Tufts Medical School Prestige?

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MD_Hopeful_2020

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Hey just wondering how the medical world views Tufts. I've read the US News rankings and I know Tufts isnt that high, but I know those rankings are not really reflective of reality. Input? Thanks

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tufts is quite prestigious in the new england area.
 
Even the medical school? Ive had mixed reviews coming my way.
 
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tufts is quite prestigious in the new england area.

+1. my doctor at beth israel was helping me choose between med schools, and he thought tufts was something like new england's vanderbilt (his words, not mine)
 
I had never heard of it until flipping through the MSAR a few years ago, but I'm not from the area.
 
+1. my doctor at beth israel was helping me choose between med schools, and he thought tufts was something like new england's vanderbilt (his words, not mine)

I don't think that's accurate. Boston has a ton of hospitals, and it's really sort of oversaturated with academic medicine. Unfortunately, Tufts has the problem of being overshadowed by the Harvard giants like MGH, Brigham and BID. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great school, the faculty is great and its location allows for you to do rotations at some amazing hospitals. However, it's not as well-known or as well-respected because of Harvard's presence in Boston. At least that has been my experience with the place.
 
I don't think that's accurate. Boston has a ton of hospitals, and it's really sort of oversaturated with academic medicine. Unfortunately, Tufts has the problem of being overshadowed by the Harvard giants like MGH, Brigham and BID. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great school, the faculty is great and its location allows for you to do rotations at some amazing hospitals. However, it's not as well-known or as well-respected because of Harvard's presence in Boston. At least that has been my experience with the place.

Based on what they told us at my Tufts interview day, Tufts is one of the MAJOR feeders into the Harvard/MGH/BID hospital network. That could be because of regional bias, but im sure a lot of people would like to train at "Harvard affiliated" hospitals.

That said, I was NOT impressed by the research facilities at Tufts Med. The school itself is contained within a single skyscraper-like building in downtown Boston and the research labs were located in a smaller building across the street. So I dont THINK that there is tons and tons of bench research being conducted.

However, it seems that the school heavily emphasizes clinical medicine as opposed to academic medicine. Tufts also has a pretty good choice of dual degree programs which seem impressive.
 
+1. my doctor at beth israel was helping me choose between med schools, and he thought tufts was something like new england's vanderbilt (his words, not mine)

i agree with LET. this makes no sense. having grown up in massachusetts, i can say for sure that while tufts certainly does not have a bad reputation, it is overshadowed definitely by harvard and maybe by BU.

so in the general public, i'd say tufts is not very prestigious. in the medical world i obviously have less of a sense... but the overshadowing business is still true.

and JJ-- had you not heard of tufts as a university at all? that's surprising to me!
 
i agree with LET. this makes no sense. having grown up in massachusetts, i can say for sure that while tufts certainly does not have a bad reputation, it is overshadowed definitely by harvard and maybe by BU.

so in the general public, i'd say tufts is not very prestigious. in the medical world i obviously have less of a sense... but the overshadowing business is still true.

and JJ-- had you not heard of tufts as a university at all? that's surprising to me!

this is just what my doctor said (who is employed by HMS). so i think that tufts is fairly well-regarded by the medical professionals in the Boston area, even if the general public wouldn't agree. obviously it's not harvard, but even so tufts still seems to hold its own. (and IMHO future residency placement depends much more on what the medical profession has to say, so i wouldn't worry too much about popular opinion.)
 
this is just what my doctor said (who is employed by HMS). so i think that tufts is fairly well-regarded by the medical professionals in the Boston area, even if the general public wouldn't agree. obviously it's not harvard, but even so tufts still seems to hold its own. (and IMHO future residency placement depends much more on what the medical profession has to say, so i wouldn't worry too much about popular opinion.)

you're probably right, but i'd be hesitant to base this conclusion off of one doctor's chance comment to you.
 
yeah it seems like in general most people here are having a hard time with the comparison to vanderbilt. i'm not saying i fully agree with my doctor's comparison, but rather i'm just saying there are people who would make the comparison who are in high places (this particular doctor is pretty famous, not that that should mean anything i guess).

i do think tufts is well-regarded and i came to boston definitely thinking that tufts was a good school (and i'm from florida). i definitely think there are many good reasons why people are shelling out mega-buck to go to tufts. whether or not prestige is one of them is clearly an individual matter
 
Yes, I definitely agree that Tufts' reputation is better in the New England medical circuit than in the general public- probably because a lot of its research is public health or global health-based, and I do think they're very strong clinically. That being said, Tufts unfortunately has the "medium-sized fish in a huge pond" syndrome in Boston, which is why it might get overlooked. Vandy, as well as other med schools like it, have the opposite problem- they're big fish in a tiny pond, so they can get overlooked because of their location. I guess if the comparison is based on that, then it's accurate.
 
Yes, I definitely agree that Tufts' reputation is better in the New England medical circuit than in the general public- probably because a lot of its research is public health or global health-based, and I do think they're very strong clinically. That being said, Tufts unfortunately has the "medium-sized fish in a huge pond" syndrome in Boston, which is why it might get overlooked. Vandy, as well as other med schools like it, have the opposite problem- they're big fish in a tiny pond, so they can get overlooked because of their location. I guess if the comparison is based on that, then it's accurate.

I disagree with this. As I'm from California and I have received many "wows" from Tufts University.

However, I will say this. That Tufts University's prestige comes heavily from its highly ranked undergrad.

And to the post above,

Tufts>>>>>>>BU (in academia)

BU is just a more famous university but not necessarily for its academics. Kinda similar to Ohio State University also being famous (again not necessarily for its academics).
 
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I disagree with this. As I'm from California and I have received many "wows" from Tufts University.

I agree. My friends and family reacted to my Tufts acceptance like I just won the lottery. :laugh:

Being in the New England area, it's hard for schools like Tufts to standout when the behemoth known as Harvard/MGH/BWh is just around the corner. Residency directors(gatekeepers of academic medicine) do view Tufts grads very favorably (I think it got a grade of 3.7 compare to 3.6 for NYU ).

Overall I'll say Tufts is a solid mid-tier school and should get you to where you wanna go.
 
I disagree with this. As I'm from California and I have received many "wows" from Tufts University.

However, I will say this. That Tufts University's prestige comes heavily from its highly ranked undergrad.

And to the post above,

Tufts>>>>>>>BU (in academia)

BU is just a more famous university but not necessarily for its academics. Kinda similar to Ohio State University also being famous (again not necessarily for its academics).

yeah, that's kind of what i expected re: the university as a whole... i was super surprised that JJ hadn't heard of it!
 
I agree. My friends and family reacted to my Tufts acceptance like I just won the lottery. :laugh:

Being in the New England area, it's hard for schools like Tufts to standout when the behemoth known as Harvard/MGH/BWh is just around the corner. Residency directors(gatekeepers of academic medicine) do view Tufts grads very favorably (I think it got a grade of 3.7 compare to 3.6 for NYU ).

Overall I'll say Tufts is a solid mid-tier school and should get you to where you wanna go.

what are these grades you speak of? am i dumb for not knowing this already? enlighten me!
 
I am sure it's a good school, but it is not worth the tuition they are charging. Between Tufts and your state school, the state school always wins.
 
I am sure it's a good school, but it is not worth the tuition they are charging. Between Tufts and your state school, the state school always wins.

Yeah sure...but there is a reason there are so many Californians at Tufts.
 
I think regional bias plays a huge role. When I was applying to undergrad colleges, Tufts was viewed as more prestigious than BU, whereas I had never heard of Vanderbilt or WashU.
 
what are these grades you speak of? am i dumb for not knowing this already? enlighten me!

He's referring to residency directors viewpoint on the school (from a research standpoint). Each school is given a score on a 1-5 scale.

Here's some relevant schools in NYC and Boston for comparison:

Harvard: 4.7
Columbia: 4.4
Cornell: 4.3
Mount Sinai: 3.7
Tufts: 3.7
NYU: 3.6
Boston University:3.5
Einstein: 3.4
 
He's referring to residency directors viewpoint on the school (from a research standpoint). Each school is given a score on a 1-5 scale.

Here's some relevant schools in NYC and Boston for comparison:

Harvard: 4.7
Columbia: 4.4
Cornell: 4.3
Mount Sinai: 3.7
Tufts: 3.7
NYU: 3.6
Boston University:3.5
Einstein: 3.4

Does anyone know the original name of the paper that these data came from? Just interested in their methodology for these scales.
 
Does anyone know the original name of the paper that these data came from? Just interested in their methodology for these scales.

USNEWS. They are used as part of the formula for medschool rankings. The list that I posted may be a couple years old though. Not sure what year that it is from.
 
For what its worth, I'm from CA and I had never heard of Tufts before applying to med school...
 
i'm from the west coast (kind of - arizona) and almost went to Tufts for undergrad. in the end, i decided to go to arizona b/c it was free for me, but from people i've spoken with about it here, it is reputable
 
For what its worth, I'm from CA and I had never heard of Tufts before applying to med school...

that is so interesting to me! i guess i had just never thought about geographical college-name circles before. hm. i kind of feel dumb.
 
I also wanted to go to a UC since before high school and didn't do much research for undergrad applications, so maybe that's why I was in the dark until recently. I only applied to 3 UCs that were all on the water and near good surf spots, I asked people if they were good schools and they said yes so I never cared or looked beyond that...
 
I also wanted to go to a UC since before high school and didn't do much research for undergrad applications, so maybe that's why I was in the dark until recently. I only applied to 3 UCs that were all on the water and near good surf spots, I asked people if they were good schools and they said yes so I never cared or looked beyond that...

ah....and now the real reason for choosing between harvard and ucsd comes out. lol. UCSD ftw!
 
I get the feeling that the reason that Tufts is not as highly ranked amongst medical schools is that its focus is on primary care and public health. At least, that's the feeling I got from my interview there. This fits for me, but might not fit for other people....

While research is available there, I don't think its as much as some other researchy schools like Stanford, Harvard, etc.
 
that is so interesting to me! i guess i had just never thought about geographical college-name circles before. hm. i kind of feel dumb.

nah don't feel bad. I'm sure you havent heard of all the little west coast schools either...all the claremont colleges etc.

I had never heard of Tufts until senior year in high school when I started looking at colleges
 
i agree with LET. this makes no sense. having grown up in massachusetts, i can say for sure that while tufts certainly does not have a bad reputation, it is overshadowed definitely by harvard and maybe by BU.

so in the general public, i'd say tufts is not very prestigious. in the medical world i obviously have less of a sense... but the overshadowing business is still true.

and JJ-- had you not heard of tufts as a university at all? that's surprising to me!

I had never heard of Tufts in any way until I looked at medical schools.
 
nah don't feel bad. I'm sure you havent heard of all the little west coast schools either...all the claremont colleges etc.

I had never heard of Tufts until senior year in high school when I started looking at colleges

actually i have heard of the claremont colleges and know several people from my high school (tiny town in new england) who went to them-- there are 5 undergrad places and few grad ones, right? i grew up in a really intellectual, education-oriented community, so maybe that's why i know. :shrug:
 
I disagree with this. As I'm from California and I have received many "wows" from Tufts University.

However, I will say this. That Tufts University's prestige comes heavily from its highly ranked undergrad.

And to the post above,

Tufts>>>>>>>BU (in academia)

BU is just a more famous university but not necessarily for its academics. Kinda similar to Ohio State University also being famous (again not necessarily for its academics).

I agree with this. Out of everyone who I've talked to - they've all heard of tufts except one guy. And he asked me if it was a "black school." He said he's only applying to "black schools" (he's not black). So that shows you how smart he is.
 
i agree with this. Out of everyone who i've talked to - they've all heard of tufts except one guy. And he asked me if it was a "black school." he said he's only applying to "black schools" (he's not black). So that shows you how smart he is.

wtf?
 
Rod MacKinnon got his MD from Tufts. He was the recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

:thumbup: to Tufts.
 
For the BU vs. Tufts people

http://more.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=693833

The general consensus I got was that they are both very well regarded upper-mid tier schools.

Tufts has a clear edge on educational facilities (they're brand new), while BU has much more research funding. As for reputation, I'd guess its a wash as i've heard many argue on either side. Also, they both cost mucho $$$$$.

To get more towards the OPs question, I think Tufts has an excellent reputation that will allow you to do whatever you want after graduation. Residency directors might not say "dayum, he got into Tufts so we should take him even though his app isn't great otherwise" like they might do for a hopkins or a harvard student, but if you do well at Tufts you're well set up for anything you want to do.

My personal feeling is that in terms of reputation, there are a few "elite" schools (you know which ones I'm talking about), some very top schools, but after the top twenty or so things start to become a wash.

Is tufts significantly worse than OSU (ranked ~20 spots better) or significantly better than temple (unranked) in terms of reputation? I don't think so. Choose whichever school you liked the most, provides the best fit for you, and/or is most affordable.
 
Anyone know how Dartmouth compares to Tufts or BU? More or less the same?
 
Anyone know how Dartmouth compares to Tufts or BU? More or less the same?

Dartmouth is viewed as more prestigious simply because it is associated with the IVY League. I'm sure that helps, but as far as medical rankings go, they're all similar
 
Dartmouth is viewed as more prestigious simply because it is associated with the IVY League. I'm sure that helps, but as far as medical rankings go, they're all similar

FYI-- "ivy" is not an acronym (like FYI). you don't need to write it in all caps. sorry, i've noticed you do it before so i thought i'd point it out. :) it's just a regular word.
 
I am sure it's a good school, but it is not worth the tuition they are charging. Between Tufts and your state school, the state school always wins.

Agree with this. Tufts is a good medical school. It's also the MOST expensive medical school in the country. Just not worth the price tag, IMO.
 
Say UMass Med is thrown into all of this (my current situation). Go with the state school or pick Tufts or BU?
 
Say UMass Med is thrown into all of this (my current situation). Go with the state school or pick Tufts or BU?

in that case, i'd choose UMass. i kind of liked it better than BU in some ways. withdrew from tufts, so didn't get to see the school-- no opinion there. have you gotten finaid stuff yet?
 
I was really suprised when i first saw the us news rankings that tufts was in the 40s. I grew up in MA and tufts med is one of the first schools i heard about, and it was always mentioned in a very prestigious light. i think Tufts is a great school. as for the umass vs tufts choice, that's hard because some people have a lot of parental support and can afford the private school but some can't. same with BU vs Umass. But in general, the major negatives of umass for me is location (worcester really does suck. i lived 2 miles from worcester and in 4 years of high school, i have never set foot in it) and the other major negative is the hosiptial, there's a lot of complaints from people who have to do their rotations in western and central mass, it is also not pass/fail.
 
in that case, i'd choose UMass. i kind of liked it better than BU in some ways. withdrew from tufts, so didn't get to see the school-- no opinion there. have you gotten finaid stuff yet?

Nope, haven't gotten financial aid yet.

I was wondering though, would you pick NYU over UMass? I was waitlisted there but I would definitely consider it if I got in off the list.
 
UMass medical school is really an excellent school, maybe even better than Tufts. There is no question it's the better choice when you factor in cost.
 
I was really suprised when i first saw the us news rankings that tufts was in the 40s. I grew up in MA and tufts med is one of the first schools i heard about, and it was always mentioned in a very prestigious light. i think Tufts is a great school. as for the umass vs tufts choice, that's hard because some people have a lot of parental support and can afford the private school but some can't. same with BU vs Umass. But in general, the major negatives of umass for me is location (worcester really does suck. i lived 2 miles from worcester and in 4 years of high school, i have never set foot in it) and the other major negative is the hosiptial, there's a lot of complaints from people who have to do their rotations in western and central mass, it is also not pass/fail.

1st year is pass-fail. 2nd year is high honors/honors/pass/fail, I believe (more traditional, clearly). Worcester isn't that awful. It certainly isn't Boston but it's only 30-40 min out. I've stepped foot in Worcester plenty of times and I live in between the two. The same way you have anecdotal evidence that people apparently disliked their rotations, I have anecdotal evidence that people loved their rotations. At the end of the day, it's just that, anecdotes.

Back to the topic of UMass vs. Tufts -- unless I had some serious financial support or I was absolutely in love with Tufts, I'd find it hard to pass on UMass.
 
That said, I was NOT impressed by the research facilities at Tufts Med. The school itself is contained within a single skyscraper-like building in downtown Boston and the research labs were located in a smaller building across the street. So I dont THINK that there is tons and tons of bench research being conducted.

You're right about all of the classes (except anatomy lab and a few others) taking place in the "skyscraper-like building," however, the building housing the research labs across the street is actually much larger - you probably didn't notice it took up pretty much the entire block due to all of the construction that has been going on around it recently.
 
Nope, haven't gotten financial aid yet.

I was wondering though, would you pick NYU over UMass? I was waitlisted there but I would definitely consider it if I got in off the list.

honestly, i can't even get into the mindset where that decision would be a possibility, so i don't have a good answer for you. NYU and UMass are the two schools that have really pissed me off since accepting me. NYU's admissions office and financial aid office were both 100% unresponsive to emails i sent over the last couple of months, i got a bogus financial aid package, and they sent an obnoxious email yesterday pressuring accepted students who were holding multiple seats to withdraw from NYU ASAP. well, i can't, because no other school has given me financial aid info yet-- so all i have is this one terrifically unaffordable option.

which brings me to UMass. there was a retired physician on the adcom who emailed me in october to congratulate me on my acceptance. very nice. but then he emailed me again in february to ask if i had chosen a school yet, and when i didn't respond immediately, he facebook messaged me. awkward and inappropriate, IMO. i emailed back and politely told him to shove it, it was february and i hadn't effing decided yet. add to that the fact that all the accepted students are on the med-school-wide email list, so i'm getting all these ridiculous emails every day about apartments and moving sales and summer trips and I DON'T EVEN KNOW IF I'M GOING THERE YET. and i turned in all my financial aid docs on like the first day i could, and they haven't sent me a package yet.

wow, that rant felt good!

so, to sum up: neither was my first choice to begin with. i have never wanted to own a car, so that makes worcester tough... maybe i would have chosen to stay in new york and go to NYU because of this. but, NYU doesn't seem like as good a fit for me as sinai, plus i'm an uptown girl. now that both schools are pissing me off, the second i get one affordable option elsewhere i'm going to withdraw from both.
 
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