sadly they do count and it’s silly and non productive to pretend they don’t. Did Tufts not provide data to usn? Based of the stats of the accepted class they’re basing the rankings off, I would have assumed Tufts actually rose in the rankings. Reminds me of a story someone told me about BC and holy cross. Back in the day, holy cross was the more academically well regarded school but foolishly decided that sports would diminish their academics and reputation. BC felt the opposite. Flash forward, and I don’t think anyone would doubt BC is the superior school. Living on the west coast, I haven’t met a single who’s heard of HC. Hopefully Tufts doesn’t adopt a similar attitude regarding usn&w rankings