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Which has a more prestigious undergraduate program, William and Mary or Tufts? Which offers a better education? Social life? Compare and Contrast. Which would you choose and why? Thanks!

By Kj998855 (Kj998855) on Tuesday, March 30, 2004 - 07:35 am: Edit

I'll bump this, these are also my top 2 choices right now.

By Yodisistim (Yodisistim) on Tuesday, March 30, 2004 - 08:11 am: Edit

I think it's Tufts,,,but as far as better name; William and Mary. They have more recognition

By Collegeparent (Collegeparent) on Tuesday, March 30, 2004 - 08:13 am: Edit

Depends on two things: what you want to study and where you hope to live after you graduate. That can affect your decision.

By Fmhstud83 (Fmhstud83) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 02:33 am: Edit

ok, what about undecided major? Jk. I'd like to study business, spanish, history, philosophy, and psychology. Which school is better for those programs?

By Terpfan101 (Terpfan101) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 12:47 pm: Edit

i can tell you they are both good schools. Not my type as they are really really rigourous and supposedly a lot of kids are unhappy there. but none the less you will get an excellent education at either. Value wise, william and mary is the better choice. It is (assuming you don't live in VA) a little more than half the cost of tufts. You could save 70 thousand dollars by going to W&M. Heck maybe your parents will even by you a 20K car . But if you plan on going to grad school (esp. med, law, or business school) its more important as to where you go to grad school and that costs more money. So save the money for that. Just my two cents.

By Sots (Sots) on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 02:01 pm: Edit

tufts... from a tufts reject. HOW did it happen? I just dont get it.

By Fmhstud83 (Fmhstud83) on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 09:24 am: Edit

a lot of kids are unhappy there? Will somebody respond to this that attents W&M or Tufts?

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 02:16 pm: Edit

I was a very happy Tufts student. There will be kids on both campuses (or any campus) who won't be happy anywhere - they will focus on whatever is wrong with the school (classes, professors, workload, cores, scheduling, no cores, you name it) and moan about that. You'll also find a few who will be happy almost anywhere (think the "marigolds" they were talking about on the parent's thread). So, it's the kids in between that you should focus on - are the majority of them happy with their experience? I do think that most people really love Tufts - those who went there years ago speak with incredible enthusiasm, while current students are very happy with it.

I do not know enough about W&M undergrad to comment.

By Nannerl (Nannerl) on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 02:18 pm: Edit

From what I have gathered, Tufts has an extremely dedicated faculty and the advantage of both an attractive campus and a great college town; the frat life is very limited but the proximity to Boston and the active extracurricular life more than makes up for it. I know my son (who applied and was accepted early to Tufts) would be bored by William & Mary's social life. I also perceive W&M as a more conservative campus -- but this is truly secondhand. In the northeast, I would say Tufts has more prestige/name recognition, but again that's only in one area of the country. The best advice is to visit both places and see where you are most comfortable. As far as unhappy students, from what I hear and have observed Tufts students are thrilled to be there and are thoroughly engaged both in academics and extracurricular activities.

By Terpfan101 (Terpfan101) on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 06:37 pm: Edit

yeah i was talking more so about w&m being unhappy. The students there have the highest suicide rate in the country which stems from the really rigourous courseload. Seems like there can be a lack of social life too.

By Valpal (Valpal) on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 08:12 pm: Edit

Terpfan, where did you get that W & M suicide factoid? I've heard nothing of the sort, and I live only a half hour away. On the other hand, I have heard (and read) that the suicide rate at NYU is absolutely stunning for this academic year---somthing like 5 students so far.

By Frazzled_One (Frazzled_One) on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 11:04 pm: Edit

Terpfan101, can you let us know where you got the info about the suicide rate at W & M? Sounds on the urban legend side to me. I've read/heard lots of assertions about suicide at different schools over the years - first at Cornell, where kids were supposedly throwing themselves into gorges (not true); then MIT, then Harvard, then various schools where the roofs are supposedly off-limits to students during finals, etc. I don't know how accurate suicide rate computations are for any segment of the population.

It's true that last year was a sad one at W & M for student fatalities. There were 2 suicides reported, the first in several years: a freshman and a law school student. There was also the very sad accidental death of a student killed when he jumped into the Crim Dell, which was widely reported but certainly not a suicide.