Reed v. Tufts?

College Search & Lists
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<p>I’ve been accepted at both places, and I know these are vastly different schools but I love both of them! Can anyone offer up some perspective? I’ll most likely study sociology and I want to get involved with the Peace Corps after college if that helps at all.</p>

<p>I also have a few more specific questions if anyone wants to help:

  1. What is the average class size at Tufts? I know that something like 90% of the classes have 20 or less students, but can anyone who goes to Tufts answer this in more detail? Are most classes around 20 people, or are there a lot of classes with, say, 12 people or less? How much discussion takes place in the classroom?
  2. At Tufts, how excited are students about what they are learning when it comes to discussing topics outside of the classroom? I don’t expect the same level of enthusiasm as I would find at Reed, but is it significant?
  3. At Reed, with such an extreme workload, how hard is it to get involved with extracurricular activities?</p>

<p>That’s all I can think of right now but I’m sure I have more questions! Thanks in advance guys!</p>

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<p>Tufts seems like a more traditional college experience</p>

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<p>“What is the average class size at Tufts? I know that something like 90% of the classes have 20 or less students”</p>

<p>A word of caution when looking at class size statistics - at any school. 90% of the classes at Tufts may have less than 20 students, but the other 10% of the classes may be the classes that freshman and sophomores enroll in because it includes all the intro and lower level courses. A better question is to ask freshman and sophomores, how many classes do you have that are 20 or more students? Also note that language classes, if they are part of the distribution requirement, tend to bring the averages down because they are generally small. </p>

<p>I’m not picking on Tufts here - they may offer lots of small classes for freshman. I don’t know. Just be careful of the data that gets thrown your way.</p>