<p>Tufts would offer you a more intimate teaching atmosphere than UCLA, certainly, but the nature of science curricula is that a professor has to get through material slated for the term. Otherwise, a student in his/her class may have a void in his knowledge (I’m assuming “him” in your case) that could affect him in later courses, especially in his prep leading up to his upper-division courses … in classes like calc, if you haven’t a good portion already, physics, etc. So no matter where you’re at, professors aren’t going to slow down for whomever, and I’m sure that wouldn’t be your problem either. (Any perceived difference in availability in large to small campuses of professors have shown that they are readily available for office hours at UCLA, according to E majors at the U.) In addition, UCLA is on the quarter system, ~ 10 weeks + 1, which makes for a whirlwind of study (and it appears that Tufts is on the semester; correct me if I’m wrong). Added to this, UCLA engineering is undoubtedly pretty competitive, probably moreso than Tufts, by how much would seem to be a legitimate question. </p>
<p>If you plan on employment in Mass, Tufts would certainly be the better choice, but if you want to experience CA if even only for four years, UCLA would undoubtedly love to have you enroll. </p>
<p>So we can add some things you might have to hash out:</p>
<ol>
<li>Class Sizes; Mega v. Moderate/Small Campus</li>
<li>Quarters v. Semester</li>
<li>Competitiveness</li>
<li>Where you see yourself for college and afterward</li>
<li>Social Life, as you mentioned previously</li>
</ol>
<p>and some of the other things you might want to bring to the table.</p>