<p>I don’t think all the languages at Tufts are equally tough - just Arabic. Everyone at Tufts agrees who has taken other languages at Tufts. Of course there are other ways to learn languages, that’s why my son is doing a junior year abroad in Jordan - he’s actually not at all gifted at language learning and felt he needed an immersion experience. But since this is is third program in Jordan he’s seen first hand how much other students learn with two years preparation compared to what he had learned. I don’t know how you prove it, but he has a friend who is spending a year in Cairo, writing for an Egyptian newspaper, in Arabic. That’s how good her Arabic is.</p>
<p>I’m not arguing private schools are always better, or that state schools are always better. Really that you have to look at it on a department by department basis and even then there are no guarantees your kid will stick to the intended major. </p>
<p>For a high paying field, why not go to the “best” school and get an education where you are pushed by your fellow students to be the best you can be? </p>
<p>I’m not a big believer in the Return on Investment Model, but I do understand perfectly that you have to be able to afford the school you send your kid to.</p>