Tufts vs UPenn

[izzie]

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For those of you who have gotten into both Tufts and UPenn, just out of curiosity, which would you choose and why?

 

[zufuss]

For those of you who have gotten into both Tufts and UPenn, just out of curiosity, which would you choose and why?

I'd go to tufts, but only because they have the conservation medicine tract and the wildlife clinic.

I'd still go for penn because they do all the veterinary work for the philly zoo and coordinate research with the tri-state bird rescue center.

 

[legs1011]

I chose Penn, and you can see my reasons in another post under the michigan vs tufts thread. I'm actually a masters student at the tufts vet school right now and I thought that I wanted to go there, but after living there for a year and working in the hospital, and taking classes with vet students there, etc, I am not that impressed with it. It's also a REALLY boring place to live and has an extremely homogenous crowd, but if those things don't bother you then it might be fine. Something I didn't mention in the other post is that they don't offer as many residencies and internships as penn does, and they don't have as many fellowships and independent research opportunities available as Penn.
Just my two cents ...

For those of you who have gotten into both Tufts and UPenn, just out of curiosity, which would you choose and why?

 

[2Bsure]

[Tufts] has an extremely homogenous crowd...
Just my two cents ...

Sadly, I get that impression from a fair number of vet schools. While there is uniqueness among students, the heavy emphasis on animal experience means admitted students come in with fairly similar backgrounds and outlooks.

 

[2Bsure]

Before I get a whole lot of angry replies, I have to admit that most of the people who post on this board seem to have unique interests. However, because getting into vet school has been the focus of our lives and many of us have similar experiences, we tend to become more alike than different. This seems like it is especially true of those (like myself) who plan to transition from undergraduate to professional school over the course of a summer with little time away from academe.

 

[yakpool]

Before I get a whole lot of angry replies, I have to admit that most of the people who post on this board seem to have unique interests. However, because getting into vet school has been the focus of our lives and many of us have similar experiences, we tend to become more alike than different. This seems like it is especially true of those (like myself) who plan to transition from undergraduate to professional school over the course of a summer with little time away from academe.

From my personal experience, I think Tufts has some great people with very diverse backgrounds. Three vets I worked with in an animal hospital are from Tufts. Among them, one was a professional musician before getting into Tufts; one was a business manager; and one had experience working with chimpanzees in Africa. They are all passionate and wonderful vets.

One of the greatest vets I ever met was Dr. Annelisa Kilbourn. I met her in Borneo, where she worked with orangutan rehabilitation and rhino conservation. She also worked on Ebola's effect on wildlife in Congo and Gabon. Exteremly unfortunately, she died in a plane crash in Gabon. Dr. Trish Reed, who works with WCS in congo basin is a Tufts graduate. My English friend told me she met two Tufts students at the Great Ape Health Symposium in Leipzig in 2004. Apparently, they both worked in Africa with wildlife before getting into the school. I believe last year, they even accepted two previous priests into their class!

That's my two cents.

 

[legs1011]

I think you're all right about any vet school having a homogenous crowd, obviously everyone has lots of animal experience and has done some cool things. The people at Tufts who have those quirky backrounds are not included cohesively with the rest of the class though, they would never work on projects with us and they often don't live in the area, some of them do but not all. If you are into wildlife medicine and international medicine and those types of research projects though no other school really has as strong of a program as tufts. They have a faculty member solely devoted to research design and international projects and she is really cool, and very very easy to work with, although she told me to go to Penn over Tufts so I don't really know how to take that. Personally I think all that stuff is very interesting, but it's not my main focus so it really isn't a big draw for me. But I do have to say that if those are your interests Tufts would be a great place to be.
Feel free to ask my any other questions you guys might have about Tufts, if I don't know the answer I can certainly find out for you.

From my personal experience, I think Tufts has some great people with very diverse backgrounds. Three vets I worked with in an animal hospital are from Tufts. Among them, one was a professional musician before getting into Tufts; one was a business manager; and one had experience working with chimpanzees in Africa. They are all passionate and wonderful vets.

One of the greatest vets I ever met was Dr. Annelisa Kilbourn. I met her in Borneo, where she worked with orangutan rehabilitation and rhino conservation. She also worked on Ebola's effect on wildlife in Congo and Gabon. Exteremly unfortunately, she died in a plane crash in Gabon. Dr. Trish Reed, who works with WCS in congo basin is a Tufts graduate. My English friend told me she met two Tufts students at the Great Ape Health Symposium in Leipzig in 2004. Apparently, they both worked in Africa with wildlife before getting into the school. I believe last year, they even accepted two previous priests into their class!

That's my two cents.

 

[Quaggi]

legs, why don't you tone it down a little with the tufts bashing? we get it, you don't like it there, end of story. you are only one person, and that doesn't mean that everybody on this board will feel the same as you. I've talked to quite a few grads and current students who absolutely love the place, and I loved it when I visited too. If a professor told you to go to penn, it was quite obviously not because she feels penn is the better school, but because of your predetermined negative opinion about tufts... why would anyone recommend someone stay somewhere that they already don't like? I think that your input may have been helpful to some people, but I think we get your point now so enough is enough.

 

[LilBowWow]

legs, why don't you tone it down a little with the tufts bashing? we get it, you don't like it there, end of story. you are only one person, and that doesn't mean that everybody on this board will feel the same as you. I've talked to quite a few grads and current students who absolutely love the place, and I loved it when I visited too. If a professor told you to go to penn, it was quite obviously not because she feels penn is the better school, but because of your predetermined negative opinion about tufts... why would anyone recommend someone stay somewhere that they already don't like? I think that your input may have been helpful to some people, but I think we get your point now so enough is enough.

Dude, you're the one who needs to chill. Legs was not "Tufts bashing" at all. She was giving a candid assessment of the school that only someone who's been a student there can give. She's in the unique position of being in the MA program there, so she's actually working side-by-side with the vet students and taking classes with them on a daily basis. Frankly, I think a lot of people who are faced with the oh-so-agonizing choice of having to decide between Tufts and another vet school will appreciate her insight. It doesn't mean they are going to turn down the offer. But it is important that people know what "right next to Boston!" really means. (For those of you who haven't timed the trip, it's at minimum an hour drive, when there's no traffic.)

Oh, and there's nothing "obvious" about why her professor suggested why she go to Tufts. Maybe her professor genuinely thought Penn would be a better match for her. Anyway, you weren't there so "obviously" you can't know.

I don't know what you have to be mad about, really. You got into vet school, and a fine one at that. Leave the negative energy to us vet school rejects who have a legitimate reason to be p***ed off.

 

[Miranda]

Unfotunately I don't get to make this choice, as Penn didn't accept me, but I do work with three vets from Penn and three vets from Tufts, and I've asked just about everyone I know their opinion. I live in Mass and have wanted to go to Tufts for years (yay! they finally let me in!), so I may be biased towards their program, but I certainly recognize their drawbacks (while lovely, Grafton isn't exactly a bumpin' town! and the class is always made up largely of young white girls, and I certainly hope that causes no offense! I am yet another young white girl myself!). My impression is that both schools are strongly academic, the vets I know graduated with loads of knowledge, but were perhaps lacking a little in the refined clinical skills....

The concensus I've gotten from the vets I know is that you really have to go wherever fits best for you (location, cost, gut feeling). Although the different universities have different strengths (we may have our cow in central MA, but you certainly won't get nearly the ruminant experience you might in the midwest), vet school is what you make of it. I'm really drawn to Tufts' wildlife and international opportunities, but I'm sure that if I chose to go somewhere else I could manage to make those opportunities for myself there!

Wherever you chose, I wish you the best of luck! Maybe I'll see you in Grafton!

🙂 Miranda

 

[wishes]

It is a tuff choice isn't it? I had a very positive impression at both schools (although I will probably be going to Cornell) and honestly I don't think you could go wrong either way.
I have put some time into thinking about it, however, so here you go. The biggest concern that I had with U. Penn had nothing to do with the school. I simply don't think that I could survive in Philadelphia and the school is not in a particularly good part of the city. On the other hand, if you are a city person than you would probably much prefer U. Penn over Tufts as Grafton seems to be in the middle of nowhere (although it is close enough to Boston that you can still access the city in all the spare time that we will have in vet school).
Penn has another downside in my book in that the large animal facility is about 45 minutes away, which is not the most convenient thing, especially if you are interested in large animal as I am.
On the upside Penn has an amazing caseload/teaching hospital (and this includes the large animal side of things and much of Pennsylvania is actually rural), is ranked the number three vet school in America, and offers the prestige of an Ivey league school. Tufts is ranked considerably lower and has a decreased caseload. These things are probably more important to some people than others. With the exception of caseload they are unlikely to make us better vets in the end. I will say kudos for Tufts with the working farm on campus as you have ready access to all sorts of farm animals whenever you want.
U. Penn has a great masters in business program for those interested in someday managing their own practice. Another thing that really impressed me with Penn was the flexibility they offered in choosing classes and electives.
Tufts does offer their signature programs, however I should point out that many of the opportunities Tufts offers through these programs are available in a less organized format through most other vet schools (such as international vet med) and the faculty at the school admitted to me that they no longer have the case load to support the equine sports medicine program to a great extent although if you are interested in this you could extern somewhere strong in equine your fourth year.
Also Tufts does not "track" per say, while U. Penn does which could be a pro or con depending on your personal interests and how much you know now about what type of vet med you want to practice.
If it came down to it, I would probably go with U. Penn over Tufts, but I think both schools have alot to offer. I can say that I had a very positive interview experience at both places.
Good luck!