What college was that?

Didn't Elaine tell the cab driver what college she went to? If so, what was it? I'm not quite sure I got it.

Thanks, Cas

"Tufts", it's a private school in Boston, its near Harvard. She called it her "safety" school, and was pretty defensive about it, as are most people who go there. The general opinion of Tufts is it is basically a school for all the Harvard wannabes.

"edge" wrote:

Egads! That's a dangerous over-generalization. I'd doubt if many of the alum of Tufts would agree. Tufts is a fab fab school with an excellent reputation. A full third of their incoming freshmen have SAT Math scores of 700+! The school's overall acceptance rate is a tad under 30%, a damn bit more selective than the acceptance rate at JLD's alma mater, Northwestern, a school not many people would find fault with.

Cheers, WT

I'm not saying Tufts isn't a good school, all I said is that the general opinion is that some of the kids who can't get into Harvard go there instead. If that is not the definition of "Harvard wannabe" then I stand corrected. I honestly believe if you took a poll of people who have ever even heard of Tufts, that would be the prevalent feeling. Elaine even referred to it as her "Safety" school; an obviously derogatory comment, so I guess the writers agree with me.

"edge" wrote:

Mmmm, maybe we better have a parade.

Cheers, WT

Hate to spoil your fun, Ace, but for kids at prep schools, like Elaine, Tufts is indeed a Safety School. Sad to say, so is my alma mater of Johns Hopkins, and you won't get a better education anywhere.

Bob Wells

In all fairness, this impression was much more true 5 years ago. That's not to say there probably aren't a few people around here who are bitter that they didn't get into Harvard, but Tufts actually does much better for itself now than it did 5 years ago. (And why I am the only one from Tufts who has posted a response? I know there are a *lot* of other Tuftonians out there who were talking about this in the Tufts newgroup) Ah well... :) - Doug

Part of the reason Doug is right is that schools like Tufts have become more and more popular in recent years because of the quality of education- the students here are taught almost exclusively by professors (99%+). At a lot of the big "name" schools (MIT, Harvard, etc) you're paying for the name, but there's a very good chance you're classes will be taught by Joe Schmo Grad Student. We are very lucky here at Tufts to have a combination of great *teachers* AND great researchers. In a lot of other top schools, professors are just in it to do research and aren't as concerned with their students.

The other problem we face is location- Tufts, MIT, Harvard, Boston College and Boston University are all within about 15 miles of each other (maybe less). These are all excellent schools. Not to put too much stock in US News Rankings, but all of these schools easily ranked in the top 50 and 3(Tufts (23), Harvard (2), and MIT (1-ENG)) ranked in the top 25. It's a very crowded area for academics.

Still, the safety school rap was a very common rap on the school in the past (not mention that when Elaine would have gone to school here, this may have been more true), and even though it's not quite true today, I thought the joke was pretty funny (though probably very limited in appeal).

Eric

ps One more thing- sometimes people just aren't happy. If people who go to Tufts complain about not getting into an Ivy, the people at the "lesser Ivies" complain about not getting into Harvard, Princeton or Yale, and the people at "the big three" complain about stress and burnout! As for me, I'm happy where I am, and I hope you are too! :)

In article , Doug Vermes wrote:

Eric Warasta wrote:

Yes, I am. Of course, I'm graduating in a week, so I'm not really here much longer. Nevertheless, I still can't think of a college where I would have been happier. However, given that Elaine is supposed to be from Scarsdale (where I happen to be from), and given that the general impression is that people from Scarsdale tend to be rich, spoiled kids who aspire to go to Harvard, it only makes sense that Elaine would be bitter about having had to go to her safety school, no matter which school that was. As for whether the stereotype of people from Scarsdale is accurate or not, well, I'll have respond with no comment. :) - Doug

Tufts RULES!!! Go Jumbos!!!

(sorry, an uncontrollable outburst of school spirit. As I said before, I'm just psyched Tufts got mentioned on the next to the last episode of Seinfeld, the most talked about tv show in a long while. Much better than that Two Guys, a Girl and whatever show that sucks. Despite its rep as a safety school, I think that when most people get here they realize what a great school it is and end up loving it, and are defensive of it, like Elaine!

                                                         mo :)

What Scarsdale? Elaine hails from Towson, Maryland.

Bob Wells

Bob Wells wrote:

Oh, I thought she had said once she was from Scarsdale. But I don't really know-- it was more hearsay than anything else. - Doug

In article ,

Speak for yourself, monkey-boy! :-)

During my four undergrad years at MIT I had only one class (a beginning linear algebra class) that was taught by a grad student. Every other class was taught by professors, including ones like Robert Solow and Amar Bose.

Yes, this is true. There are many schools like this, I go to Binghamton University, which is viewed as a haven for us retards who couldn't quite make it into(or afford) Cornell, the easiest Ivy League school to get into. Bitter? Oh, a tad.

Tufts.

On 08 May 1998 14:16:18 GMT, [email] (Casella) wrote:

"Busted once again, but I'll show them one day when I can buy and sell the world." - eels

It was Tufts

She said that she went to Tufts. I didn't get it either though it wasn't the school that she had wanted to go to.

On 8 May 1998, Casella wrote:

____________

It was Tufts College.

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Brothers, let us champion our right to be great.

Boy Dickie, you Yalies are out of touch, aren't ya? It's Tufts University.

Bob Wells