Is Tufts an LAC?

gardenstategal
Tue, 19 Apr 2016 21:38:18 +0000

It is a mid-sized research university, not a LAC.

As for admissions, any school that is very selective and chooses its class (rather than guarantees admissions based on stats) is unpredictable because it will have the ability to create its class to meet its institutional needs. That means, from a practical point of view, that if you meet their threshold for admission and have something they want, you’ll be offered a spot. It also means that while you can think that you meet all the “criteria” for admission, you may be rejected because whatever it is that you offer, they already have. This year, Tufts accepted only 14.3% of its applicants. I believe that they said that something like only 25% of the people who applied were people who would not have done well there (i.e., were clear denials). Again, to translate, for everyone accepted, roughly 4 candidates of equal quality were not offered admission.

At many of the LACs, the unpredictability feels amplified because the incoming classes are small (around 500, for example) and the number of people that are needed to fill sports teams, play instruments in the orchestra, meet diversity needs may eat up roughly half of that when added to legacies. You’re then looking at about 250 spots for regular joes. Tufts is bigger and may need proportionately fewer applicants for some of those needs, but they are still getting to be choosy to the point that it’d be hard to say upfront if an applicant would be a sure thing or not.