<p>I have a brother who is a junior and wants to go to Tufts. But he doesn’t have a good SAT or gpa. His GPA is 3.91 and his SAT score is so far 1540(M 530, CR 520, w490). He has a lots of Extra curricular activities though. He is taking and will take (in his senior year) 8 honors and 2 AP classes (including senior and junior)</p>
<p>What do you think will be the easiest college for him to get into among Tufts colleges? (He just wants to get into Tufts then he decides to transfer to either engineering or Pre-medical)</p>
<p>Tufts schools are— </p>
<p>-School of Arts & Sciences,
-School of Engineering,
-Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine,
-Fletcher School,
-Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy with a USDA -Human Nutrition Research Center,
-School of Dental Medicine,
-School of Medicine,
-Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service.</p>
<p>This isn’t too hard to narrow down. The only two schools that have undergrads are the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering. Fletcher, Cummings, Friedman, Sackler (biomed), and the dental and medical schools are all graduate schools (AS/E also grant graduate degrees). The Tisch College doesn’t grant degrees.</p>
<p>So, that means, he’s choosing between Arts and Sciences and Engineering. If he’s interested in engineering, he should apply to the engineering school; if he’s not, then he should apply to arts and sciences. Pre-med is not an actual major, so he could do pre-med and have an engineering major (which many students in the engineering school do).
As far as difficulty of getting in, there isn’t much difference. The average student accepted to arts and sciences has slightly higher verbal scores and slightly lower math scores than the average student accepted to engineering, but that makes sense given the type of student applying to the engineering school.</p>
<p>First, I think the SAT scores are so low that the chances of admission to Tufts are slim.
Second, I don’t think that someone with a 530 math score would do well either as an engineer or as a pre-med at Tufts. The “mean” SAT math score for the class of 2012 is 752 for Engineering and 722 for Liberal Arts. I think a student with a 530 would drown.</p>
<p>I thought Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Fletcher School and Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service accept Undergrad students. Are you sure about that? I have to check that out. </p>
<p>You didn’t do your homework: for example, Vet schools, like med or dental schools, are graduate schools, not just at Tufts but anywhere in the U.S.</p>
<p>Yeah, I know that about med school but my friend told me that she was applying to Tufts vet school. That’s why I wasn’t so sure about that. But I checked it and it looks like there is actually only two schools for Undergrad- SOE and SAS.</p>
<p>I hate to be a pessimist, but I AM a realist, and given the SAT scores above (especially in math), barring his having had the flu and a fever of 102 when he took the SAT the first time, I can’t imagine either a sufficient improvement in SAT or a high enough ACT score that would change my thinking as reflected in post #4 above. I hope for his sake I’m wrong, but managing expectations can be important.</p>
<p>^^ I think I read on Tufts daily that Tufts accepted students with 1000/1600 on 1600/2400 rate. They consider your SAT compared to the other students’ SAT score at the applicants school and the average SAT at my brother’s school is around 950/2400. Compared to that he did pretty well (actually lot better than other students in his district especially when he is in the US only for 2 years) Also you have to consider the fact that not everyone is as rich as YOU are. So when you are spending money on your son’s SAT prep classes some students like my brother are working at a restaurant or at McDonald to help out their parents to pay their bills. </p>
<p>I think Tufts will take that into consideration (or at least they should or it wouldn’t be fair to the other students)</p>
<p>I was not aware that Tufts Admissions compares an applicant’s SAT scores to others at his/her school (I am aware of them doing that with transcripts). Even if that is the case, however, these SAT scores (again, especially the math for a prospective engineer/pre-med) are REALLY low.<br>
And that is why I made the second point, which is that a student with a 530 math score would probably drown amidst other Tufts engineers and pre-meds.<br>
You seem to have a chip on your shoulder. If you don’t care about the prospect of your brother having a miserable time trying to do well at Tufts - IF he can get in - then I certainly do not.</p>
<p>^ They do that with transcripts…? So if I’m applying with a B+ in a certain course, and someone else is applying with an A in that course, they’ll look at us both in that light?</p>
<p>“Also you have to consider the fact that not everyone is as rich as YOU are. So when you are spending money on your son’s SAT prep classes some students like my brother are working at a restaurant or at McDonald to help out their parents to pay their bills.”
Please do not play this game. :)</p>
<p>If Tufts did accept any student with a 1600/2400 (which is highly unlikely) the student was probably either a recruited athlete or a URM. Just go on to collegeboard.com and check Tufts’ average SAT score…it’s around a 2050.</p>
<p>And no one has to be rich in order to do well on the SATs. I know plenty of people who didn’t take a single prep class and still managed to get a really good score.</p>
<p>^^ I don’t think u have to go to collegeboard to find out if they have accepted any students with 1600/2400 scores. If u read their admission officers blog you will see it yourself. Here is what the writer said on the blog “Admission officers use professional judgment to assess an applicant’s score. One score does not fit everyone and the definition of a “good” score varies from applicant to applicant”</p>
<p>And u might know plenty of ppl who did well but how do a explain a student’s score when the student comes home at 9 from his work, finishes his hw until 12 and wakes up at 6 everyday. How much time does he have to prep himself? It’s just a commonsense to guess how high his score can be.</p>
<p>But did you read on the blog that they accepted many students with a 1600? What you read is true, however, so many competitive students apply, each that has good grades, amazing activities and essays PLUS a really good score. To get in with that low of a score (1600) the applicant would have to do something really amazing or be exceptional.</p>
<p>And when you say “it’s just commonsense to guess how high his score can be”…it isn’t. College adcoms don’t know that he has been working until 9 and that he hasn’t had enough time to prepare himself. Maybe it is a legit excuse for him getting a low score…but colleges don’t know that. They won’t care for the most part.</p>
<p>“And u might know plenty of ppl who did well but how do a explain a student’s score when the student comes home at 9 from his work, finishes his hw until 12 and wakes up at 6 everyday. How much time does he have to prep himself? It’s just a commonsense to guess how high his score can be.” @BobR: I wrote a very long response to this but decided not to post it up because it would come off as mean-spirited. Then I deleted it and wrote another post, but again decided not to post it up because that too was sort-of mean…</p>
<p>If you would like to know what I wrote, please PM me.</p>
unfortunately, I think that says more about the school than it does your brother and would explain how he is at the top of his class and still getting those SAT scores.
Dan has posted a lot on other threads w/ regards to test prep and about how Tufts DOES look at scores in a socioeconomic context.
Hopefully he’ll find a way to convey this struggle to the admissions committee. If he doesn’t want to write about it in one of his essays, he can include all the hours/week he works in the EC section and/or get an additional recommendation from his employer.
However, the point of the SATs is SUPPOSED to be that you don’t need to prepare for it. Having more familiarity with the test does make it easier, though, and I could see how this would be especially true coming from a foreign country. If he didn’t have much prep for the test, though, he should be able to bring up his score by taking it again.</p>