Is Harvard or Tufts more focused on undergraduate education?

The main tradeoff is scale and institutional focus: Harvard offers extraordinary undergraduate resources within a much larger research and professional-school ecosystem, while Tufts tends to feel more centered on the day-to-day undergraduate experience. At Harvard, undergraduates benefit from the House system, strong advising infrastructure, extensive course choice, and access to major research and faculty. At Tufts, students are more likely to experience a smaller, more undergraduate-visible campus culture, with faculty access and advising often feeling less mediated by the scale of the institution.

Harvard College takes undergraduate education seriously, and its residential Houses create real communities with advisers, tutors, and academic support. Still, many professors are leading researchers, and large introductory courses can be a prominent part of the experience. Students may need to be proactive about building close mentoring relationships, especially in popular fields.

Tufts is also a research university with graduate and professional programs, so it is not a small liberal-arts college. But its identity is more closely tied to undergraduates, and students often describe a collaborative, accessible academic environment. Its smaller overall undergraduate population can make it easier for students to become known by professors and take on meaningful campus roles earlier.

For the priority you named, Tufts has the clearer undergraduate-centered orientation. Harvard may be the more compelling choice when its particular academic resources, research opportunities, or residential system genuinely match what you want, but prestige alone is not a reason to assume it will provide the more teaching-focused experience.