<p>and no offense guys, i don’t think tufts is a bad school, at all, i didn’t apply out of high school but if i had and was accepted i would have happily gone there in a second, but you compare NU and Tufts as a similie to JHU and Georgetown as peer institutions.</p>
<p>In USNWR, JHU is ranked 16 and Georgetown is ranked 23, that’s a difference of 7 spaces. NU, on the other hand, is ranked 14, while Tufts is ranked 27, that is a difference of 13 spaces, almost twice as far apart. Tufts, in the rankings, is tied with UNC-CH and USC. I would definitely not say USC or UNC-CH were “peer institutions” with northwestern (and i don’t think many would disagree with me), and therefore by the transitive property, i would not say Tufts was, either.</p>
<p>They are different schools in different places that cater to difference preferences, and it is not unfathomable that one would choose Tufts over NU, however, if you look at the revealed preferences ranking here: <a href=“http://papers.nber.org/papers/w10803.pdf[/url]”>http://papers.nber.org/papers/w10803.pdf</a> although i disagree in some part with their results (ie: Notre Dame and several public schools being placed so high because of brand/regional loyalty rather than actual academic quality), you will see that NU places 21st, among schools such as Duke, Williams, and Pomona, while Tufts places 40th with the likes of NYU and Michigan.</p>
<p>Not saying Tufts is a bad school, however the rankings and revealed preference choice among <em>most</em> students says that Tufts and Northwestern are not, in fact, “peer institutions” but rather most will perceive Northwestern as being “overall alot better”</p>