Transfer dilemma: Tufts -> T25?

Transfer Students
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I’m looking to transfer to T25 schools (I’m currently a freshman). I’ve applied mostly because my Asian parents convinced me to, because they think T25 schools has more driven and intense people that I could surround myself with, so that my environment would push me to work harder. Not to mention useful alumni connections for accelerating career paths and higher chance of getting pulled into research labs or startups. And not to mention that if I were to return to Asia for work, a T25 school brand recognition could go a long way (as opposed to my current school, Tufts, which is great, but a lot less heard of and acknowledged in Asia). And frankly, I feel quite smart at my current school (aka there are people who at least appear to me to be quite slow intellectually), and an environment with more people smarter than me than dumber might be refreshing and help me grow faster.

Dilemma: I don’t know if I want to transfer. I really like the people at Tufts and I’ve made great friends. Looking back, I barely hung out with friends or did things purely for fun in high school, and I had a rough time socially in senior year, and coming to college has taught me a lot about being able to balance fun alongside academics. And people are so nice here. I fear it’s a lot more competitive at T25 schools, where you have to apply to get into clubs, and people constantly grinding school work and applying for internships. I can survive that, and I’m experienced with single-minded grinding, so I’ll probably do fine, and I’ll definitely/ probably get farther career-wise, but my time at college might be a lot less enjoyable, and I’m not sure I want that. College feels like the last time for easy, built-in social connections (as opposed to independent adult life and working). I’m incredibly introverted and basically terrible at making friends, and I’ve been really lucky to meet and be part of my current friend group, and I really don’t want to lose that. I don’t think I’ll be able to build the same level of connection at a new school, in a more competitive environment, as a transfer. I also know that friendships might not last, and a career-boost could last a lifetime, though I’d still have great memories and experiences to keep forever.

Socially, it might be important to note that I’ve always had to transfer every few years for various reasons (in K-12) and I’ve usually ended up fine. But I think it’d just be nice to not be the transfer for once. Let me also emphasize that if I were to transfer, I’ll probably do fine in the grind culture. I won’t burn out or whatever; I’ll end up fine.

But I’m also wondering if I could try to use the alumni connections at Tufts and build my career from there. I don’t actually know how much an Ivy League brand name boosts career progressions, including in Asia, though I’m not even sure yet if I want to stay in the states or go back. For context - I’ve applied to Yale, Brown, Cornell, UPenn, UChicago, CMU, Duke, UMich, Northwestern. At Tufts, I’d double major CS and biochem, and if I transferred, I’d major in neuroscience or neurobiology (with something computational as some kind of concentration). I’m considering careers at the intersection of bio and CS, as well as purely bio and purely CS jobs like R&D or software development. Career-wise, I’m looking for something that makes an interesting job (intellectually stimulating/ challenging), but also actually makes money.

TL;DR: should I transfer to T25 schools for the career boost or stay at my current school for good friends and memories (which isn’t particularly practical or long-lasting for my life)?

(And obviously this all wouldn’t matter if I get rejected from every school I applied to, but let’s operate on the assumption that I do have to make the decision.)

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Rankings are intended to sell magazines, or to get people to click on web pages. Either way the point is to make advertisers pay for their advertisements. Rankings say nothing about whether a university is a good fit for you.

There are hundreds of very good universities in the US. MIT graduates and Stanford graduates will regularly work for bosses who were U.Mass or Rutgers graduates, or who graduated from a university that you never heard of.

And frankly I thought that Tufts was a “top 25” university. It certainly is very good. Its campus in Medford is at least in my opinion quite attractive. Its medical school and its graduate school of biomedical sciences (both in Boston) are top notch.

Why would you change your major if you transfer?

Or stay at your current school for the career boost and because it is an excellent university.

If you are considering any graduate school in the US, graduate admissions frankly will not care whether you got your bachelor’s degree at Tufts, Yale, Brown, Harvard, or any other school on your list. They are all excellent.

Graduate admissions will be somewhat impacted by what references you get from professors and what research opportunities you have taken advantage of. Finding a good job after graduation can also be impacted by the same two issues. Changing universities means that you will need to start over getting to know your professors, which will not help with these two points.

How well you do as a university student will matter a lot when you are either looking for a job or applying to graduate programs. How well you do will depend upon how happy you are wherever you end up. It sounds like you are happy where you are.

I would expect you to get a lot of rejections simply because you have applied to so many schools that accept so few undergraduate transfer students. Also you usually need a very good reason to justify a transfer between top schools, and I have not heard any very good reason. Michigan might be your best chance at admissions. I personally do not see any point in transferring from Tufts to Michigan unless you can come up with some very good reason for the transfer.

My personal opinion is that you are already at an exceptionally good university. The only downside I see with Tufts is that it can be expensive, particularly if you do not qualify for need based aid. However, you have not mentioned this as an issue and assuming that you can afford to study for a full four years at Tufts in my opinion it is a great choice.

And if you ever do end up applying to graduate programs, even at Harvard or Yale or Stanford or Chicago or Northwestern, they will know how good Tufts is.

If you do get rejected by every school that you applied to, this might still matter a bit simply because I think that you should appreciate what an excellent university you are already attending. Attend every class. Pay attention. Keep way ahead in your homework. This is a great opportunity that you already have. Take advantage of this great opportunity.

And congratulations on having been accepted to Tufts!

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Tufts is one of the “little Ivies.” Maybe tell your parents that, and have them look that term up. It is an excellent, well-regarded university. I hope you can stay since you seem happy there and career options will be fine.

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You’ll find these people at almost any university, and certainly at Tufts. There is nothing magical about “T25” schools that acts as a secret gateway for all the smart and high-achieving people (and actually, I thought Tufts usually ranks that high on most lists).

I can’t imagine that the opportunities you would find at Tufts would be inferior to anything you would find at other elite schools. No matter what school you attend, the opportunities depend more on your initiative than the school’s resources, but I can’t believe that the resources at Tufts wouldn’t be excellent.

Ok, maybe – if you’re planning to go back to work in Asia and not go to grad school in the US – this could be a reason to transfer. But as others have pointed out, transferring into a school that would have international name recognition is exceedingly difficult (and there just aren’t too many of those schools).

I’m glad you feel smart, but jeez, this attitude is not great! Everyone (including you) had to work hard to get admitted to Tufts. “Slow intellectually”? “Dumber”? Please banish these words from your vocabulary (and these thoughts from your mind). Perhaps you had top-notch preparation in your secondary school, and maybe that has put you ahead of the curve in your first year, taking (I’m assuming) mostly introductory classes and pre-reqs, but I promise you that if you stick with it, you’ll be challenged in your upper-level classes, and you’ll find peers who take their education in your shared chosen disciplines seriously. Please open your mind and don’t dismiss students as easily as you seem to have done. Perhaps the student you think is not terribly intellectual just has a different social style than you do, and perhaps that person you think is your intellectual inferior is a genius in the classroom. If you’ve grown up abroad (I’m not sure – just guessing based on your mentioning “returning” to Asia), it might be that you’re confusing a more relaxed American social vibe with a less intellectual climate, but one does not necessarily follow from the other.

Honestly, this sounds like a really good reason to stay.

No school is perfect, and if you transfer looking for the perfect social and intellectual climate, you’re probably not going to find it. I’m not at all convinced that the quality of students and academic intensity will be all that different at Tufts than at most of the schools you applied to (though the social climate might differ – different schools have different vibes, but most also overlap in some ways). I definitely don’t think you’ll get a career boost from transferring – no matter where you go, your own academic performance, efforts, and initiative will be the most important factor in whether you get internships or other opportunities, and eventually whether you land in a career path you want. And again, the chance of a transfer admission will be very slim at most of them.

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Let’s not. You don’t have a real or even realistic decision to make yet, IMO, and I would think twice before giving in to your parent’s - largely unfounded - fears and fantasies at this late date. I know people who would have killed to have had the college experience you’re having right now.

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Please consider staying at Tufts. You are thriving!

The friendships are too valuable to leave behind. Im not sure if there are any papers looking at the economic value of college friendships, but i can hypothesize several avenues of direct benefit.

Real people are going to win over a generic alumni network. Real friends will text you about opportunities and share insight when they have them. The marginal difference between Tufts and anywhere else won’t come close to the added benefits of real friendships.

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If you are thriving at Tufts, why leave? It’s a great school with a strong reputation. Why trade that in for an experience that is likely to be academically similar without a guarantee that you will meet your people as easily.

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I can’t answer for what makes sense in Asia, but echoing others, for US purposes if you are thriving at Tufts it wouldn’t make sense to me to risk a transfer. Maybe you would thrive somewhere else too, but maybe not, and that’s far more important than the US News ranking.

To me, transfers are for people NOT thriving where they started, or maybe who simply cannot get the degree they need. Neither condition seems to apply to you.

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This is very true. There is one word here that might be worth thinking about: “risk”. There are risks in transferring. Occasionally we see posts here from students who have transferred and regret it.

One cost of transferring is that you already are starting to know your professors where you are. This would need to start over at any new school. Also, given that your most likely acceptance might be Michigan, we might note that Michigan is four times larger than Tufts, which is likely to make it more difficult to get to know your professors. Another cost of transferring is that you need to start over again to meet friends, and you will be transferring in as an upper year student and will be among upper year students who have already made friends. Then there is the risk that you might transfer and just not like it or not do as well as you are doing where you are.

Personally I do not think that the risk of transferring is worth it. My best guess is that admissions at most if not all of the schools that you applied to will agree. If you get turned down, do not take this as a rejection. Take this as someone in admissions thinking that you appear to be doing very well where you already are.

If you ever get to the point of applying to graduate programs, admissions will have a different view. Changing schools between undergrad and graduate school is very normal, and is generally encouraged. Any of the schools that you have applied to would be possible in this case (assuming that you continue to do well at Tufts).

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I would add that human beings aren’t rated in some kind of hierarchy based on grades, stats, and college admissions. I am hoping that in the next few years you will be open to growing in terms of values and valuing others. I understand there are cultural and family pressures but it sounds like you are in the right place. I am a Bostonian and Tufts is held in very high esteem in New England. I can’t speak for Asia but hope your parents can learn.

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Parent and alumni connections at Tufts are going to be as good if not better than many top 25, IMO, (and remember “top 25” have changed over the years!) if you really want “connections” to high-level influence, I would pick schools with the most top very wealthy families and from super rich US boarding schools super rich zip codes. Tufts is known for liking full-pay private school kids. Note, I think this is a silly and futile thing to do, but you might as well pick an appropriate metric if you want to climb some sort of social ladder IMO. I think Tufts is on par with most schools…Sure not same as Harvard/Princeton and you can pull Chetty to really get dive in to top .1% ers..

Also, because Tufts is smallish, I would wager Tufts alumni are more likely to go out of their way to help Tufts alumni. This is not always true for bigger schools IMO - they can’t! If every highly placed MI or Northwestern alumnus did an informational interview for every fellow alumni that reached, that would be a full-time job. VERY different for smaller schools…(I went to a school like this, I ALWAYS say yes when young alums reach out). There are book clubs and networking groups in every city, and because of their small sizes, you can meet everyone. This is underrated IMO. I also know a lot of Harvard alums who actually have little patience for most fellow alums, FWIW.

Also, the Boston area is arguably one of the very best places to be for CS+ BioTech, get out and network too!

I would really think transferring has very little upside since you have to meet all new people…

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Not only that, but you’ve got a network of elite LAC alums in your favor. NESCAC alums tend to help each other, for example, even alums from different schools, because they understand the quality of education people receive at these schools. (Yes, I know Tufts isn’t really a LAC, but it does give access to elite LAC networking, including NESCAC.)

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You’re treating it as career vs. friends, but the more accurate framing is: a known good vs. an unknown, potentially better or worse.

Perhaps worth it for Yale, UPenn and Northwestern. Not sure it is going to much matter in life if you go to Duke or Tufts or Cornell. Not in my 50+ years of experience - it wont matter a single iota.

But here’s the thing you should sit with: you wrote three paragraphs about why you want to stay and two sentences about why you want to leave.

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Don’t transfer. Your parents need to take a deep breath.

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I don’t understand why you think there will be a career boost if you trade ‘up’ in rankings? What are you seeing in the relevant career outcomes at the schools you applied to that show they are superior to Tufts’ outcomes? Are you planning to switch majors at the transfer schools because you know that Tufts CS is competitive with all, and likely superior to a handful of your choices?

With that said, I understand the cultural pressure you are receiving from your parents. Here are some resources you can share with them that may be helpful.

Tufts is #16 on LinkedIn’s long-term career success rankings:

Forbes lists Tufts in the top 10 private ‘new’ ivies:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawhitford/2025/03/26/the-new-ivies-2025-20-great-colleges-employers-love/

None of this addresses the last point of your quote above about having good friends/memories, you know being happy…data show that happier students do better in school. Happier people also do better in the careers, friendships, relationships, life.

Hopefully you will come back when you have an actual decision to make, I don’t know your HS stats, but if they were good enough to get into Tufts, I expect you might get a couple of transfer admits.

There will probably be a time in your life when you regret that you said something like this. I promise you the students in your Tufts class who graduate in the bottom decile are not intellectually slow. I also promise you that you will work with, and report to, people who aren’t as intellectually smart as you.

You will grow faster when you learn to appreciate that people have different strengths. Most everyone you interact with at Tufts is ‘smart’ in some way and can teach you something, if you are aware and open to that possibility.

Good luck with your transfer decisions.

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Two things that might be worth mentioning:

As you get into upper year classes at any university, including Tufts, classes are likely to get more challenging.

Some of the quiet kids who do not impress you on first impression may be silently harboring more academic ability that you might expect. At some point in any university, including Tufts, you might run into a particularly difficult exam with the class average in the 50’s or 60’s (I have seen this as a graduate student at Stanford, so it is possible even in an environment where every student is academically strong). That quiet kid who sat in class and never said anything, or the kid who asks dumb questions, might very well pull off a 95 on this same exam. Do not underestimate the quiet kid.

In a similar vein when I was MIT there was a group of juniors and seniors who played poker regularly. They were very serious and very vocal. One quiet freshman politely asked to join their game so they said okay. They thought he would be a pushover. However, apparently he walked away after every game with more money than he had started with. How did he do it? No one was ever able to figure this out.

The consensus on this thread is quite clear. I am hoping that this is helpful and that we might have given you some ideas that you can use in discussions with your parents.

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THIS! You have shown lots of reasons NOT to transfer and precious few for transferring. You are going to college, not your parents. Maybe that is important to consider if they will allow YOU to make this decision.

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And the reasons for transferring are pretty weak, in my opinion.

That said, parents are an understandably strong influence and their approval is meaningful. I’d recommend communicating your happiness there more clearly and doing really well in school. They’ll be proud of your achievements when its all said and done.

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Tufts is statistically, on par with , even maybe exceeding top 25s - which really doesn’t exist btw. A rank is not official and there are many rank.

Is Rice any better known than Tufts at home? Wash U? Emory, etc.

There’s “not top 25 schools” far better known here - so I’d assume at home too.

You got into and attend an exceptional school. Parents are tough - but I don’t see what you have to gain. Even when you go home with a neuro degree, what would you do with it? How does being at Duke help you vs. Tufts at home (with that degree).

You shouldn’t transfer - but I understand sometimes parents don’t give you that choice. In that sense, I do hope you get turned down everywhere.

That you have friends and are happy - that’s every parent’s fear that their kids don’t find that. But you have.

You know the answer. But have convincing to do. Not easy. I hope you can stay. Best of luck.

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Are you a US domestic (US citizen or permanent resident) or international student? That will affect what types of job opportunities for internships and post-graduation you may have.

In the US, biology-related jobs at the BA/BS level do not generally have that high pay. More highly paid biology-related jobs are typically held by those with graduate or professional degrees.

Computing jobs are being disrupted by the use of AI in software development. How this settles out in a few years may not be entirely predictable.

If you are an international student who will most likely leave the US after graduation, college prestige effects and job markets in various fields may not be the same as in the US.