matter. You will get an excellent education at BC, Tufts, Emory, Northwestern, wherever. Just be happy.</p>
<p>Well, rather the rankings, how about thinking in terms of student body? There’s a rumour that BC students like partying and drinking, although I know not every student does this. How about at Tufts and BU? Anybody know about this?</p>
<p>I have several friends at BC, and while they certainly attest that there is a crowd that loves drinking/partying, it doesn’t sound like it is moreso than many other colleges. Pretty much wherever you go, you’re going to find people who enjoy partying; that’s just the way it is in college. Unless you visit the campus for yourself, you won’t get the best feel of how you’ll fit in.</p>
<p>I’d take rumors about partying with a grain of salt in general, only because students party and drink nearly everywhere. Plenty of students will, but plenty won’t as well.</p>
<p>Tufts and BC have two reciprocal programs in place. </p>
<p>One is between BC and Tufts Medical School, where a sophomore at BC will gain entry to the med school after completing junior and senior years at BC while maintining a 3.5 gpa, with a specific number of biology and chemistry courses required.</p>
<p>The other is between Tufts and BC Law School, where a similar arrangement (I believe) is available.</p>
<p>With that in mind, it seems that BC and Tufts are quite close academically.</p>
<p>while buzzers make some solid points, a couple of comments:</p>
<p>The Green line has three separate tracks, and one is a lot faster downtown than the one that stops at BC’s door. BC runs a shuttle to the faster T-line.</p>
<p>PA scores are made by academicians, many (most?) of which hate sports and particularly football. (They’d rather that money be spent on faculty research, to increase PA. haha) Thus, with all its faults – argued incessantly on cc – IMO, PA is still a reasonable proxy for how academia perceives a college relative to others in its class.</p>
<p>Academics also tend to dislike undergrad biz schools and Comm majors (too practical/professional and not theoretical, liberal arts), which comprises a huge part of BC undergrads, after adding in Nursing and Education (~40%?). Thus, BC’s PA will have difficulty rising much relative to other schools.</p>
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<p>My impressions from having many friends attend all those schools and from living in the Boston area for several years is the following:</p>
<p>BU = Size of this school gives it the feel of a medium to large state university. Many of their students are into the partying/drinking scene. Friends attending there mentioned this a lot, saw some of this firsthand at BU…especially on the weekends, and a few friends who live near BU students have frequently complained of drunk BU students making a big mess and vandalizing property/cars around their apartment blocks in Fenway and Allston/Brighton. Was also astounded to meet quite a few rich kids of who were mainly there for a 4 year vacation/shopping sprees and weren’t interested in academics. A few went so far as to fly off to Europe nearly every weekend to drop $10,000/trip to get the highest end Parisian and Italian fashionista clothes…and they felt no shame or anything strange about doing so or mentioning it to others like myself. Politically left-leaning on average…though the vast majority of the students seem politically apathetic and much more concerned about landing high-paying jobs, gaining admission to topflight professional grad programs, or preparing to inherit their parents’ business(es). </p>
<p>BC = There’s also a heavy party/drinking scene due to the high sports driven school spirit culture. Similar complaints about drunken BC students vandalizing or otherwise making a mess of apartments/property around Newton from some older co-workers though it seems a bit overblown from their strong anti-college student bias and my own observations of the campus/surrounding area. Students on average are stronger academically judging by their high school stats than their BU counterparts…but seem to have a similar emphasis on not emphasizing academics too much outside of class. Students here also seem much more conservative than counterparts at BU or Tufts. </p>
<p>Tufts = There is a party/drinking scene here, but from what I’ve heard from friends and seen on campus, students involved in it tend to go off to MIT or Boston to get their partying/drinking fix. In fact, the friends have complained that the Tufts campus can seem quite dead on the weekends as many kids go off to Harvard Square, MIT, or Boston for fun instead of hang out around campus, doing on-campus extracurriculars, or are busy studying hard…especially those who are pre-meds/engineering majors. Students here seem to emphasize academics much more than their BC and BU counterparts and most students there tended to be quite liberal/progressively-left politically. Even those involved in the party/drinking scene tend to come back to campus and hit the books at some point so they don’t risk being left in the dust academically. Of the three colleges…this is one which comes closest to my own undergrad where most students will continue a serious academic discussion started in class and continue it well into the following morning without a break and not think you’re a freak of nature for doing so.</p>
<p>Can someone post the average SAT scores and GPAs for the most recent class at BC, Tufts, BU and Northeastern?</p>
<p>I think BC and BU are pretty equal in terms of partying, and I don’t think there’s more drinking/partying at these schools than at most colleges. College kids like to drink, the Boston-area schools are no exception. Tufts seems to be a little more low key… and even though there’s plenty going on in cambridge, it’s not super unusual to see MIT or Harvard guys hanging out at BU/Northeastern bars on the weekend.</p>
<p>You can find plenty of people who don’t drink at both BC/BU… they just won’t be the majority. There are students who aren’t into big parties, or drinking, or drugs, or who are just too busy studying/working/doing other activities to go out all the time, so you won’t be alone if you’re looking for a social life that doesn’t include drinking. That being said, if you really take issue with a lot of drinking going on around you, BC and BU may not be your best bet.</p>
<p>Middle 50% as reported by their websites</p>
<p>Tufts
CR - 690/760
M - 690/770
W - 690/760
So about 2070-2290</p>
<p>BC
1910-2125</p>
<p>BU
1850-2090</p>
<p>Northeastern
1850-2050</p>
<p>Thanks Emily. So Tufts is harder to get into than BC, BC is harder to get into than BU, and BU and Northeastern are pretty much identical.</p>
<p>Cobrat- thanks so much for your post. That was a really helpful way of comparing the three. I’m applying to all three, and am leaning towards Tufts.</p>
<p>informative:</p>
<p>ipeds is a great resource for college admission stats.</p>
<p>[College</a> Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/]College”>College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics)</p>
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<p>Depends on the college kid and the prevailing campus culture. Drinking wasn’t a big part of campus culture at my private SLAC. Moreover, there are college students who do not like to drink such as some of the friends who attended the three Boston area colleges.</p>
<p>Personally, I was indifferent to drinking and the prevailing drinking culture I found at BC/BU was a big turn-off because the behavior the partiers/drinkers exhibited…especially those from BU was of the kind I’d think one would have grown out of by the time one was 15-16…much less an 18-22 year old young adult. </p>
<p>I never understood the appeal to “get wasted” and didn’t see what was such a big freakin’ deal…whether as a 17 year old college freshman on scholarship or now. </p>
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<p>If you want another school which has the same/lesser selectivity than BC with none of the partying/drinking culture of BC/BU and academic atmosphere closer to that of Tufts, I’d recommend adding Brandeis University to your list.</p>
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<p>Heard from local Boston friends that NU used to be easier to get into than BU and knew many NU students who were BU rejects or turned down BU’s admission offer because NU offered much more money.</p>
<p>^ BU does have a bit more of that party school mentality than BC, although any university is going to have a bit of a party mentality. </p>
<p>Brandeis is a school few people talk about anymore. It used to be more recognized academically, but it has fallen off in recent years. Not sure why. Possibly its distance to the city, as it isn’t in Boston. Neither is Tufts, but Tufts is at least on the T (metro) line.</p>
<p>NU has become much harder to get into with their recent rise in the rankings. Astonishingly, it has jumped 120 spots in only a few years in the rankings, which has increased its visibility and desirability. It used to be a safety school for BU, but those roles have reversed in recent years. The nicer campus and the better reputation has a lot of students applying making it more difficult to get in. They also offer more financial assistance.</p>
<p>BC is still significantly better than either. I would prefer BC to Tufts, but I think that is just a personal opinion. You should always visit the schools and see what atmosphere you want. Tufts reputation for being a bit boring isn’t completely unfounded.</p>
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Research has shown that more college students are hung over in the morning than at any other time of day.</p>
<p>I’d be more worried if they were hung over at lunch or supper.</p>