How different is the admissions difficulty between Northeastern and Tufts?

Tufts is typically harder to get into than Northeastern, and most students should treat Tufts as the more difficult admissions target. Both are highly selective private universities in the Boston area, but Tufts tends to draw a more consistently high-academic applicant pool across its liberal arts and research-focused programs, while Northeastern’s selectivity is also heavily shaped by application volume, enrollment management, and the specific pathway or program you apply into. In practical list-building terms, Tufts usually belongs a notch higher in difficulty.

Tufts is the place to think of as the tougher reach if you are a student aiming for a classic highly selective university with strong academic depth in the liberal arts, social sciences, international relations, engineering, and pre-professional paths. Its admissions process is known for looking for intellectual energy, strong writing, and a clear academic fit, so even very strong applicants can be denied. Students who are competitive there are often also applying to other very selective national universities, which pushes the level of competition up.

Northeastern fits a somewhat different applicant. It is still very hard to get into, especially because so many students apply, but the difficulty can vary more depending on the major, campus, and admissions plan. Northeastern’s co-op model, career focus, and urban setting attract a huge range of applicants, and the university has several entry pathways that make the admissions picture feel more complicated than Tufts. That means it can be extremely selective, but not always in the same straightforward way as Tufts.

If you are building a realistic list, it makes sense to classify Tufts as the harder admit overall and Northeastern as slightly more unpredictable. A student with strong stats and solid activities might still find Northeastern difficult because of its volume and institutional priorities, but Tufts is usually the school that asks for an even stronger overall profile. I would not treat either one as close to a safety or easy target unless your college list is already very top-heavy.