<p>Every time college admissions come around the question of rankings seems to come up along with the favored issue of some form of Tufts Syndrome or other issue. I wanted to provide a perspective on the issue that I hope will allay concerns and be informative. I hope to post my thoughts on the also never ending “academic prestige” question that goes hand in hand with the rankings arguments. </p>
<p>Rankings: </p>
<p>Let me start by saying that rankings are generally reflective of several things: how much money the school has, how old it is (which usually means it has more money), and how well known it is to most other college professionals. Other than that they offer little useful information. I wanted to quote WCASParent from a previous thread on this: “In terms of difficulty of admission and cachet on the resume, HYP [Harvard, Yale, Princeton - Also MIT/Caltech, etc.] and Stanford stand alone, but after that there is a very large group of schools that all offer comparable, and excellent, educations.” What you can take from this is essentially that some of the higher ranked schools may offer more opportunities to do research, give more money for programs, have better (or worse housing), offer more academic opportunities, etc. But other than that you’re playing a guessing game with numbers that largely do not tell you anything.</p>
<pre><code> Outside of a small group of highly ranked schools fall a large number of institutions that are comparable in many ways, with a wide range of things that they do better or worse. For example, Johns Hopkins is better ranked than Tufts because the research that comes out of the school is probably better known. Does that mean they have better dorms or academic programs or even better professors? No. It means that they do more research, have more money, and are thus better known. For a more specific example from the science perspective: The JHU biology department is large and does great research, but its not necessarily as accessible to undergraduates as the Tufts biology research is. You may work in a lab of a really important professor, but never see that person. On the other hand at Tufts you will have much more interaction with faculty because the school is undergraduate focused. Either lab you work in, both Tufts and JHU students get into top graduates schools. Rankings may tell you that JHU has better known names, but not the type of research experience you’ll get. (I’m not picking on Hopkins, just using it as a comparable example because I considered both schools before deciding to go to Tufts). This was a specific example, but you can take the logic to any comparison you want within the broad range of schools US News ranks from 10 to 30, probably higher numbers too.
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<p>“Tufts Syndrome”
Yes there are people who go to Tufts because they didn’t get into an Ivy League School. There are also people who go to Tufts who rejected an Ivy League school or a “higher ranked school.” There are quite a few people in the second category in fact. There are also people who complain about not getting into an Ivy League school, and these people are also those who are particularly annoying and you sometimes wonder why they should get in the first place. There are also many, many people who never mention the topic at all. Could they be thinking about it? Possibly, but unless you can read minds it really doesn’t matter. </p>
<p>In all my time at Tufts this syndrome concept has not been an issue that has affected my interactions with students, my campus experience, or my academics. In fact, if all of these students are in fact “ivy rejects” then I take comfort in knowing that I’m surrounded by students who are still remarkably brilliant. This “syndrome” is not an issue that should affect your contemplation of Tufts at all. Maybe years ago there was this type of feeling, but today Tufts is a very different place than it was thirty years ago. </p>
<p>Take Home Message: Rankings are not terribly useful. Choose a school that fits your interests and needs. There is no “Tufts Syndrome,” unless you are referring to the strange clinical syndrome in which students paint Jumbo (who enjoys his natural grey color).</p>
<p>Quote from <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/tufts-university/693370-tufts-vs-northwestern.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/tufts-university/693370-tufts-vs-northwestern.html</a>.</p>