Tufts VS Amherst (social scene)

Mastadon
Wed, 27 Sep 2017 06:35:27 +0000

Student Services at both schools encourage professor/student interaction

Tufts funds a SPIRIT Program that supports

1. Professors taking students for coffee

2. Professors taking students to lunch

3. Students taking professors to lunch

4. Special events
https://students.tufts.edu/academic-advice-and-support/information/faculty/get-more-involved-students/spirit-fund

Amherst funds a TYPO Program (the link for generating requests appears to be broken), but further searching reveals another page that indicates that the program supports:

1. Groups of 3-5 students taking a professor to lunch
https://www.amherst.edu/offices/student-affairs/typo
https://www.amherst.edu/offices/student-affairs/typo/-new-page-%20

The Times Higher Education/ Wall Street Journal performed a student survey as part of their College Ranking for 2017,
One of the ranking criteria is “student engagement” which includes “interaction with faculty” along with three other areas. (see definition). I have extracted the ranking parameters for all the NESCAC schools and some other schools in the northeast for context. Tufts is near the top of the NESCAC at 16.3 while Amherst is near the bottom at 15.2. Dartmouth is near the top of the Ivy at 16.8 while Princeton is near the bottom of the Ivy at 15.2. Note that the value for Tufts is only 7.2% greater than the value for Amherst, so I would consider this a small difference that may be within the margin of error of the measurement.

…International… Resources…Engagement…Outcome…Environment…Overall
8… Princeton University…11… …28.3… 15.2 …39.4… 6.7…89.6
16…Dartmouth College…8.5… 26.7…'…16.8…38.6… 6.0… 88.1

22 Williams College…7.1…24.6… 15.7…37.7… 6.6…84.5
23… Amherst College…9.4… 24.3… 15.2 …37.2…7.4… 84.1
27 …Tufts University…7.8… 26.4… 16.3…33.1…5.9… 81.7
30… Wellesley College…11.0…24.4… 16.5…32.9…7.2…81.1
36… Middlebury College…10.0…23.7…16.8… 33.0… 4.9…78.5
44… Bowdoin College… 4.6…24.0…16.4…31.9… 5.1… 77.4
45… Wesleyan University… 8.8…24.2… 16.0… 30.8…6.2… 77.3
60… Hamilton College…4.4… 23.3… 16.6… 28.1… 4.7… 72.8
63 …Boston College…6.7…17.6… 15.8… 33.5… 4.9…71.8
65…Trinity College…7.9…23.1… 15.6… 27.0… 6.0… 71.7
66 …Colby College…7.9…22.8…16.1…27.8…4.5… 71.3
88… College of the Holy Cross…0.9… 21.7… 15.6… 28.3… 3.4… 69.0
89…Brandeis University…13.1… 21.8…15.5… 25.7… 5.9… 68.9
96… Connecticut College…5.2 … 22.4… 15.3… 25.6…4.7… 68.1
102…Bates College…6.4 …22.6 …16.3… 24.3… 4.6… 67.7
114…Babson College… 27.2 … 15.8… 15.5… 29.2… 6.2… 66.7

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/sites/default/files/breaking_news_files/wsj-the-college-rankings-2017-results.pdf

Engagement

The data from the student survey has been rebalanced by gender to reflect the actual gender ratio at the college.

Student engagement – the average score of four questions (on critical thinking, connections, applying learning to the real world, and challenges) in the THE US Student Survey

Interaction – the average score of two questions (interaction with faculty, and collaborative learning) in the THE US Student Survey

Student recommendation (THE US Student Survey)

Subject breadth – number of courses offered (IPEDS)