Krauge

This.
It is seriously quite unnecessary and unfortunate to take on debt for an MA in philosophy. Don't do it.
Tufts is great, but taking on a pile of debt will cause your bones to ache for years. It isn't worth it when the market gives you no expectation of solvency.

If you're absolutely determined to throw money at a pipe dream, then go with Tufts. It's a mistake to take on this much debt for an MA, but the cost of living in NYC is much higher, and will cancel out the price difference, and so will TAing at Tufts. Even if Brandeis were clearly better than Tufts--and it's not--the 10k debt difference is a big deal. So: Tufts.
But honestly, I don't think you should do it.
 
They're both good, and fine. Generally, when looking at placements, you want to get a sense of which kinds of students are getting placed--in other words, which advisors are routinely placing students, and which aren't. You also want a sense of what proportion of the graduating class is placing, and what kinds of programs they're being placed into. But neither program offers that information, and their yearly lists of placements look great. So do what's cheapest.

Reputation and prestige matter a lot more for placement into TT jobs than they do for placement into PhD programs from an MA. And both Tufts and Brandeis enjoy excellent MA reputations. Don't sweat it.

This forum is supposed to be about who was acceptanced where for fall 2019. Take these arguments to another thread.

This forum is supposed to be about who was acceptanced where for fall 2019. Take these arguments to another thread.

This forum is supposed to be about who was acceptanced where for fall 2019. Take these arguments to another thread.

This forum is supposed to be about who was acceptanced where for fall 2019. Take these arguments to another thread.

My sample was on the intellectual children of Socrates in the Hellenistic world. It looked at the Cynics, Stoics, and Sceptics, how they stacked up in relation to Socrates, and who had the most legitimate claim to him as their inspiration or proto-founder. If I am accepted nowhere, I'll probably begin reworking another undergraduate paper on St. Bonaventure and his intellectual influences. My two big field of interest are Ancient and the Philosophy of Religion, so that would be able to tie the two together, and might be more attractive to a department like Fordham. Christopher Cullen at Fordham was a prime influence on that paper. At the time, I only had the opportunity to rework one old paper for the sample. Having more than one would be helpful.
 
I like the Fordham program. In researching it, I looked through previous course offerings and they looked exactly like what I want in a program, and each area has multiple professors with different emphases. It's one of the few programs that while researching, I actually got excited about. It's a buffet of opportunities for someone with my interests.