First off, I know that both of these schools are very high reaches for both incoming freshmen and transfer applicants. Nonetheless, I want to ask some question to see if one school is better than the other for me. I intend to study environmental science/sustainability and possibly urban planning.
Some questions I have:
Will one set me up better for a master’s degree?
Will one college give me more job opportunities than the other if I decide to not attend grad school? I know Tufts students earn more on average…
Is one school’s offerings in environmental science/urban studies better than the other?
Which school has an overall better quality of life?
Does a degree from one mean more than a degree from the other?
Those are all the question I’ve come up with for now. Thanks for the input!
As long as you are academically competitive at whatever undergraduate institution you attend, you will have more or less equal opportunities at either school.
While it is difficult to precisely measure your job prospects at one institution vs. another, what I can guarantee is that students who go to graduate school earn much more than students who finish at a BA / BS. Prestige can only carry you so far in the professional world. Ultimately, your experience is what matters.
You’d have to research that. Generally, with the field you’re interested in, research opportunities, internships, and programs relating to your major are things to look at when comparing one university to another.
This totally depends on your preference. Some prefer big cities, small cities, small campuses, big campuses, etc. A good way to figure out what you generally prefer is to think about what you DON’T prefer. That will narrow down your choices.
As I mentioned in #2, prestige can only carry you so far in the professional world. Experience in your field is what really matters.
Will one college give me more job opportunities than the other if I decide to not attend grad school? I know Tufts students earn more on average…
you don’t actually know that Tufts students earn more on average: you know that one data set of self-reported incomes says that. @juillet can set you straight on the difference!
and the answer to the question is again, in broad terms, no.
Is one school’s offerings in environmental science/urban studies better than the other?
neither of them is particularly known for ES/US, so which would suit you better will depend on the specifics of the major- are you more interested in the focus at one school or the other
Which school has an overall better quality of life?
totally depends on what quality of life means to you.
Does a degree from one mean more than a degree from the other?
in broad terms, no
“in broad terms” means that the difference between the two are less important than what you bring to the table, what you do with the opportunities afforded at each place, what you do to seek out opportunities, etc.
The two schools have a pretty different vibe- you should visit both & see what suits you.
@TransferStalker@collegemom3717 thanks for the responses! I actually have visited both campuses in the past and loved them! I do prefer Boston to Providence, but Brown’s college town is great–same goes for Tufts. In general, is Brown perceived as having more “prestige?”
There are drawbacks and benefits to both schools’ programs… for example, Tufts only has an urban studies minor, but it’s very strong since it uses resources from the graduate school of urban planning (which is an amazing program). Tufts also offers an interdisciplinary track in environmental science, which would be awesome because I could somewhat make my own focus within ES. Brown, on the other hand, has an open curriculum, which comes with its own benefits. And I’ve heard that both schools’ ES programs are great and hands-on. I’ve heard that Tufts students are great, and I’ve heard the same for Brown, but I think Tufts has the edge when it comes to eccentric, diverse people. That may be a hasty generalization, though.
So you guys don’t believe that going to one over the other will make a difference in terms of income/job prospects? If that’s the case, and if I’m going to get a master’s degree anyway, I think I’m leaning toward Tufts.
@TomSrOfBoston my bad… it’s a strong program within Tufts graduate school of Arts and Sciences. Which colleges would you recommend that are stronger in my field? I would like to concentrate on environmental studies and have a minor/secondary major in urban studies.
Cornell would be better academically in that field but it is a lot bigger than Tufts/Brown and in a college town so the vibe is different. Cornell may be easier to transfer to though.
@potentialtransfer2018 Realistically, in the professional world, the institution tacked on to your undergraduate degree is in most cases, an afterthought for employers. And if you were to go to graduate school, I’d go as far to say that employers won’t even really look at your undergrad.
As I said in my first post, if you work hard to keep a great undergrad GPA, seize any research / internship opportunity thrown at you, you’ll DEFINITELY have great grad school / employment process, no matter which school you end up attending.
@TomSrOfBoston that is true. However, the fact that it’s so far away from any city worries me. I’ve heard that Brown is a relatively easy transfer when compared to other Ivies. For example, for spring 2015 applicants, the acceptance rate was 16%. Honestly, at this point, Brown and Tufts are the only two schools I’m really interested in transferring to, but Tufts is even harder to get into than Brown for transfers. I know I have the stats to get in, but I honestly don’t know how to tailor my transfer app in order to show Brown/Tufts that I belong and would thrive there.
Tufts has one of the top Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning Programs in the country (as rated by a guide for professionals in the field - not a defunct news magazine polling people in academia). The year I checked into it, Tufts masters grads outperformed most graduates of Phd programs on the industry exam. The program is very well known in the industry. Gina McCarthy (the head of the EPA under Obama) is an alum of the joint masters degree program in Environmental Health Engineering and Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning. The Fletcher School is big on environmental policy as well. Bill Moomaw, one of the lead authors of the Nobel winning IPCC climate change paper was based out of Fletcher (he recently retired).
The first sentence in your first reply of this thread is incorrect.
The fact that you were not aware that Tufts had a graduate program in urban planning suggests that you were forming and stating opinions of the relative strength of urban studies programs based on no knowledge of Tufts’ program.
My reply corrected the misinformation in your post and provided additional information on Tufts that would help the OP to form their own opinion.
Not sure what the intent of your last reply was, given that I did not state my opinion of Tufts’ UEP program or my opinion of any other school’s UP program…
The reply, that you extracted from another thread, was somewhat tongue and cheek and was intended to plant the seed that the LAC/NESCAC model of undergraduate academic quality is different from the Research University/Ivy model and that it does not necessarily lead to the highest value in the US News National University ranking system. The intent becomes less obvious when taken out of context. I do have a bias for “LAC-ness” when evaluating undergraduate education, but I have not expressed an opinion that reflects that bias on this thread (yet).
