Is Tufts or Princeton harder to get into for college admissions?

The biggest practical difference is that Princeton sits in a clearly more selective tier overall, while Tufts is still very hard to get into but not at the same level of admissions difficulty. Princeton’s applicant pool is exceptionally self-selecting, with many students presenting near-perfect academics, top testing when submitted, and very strong extracurricular profiles. Tufts is also highly selective and attracts many high-achieving applicants, but in a general sense it is not as hard to get into as Princeton.

For a simple comparison, Princeton is the tougher admit. That is true across overall selectivity, depth of applicant pool, and how little room there is for even minor weaknesses in an application. A student who is competitive for Tufts may still be a significant reach candidate at Princeton.

That does not mean Tufts is predictable or easy. Tufts is known for receiving many applications from strong students and can be especially difficult because so many applicants are academically qualified. But if your question is just which school is harder to get into overall, Princeton is the more difficult one by a noticeable margin.

For building a college list, it makes sense to treat Princeton as a very high reach and Tufts as a reach as well, just not quite as extreme.