I was very surprised by Tufts’ decline this year, but I still think it will make the top 20 within about 5 years. I really think Tufts belongs with Georgetown and WashU… definitely above UVA, UMich, Wake, the UCs, USC, and even CM. There must have been something strange going on with reporting data or something this year – it was the first year Tufts personally reviewed the SMFA applications so the addition of that could have augmented admissions. Average ACT went up to 33 for c/o 2021, which is above the aforementioned colleges (save CM, possibly). Acceptance rate is also lower than all except CM (Tufts actually has a lower acceptance rate than GT and WashU too).
Tufts is actually expanding its class size (up about 100 compared to last year), and the university is building new dorms and revamping residential life and adding a massive 100,000 sf. building dedicated to interdisciplinary studies, all happening in the next couple years. I overheard that the goal is to get the acceptance rate to sub 10 by the time c/o 2021 graduates… exciting to see what happens with this. My personal feeling is that Tufts is still on the rise (despite the rankings which I find somewhat ridiculous) and will soon rival the Ivies, much like what happened to UChicago. I wonder how Tufts plans to increase its amount of applicants in the years to come…