Tufts v. NYU for Engineering/CS

Mastadon
Fri, 17 Apr 2015 17:46:34 +0000

I am a Tufts EE alum with a daughter who is currently attending Tufts as an LA major. I secured multiple jobs on campus and an internship in Boston the summer after my junior year. I continued working half-time during my senior year (traveling from my dorm to Boston via public transportation). I received multiple job offers from companies inside and outside the Boston area upon graduation during the recession of the early '80’s. I chose to pursue a career in the local computer industry.

My daughter (as an LA major) had an on-campus job and has had jobs every summer including an internship in Boston the summer after her junior year. She also continued her internship half-time during her senior year. She picked up a second (low hours) internship during her senior year, as well as a “Winternship” (a special Tufts program) during the winter break. She landed most of her positions through networking which she learned how to do via multiple workshops/coaching offered through the Tufts Career Center.

80% of Tufts Engineers have at least one internship and 40% have two or more.

http://engineering.tufts.edu/industry/internships.htm

The nice thing about Tufts’ location is that it is possible to perform internships during the school year as well as the summers. For CS majors, this is particularly true because the Boston area high tech start-up community is migrating from the suburbs into the city along the subway line that connects Tufts/Harvard/MIT and the new downtown Innovation District. Google, Amazon and Microsoft all have development groups in Kendall Square - 4 miles form Tufts via subway.

http://www.betaboston.com/news/2014/04/06/boston-suddenly-finds-itself-the-states-tech-startup-capital/

The undergrad Engineering/CS curriculum is both innovative and teaching focused (due to the LA culture) rather than “weed-out” focused. The average attrition rate for engineering schools nationwide is 40%. At Tufts, it hovers around zero, and in some years it has been negative (more transfer in than out). There is enough leading edge research going on that there is a wide range of advanced courses available - comparable to the top research-focused universities. The “Liberal Arts approach” tends to pay additional dividends in mid-to-late career, providing the critical thinking and communication skills as well as the breadth of perspective needed to take on leadership roles vs. working under the guidance of others.

http://www.cs.tufts.edu/About-CS/cool-facts-about-cs-at-tufts.html the