Tufts is a liberal arts college first, and a research university second, with most of the developments towards a research university happening after the 70s. Just because some US News Ranking for a specific major, which only used peer assessments in its methodology, says that Tufts is lower ranked doesn’t mean anything for academic quality. Also, the majority of classes at Tufts are thought by professors, not TAs, even in intro classes.
^ This. Am an incoming freshman to Tufts and that was precisely what set Tufts apart from my other top schools (Uchicago, Wes, and Brown). Imo if you really want to suss out Tufts’ peers, graduate rankings are irrelevant because that’s not where Tufts primary strengths lie.
That must be the main hook then for the bright students Tufts is attracting (aside from environment/fit): the emphasis on undergraduate teaching. Cool beans.
b773wlz,
At UW most of our survey classes (first two years, pre-major) had two or three weekly lectures administered by the professor; a weekly discussion (small classroom, 10-20 students) centered on homework, exam preparation, discussing the material from the lectures, etc.; and, if applicable, a weekly lab, also
led by a TA, also with 10-20 in it.
Are you saying that Tufts does not have discussions or labs to supplement the lectures, or are you saying that only the professor leads the discussions and labs?
Thanks!
I am not looking at any rankings, just a historical sense of how Tufts is viewed by NYC employers and the difficulty of getting admitted, and based on those I think Tufts has long been above NYU, Brandeis, Emory, BU, Colgate, and others. Many of the schools in the original post that supposedly list Tufts as a peer are, in my opinion (hardly authoritative, to be sure), doing so aspirationally; e.g., it is laughable to suggest that Clark, American, GWU and Lehigh - all of which are good schools - are peers of Tufts in terms of difficulty of being admitted.
I am in the Midwest. I would have thought that Tufts is a peer to Vandy, Rice, and WUSTL, but a notch below Northwestern, Duke, and Johns Hopkins. JMHO
I think all of the above schools are pretty competitive with each other, including Vandy in recent years ( a look at the test “numbers” for its recently admitted students is surprising).
As an actual adult, an '08 Tufts grad who has since earned a Master’s degree and now (finally) has a successful career, I can honestly say it that questions like this don’t matter in the slightest. The prestige wars are futile, and are seriously off-putting to most people. Make the most of your time at Tufts, and you will find success in your post-college life. Simple as that.