Tufts vs. Amherst

8bagels
Thu, 07 Jan 2016 21:07:43 +0000

Tufts isn’t quadruple the undergrad size of Amherst - it’s 1800 v 5200. Plus on any given day there are +200 students at Amherst from the other 4 colleges.

They are both great schools with really low acceptance rate and very high GPA/SAT/ACTs.

Amherst is harder to get into, their raw admit rate is lower, and on top of that they are smaller so a larger % of the class gets in on athletics, etc.

But both are highly, highly selective - anyone getting into either would be a competitive candidate at just about any school in the country.

Amherst is always going to score higher on the prestigosity scale and the various rankings. It’s comparing a perennially ranked #1 or #2 LAC v. a school that’s outside the Top 25 national. In addition, Amherst has a status going back generations, while Tufts is more of an up and comer as far as really top tier ranking, selectivity, yield rate, etc. (I think even 5 years ago Tufts had a 26% acceptance rate, and 10-20 years ago it was much higher). I’d think that of kids who are lucky to get into both, most would pick Amherst. But Tufts is a great school.