Tufts or Case Western?

BeanTownGirl
Sat, 17 Nov 2012 21:04:03 +0000

Case Western is a great school. We visited there when our son was looking at colleges.
But…
Tufts has a much better balance between engineering/sciences and other areas of studies, whereas Case is dominated by hardcore engineering/sciences.
Tufts has a more intellectual study body, while Case is little more “nerdy”.
Case seemed to have a more cut-throat student atmosphere, and this impression was reinforced at an Accepted Students reception we attended in Boston. (DS was really turned off by this)
Tufts has a prettier and more cohesive campus. Case is actually the result of merger between two colleges (the Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve), so the campus has an long stretched out shape, cut in two by a major intersection. It does have a great Italian neighborhood within walking distance on one side, but some areas around the school are pretty sketchy looking. Tufts is in a safer neighborhood, that is much less urban. Case does have some great museums and the symphony right next door though and an arboretum too I think. So it does have some things going for it.
Case - gives merit aid, though Tufts does not. Matters less if you qualify for financial aid.
Tufts - 20 minutes from Boston, which is an awesome college “town”, Case - is in Cleveland. I will say that everyone we met at Case was very nice and welcoming. We couldn’t stop to look at a campus map without a student or professor coming over to offer assistance! And we went into an engineering building hoping to talk to a professor or two and a really nice grad student gave us a long tour of the engineering building and gave me son lots of great advice about college.

My son preferred Tufts over Case in spite of a $20,000 scholarship at Case, partly because of Case’s city environment, but also because Case students seemed more competitive/cut-throat. Even the pre-med applicants in the admission session had an attitiude
I’m sure you will get a different perspective over on the Case forum. They are both great schools and some students might pick Case because of the merit aid or a broader set of engineering majors. Or a Midwestern student might prefer the location.

I would choose Tufts over Case unless I wanted to major in something like Aerospace Engineering that Tufts doesn’t have. Tufts is excellent for biology and you probably already learned about their community health program [Community Health:Home](Homepage | Department of Community Health)
and various graduate programs: [Home | Tufts University School of Medicine Public Health and Professional Degree Programs](http://publichealth.tufts.edu/)