Tufts vs Penn

[masslethach]

I got accepted to both Tufts and Penn and thought I made a final decision with Tufts. I committed to Tufts but then when I declined my seat at Penn, they offered me another scholarship in hopes I would change my mind. I thought I would just post and hope someone could give me some insight into which program would be best for me. I'm from MA and have always lived in New England. For undergrad, I go to UNH so I have not lived that far away before. I have a strong passion for large animals and public health and was hoping to get an MPH and either school and maybe work with the USDA. Tufts is my IS school and offered me a diversity scholarship with a grant. Penn offered me a recruitment scholarship and added more to it making it cheaper than Tufts. Cost of living for both places is comparable, would just depend on the apartment I get and other factors.

If anyone could give me information for large animal and MPH experience at either school. I would also like to know how it is living in Philly, I used to live in Worcester and can navigate Boston well but more opinions wouldn't hurt. Honestly, any information would help, definitely freaking out lol thanks

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[BlackCatsRuleTheWorld]

Congrats on your acceptances!! Are you sure about the COL being comparable for Grafton and Philly? My assumption would be that Philly would be more expensive bc of the true city location. Also for your decision, I guess it depends on how much cheaper UPenn is than Tufts given the additional scholarship, like if it's 5k cheaper or 100k cheaper that would be a big difference 🙂 .

For large animal you probably know that the New Bolton Center is ~1 hr away from UPenn's main campus so might be harder to get involved there/spend time there.

I live in MA and am actually going to visit a friend in Philly for the weekend so I can give my very basic thoughts on Philly vs Boston if that's helpful - but hopefully someone from UPenn can chime in!

Are you able to visit UPenn before making a decision? That could help!

(Sorry my thoughts are so scattered lol)

 

[masslethach]

Congrats on your acceptances!! Are you sure about the COL being comparable for Grafton and Philly? My assumption would be that Philly would be more expensive bc of the true city location. Also for your decision, I guess it depends on how much cheaper UPenn is than Tufts given the additional scholarship, like if it's 5k cheaper or 100k cheaper that would be a big difference 🙂 .

For large animal you probably know that the New Bolton Center is ~1 hr away from UPenn's main campus so might be harder to get involved there/spend time there.

I live in MA and am actually going to visit a friend in Philly for the weekend so I can give my very basic thoughts on Philly vs Boston if that's helpful - but hopefully someone from UPenn can chime in!

Are you able to visit UPenn before making a decision? That could help!

(Sorry my thoughts are so scattered lol)

Thank you! I’m very grateful to have this decision but I’m so indecisive lol. I thought COL would be higher in Philly too but when looking online for apts there were a lot of options. MA is just more expensive in general. Based on various factors Penn is cheaper by $17-33k. It was loosely based on the fees I could find online. Sadly I would not be able to visit in time but have been able to visit tufts twice. I love tufts campus and how it’s more rural but I haven’t lived in a city and think it’s something I could experience.

Again thanks for your input!

 

[max_wildlife]

@masslethach
hey, current first year at tufts. are you planning on doing a dvm/mph simultaneously or were you considering doing the mph after school?
they offer a simultaneous dvm/mph program that i applied to and almost committed to, but ended up just doing the dvm program. personally would not have been able to manage extra coursework just due to the extra time i have to commit to the biochem/physiology courses - which i am naturally terrible at - but it seems like people do okay.

the dvm program itself does have courses that focus on public health and i'm glad about that. we have an epidemiology class starting monday that lasts about a month. in fall semester we also had an international medicine course which touched on public health too. so they incorporate it.

for large animal, we do have what feels like a lot of hands-on interaction. we've had labs where we rump and vaccinate sheep, and we've done physical exam clin skills on horses, cows, and pigs.

i'm personally a city person and struggling with the layout of central MA lol i prefer worcester but found myself in a small town 40 minutes away from school. the commute makes me nuts but it all depends what you like & what you're comfortable with, and if you're from the area i'm sure it'll be fine for ya. but my family stays with me quite a lot and it works for everyone, which was really important to me, so i had to make choices with them in mind as well. i'm still probably moving closer to school next semester anyway -- this commute is not it.

 

[WonderingStudent]

If anyone could give me information for large animal and MPH experience at either school. I would also like to know how it is living in Philly, I used to live in Worcester and can navigate Boston well but more opinions wouldn't hurt. Honestly, any information would help, definitely freaking out lol thanks

Hey! Congrats on your acceptance and good luck making a decision. Either school will be great and you will be able to gain amazing experiences wherever you end up. Im a current 2nd year interested in mixed animal practice at Tufts. I'm not in the MPH program so I can only provide the perspective of someone involved in large animal medicine on campus but every MPH student that I've spoken to has been enjoying their experience.

There's a bunch of my classmates that are employed in the Large Animal hospital (Large Animal Tech team) where they can be on Medicine team (taking care of treatments of hospitalized large animal patients) or Surgery (having on-call shifts where if there's an emergency surgery they get called in for). You can choose to do one or the other or both. It is mostly equine patients but can get some small ruminants, camelids and pigs.

Also we have a great Ambulatory service on the border between CT and MA. All of the vets in ambulatory are amazing and many have been nice enough to allow me to do ride alongs with them. The issue is that it's a 40-50 min drive from campus so not ideal but still a great resource to get experience. On this service they see a good mix of bovine, small ruminants, equine and some camelid and pigs.

There's also clubs that plan cool hands on labs such as an equine limb and heart ultrasound wetlab that we did in the fall and an artificial insemination wetlab that's coming up where students will get to actually AI some cows at a local dairy.