I know from my own personal experience, Tufts engineering was certainly not the most competitive program I could have gotten into (I had relatively strong SAT2s and a very strong ACT). Hell, Ohio State is even ranked higher than Tufts for engineering. But I don’t think that determines the quality of your education.
First of all, the students at Tufts are some of the most intellectually curious, friendly, and open-minded I’ve met. My friends who are going to Michigan are incredibly smart, but they don’t have the same kind of genuine interest in their work as the people I’ve met at Tufts. They tend to be more practically-minded and focused on getting from point A to point B. Is that a bad thing? No, it’s just a completely different perspective.
To be completely honest, I was underwhelmed a bit by Tufts’ engineering presentation. The speakers weren’t the most interesting I’ve ever heard, but everything else about the school has made me love it. Even the introductory seminars for freshman engineers are really interesting (found here: http://engineering.tufts.edu/docs/ES93IntroEngFall2014.pdf).
For someone who wants to do pure engineering and has almost no other interests, I think University of Michigan is the better choice. There’s really no way to say that the engineering education at Tufts is better than Michigan’s. However, there’s more to college than just going to class. There’s tons of research being done at Tufts in the field I want to study (regenerative medicine), and Tufts’ biology and biomedical engineering departments are getting very popular. There’s lots of innovative research being done, such as the silk model of a human brain, and Tufts encourages engineers to explore fields other than their major. One student who spoke at an accepted student day is a chemical engineer minoring in Spanish and planning on applying to medical schools.
I don’t think people at Tufts go there because it’s the most prestigious school they could’ve gone to or that they applied to. If you love the atmosphere of Tufts, it’s where you should go. It sounds like the OP doesn’t just want to go from point A to point B and might enjoy the experiences Tufts offers. I don’t think it’s unfair to choose a college that’s lower ranked and “less prestigious.” People do it all the time because they think it might make them happy.