I agree. I don't see any of the threads on this exact topic in the recent past and don't feel like searching for them, but as previous posters have said, I'm sure they would turn up if you did a search. In the meantime, go here for a full debate on a related topic: What's this so-called Tufts Syndrome?
My personal opinion: sure, some of the people at Tufts will be ivy-rejects. That's just how things work. I'm sure that some people at Yale are Harvard rejects (and the reverse is probably also true). But who really cares? Does it matter where people did and didn't get in? I have a friend who applied to Harvard EA (after first being deferred to the regular pool) and got in but also applied to Stanford (hasn't heard yet) and over the course of the last 6 months has changed her mind and now wants to go to Stanford (not Harvard). Her desire to go to Stanford over Harvard would have been the same even if she had been rejected by Harvard. Replace Stanford with Tufts and a similar thing could happen. It's hard to find the proper fit when it comes to colleges and it takes time and minds change--notwithstanding admissions decisions. That in mind, it's important to note that Tufts is a great institution. Let's not try to compare it to HYPS, etc because honestly, it doesn't really matter. It's all about where you are happiest and where the department in which you are interested is strong.
In the end, I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of Tufts students are kids who really want to be there and love it there. It doesn't matter if Tufts was their first choice from their nursery school days; it also doesn't matter if Tufts was their safety. In the end, they are at Tufts. And most of them are happy about that fact. As others have stated on the other thread, the fact that 40% of each incoming class is made up of kids accepted ED shows that at least 40% of each class viewed Tufts as their absolute first choice (and their stats are quite good so it's not like they had no other options). I'm sure that a far greater percentage than that saw Tufts as their first choice but like I explained above, this is truly irrelevant to the fact that most of the students there are happy to be there.
So I ask--no, I plead--can we let this issue rest? I can understand the concern about being at a school where everyone is sad to have ended up because they didn't get into their respective ivies; I was concerned about this too! But trust me, this is not the case at Tufts. So rest assured. And stop comparing schools and trying to generalize about the student body's bitterness. The majority of students at Tufts aren't bitter and are quite happy. So try to focus on choosing the school that's best for you for your own, personal reasons.
Last edited by juliatorgo; 04-04-2005 at 12:43 AM.
Can't resist my usual mantra... there are 16,000+ Harvard rejects every year - and only 1,200 Tufts students... do the math people, you can fill up a Tufts class 13 or 14 times over with Harvard rejects. Those people go somewhere - like Rice and Northwestern and Georgetown and Duke and JHU and gosh, even the small LACs like Amherst or Wellesley or Smith. Gee, we haven't even gotten into the Yale rejects either.
A fair amount of people also choose Tufts over Ivies, and some people rejected at Tufts and into lower tiers of the Ivies, like Penn and Cornell.
Why does every1 consider Penn and Cornell to be 'the lower tiers of the Ivies...' if you posted that in the Penn and/or Cornell forums, you would be flamed.
Snuffles is right. I dont have the stats and hand, but HYP have the biggest endowements, the lowest acceptance rates and the best reputations. It may seem odd to us CC'ers, but I bet you that a fair chunk of Americans wouldnt know that Cornell or UPenn are Ivy's at all. To tell you the truth, I didnt know this fact until I entered HS. Not that they arent good schools, they are great schools, but HYP have a greater reputation
sure, HYP have greater reputations, but thats not justification to state that Penn and Cornell are 'lower Ivies'... one schools' reputation does not make it 'better' or 'worse' than another school.. plus its all just a name anyway.. a label... think about it...
any others agree? or am I alone here?
maybe i'm just arguing this b/c I'm so in love with Penn... but got rejected anyway...
I think perhaps the term "lower ivies" refers to the relative difficulty required to gain admission to the schools. It says nothing about their academic strengths. So in fact, it is a flawed term and very deceiving, but in all honesty I have a hard time typing out all the names rather than HYP or AWS.
On a side note, almost no one in the general populous would know who is in the ivy league. People will almost always think that Stanford is an ivy, or Berkeley as the "public ivy" and whatever nonsense. I think the word ivy over time is gradually changing its meaning. It is referred to less and less as the university sports conference that was created long ago. Instead, it is becoming status symbol of a prestigious university.
umm what he said. if you tufts guys go down the street to boston college, i bet only a quarter of the students or so could tell you that there are 8 ivies, let alone name them. and a lot of schools are starting to have reputations that rival or better ivy league schools, say stanford, duke, georgetown, williams, amherst etc. Because of financial aid in the 21st century, youre gonna see an every greater diffusion of the most talented students and places like tufts (ill throw you folks a bone), emory, washu st louis, northwestern, jhu could grow into reputations that are up with those guys too.....but its just reputations ultimately: what the dumb people of the world think about the smart people of the world...im one of the dumb people
i didnt read everything other people said so sorry if this is repetitive. of course tufts is full of ivy rejects....every college that isnt an ivy league is basically all ivy rejects (unless the kids didnt apply to begin with). but i definitely feel that tufts does stand out especially as one. i don't know any kids here who were accepted at an ivy and chose tufts instead. its almost the end of frehsman year, and we all still talk about how bitter we are that we were rejected from harvard, yale, etc.
