Tufts University Top Questions

The best thing about Tufts is how comfortable it is. The campus is absolutly beautiful, and everyone cares about their work. At the same time, there is a very work-hard play-hard attitude at Tufts that reminds students not to take anything too seriously. That being said, Tufts students are extremely ambitious- most people have internships, jobs, or both, and most people have traveled somewhat extensively and have done significant amounts of volunteer and community service work. The size of the school is just right, and it is located the perfect distance from downtown Boston. Students have a real campus, but at the same time can get into the city easily at any time. Nearby Davis Square is a good place to hang out and get some work done off campus without having to go very far.

Tufts is the perfect size- neither too big nor too small Has a great international focus, tons of kids choose to study abroad The locale is great- a green campus, but easy access to Tufts

Every day that I'm at Tufts, I realize how perfect the school is for me. The size is perfect: with 4,000 undergrads, you'll never be able to meet everyone and you'll definitely see people you don't know all the time. But you also can't go a day without seeing tons of people you know either, which I think is perfect. Tufts is also in the perfect location! We're outside of Boston, so we have our own beautiful campus, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. On the other hand, it's a piece of cake to get into the city- we're a 10 minute walk from the T and we have a bus stop on our campus. Plus, Davis Square, the town center near us, is really hip and has great little shops and restaurants to peruse.

If you are serious about your career and about school and you are looking for some excellent professors and solid programs, but you also want to have a great time during college drinking, partying and going out in Boston, this is the place for you.

i loved tufts. the size was great, the proximity to boston was a huge plus and there are a lot of great professors. there problems, such an often terrible use of money but the administration is pretty good. tufts sports and school spirit are nearly non-existent and that is one thing i would definitely like to see changed. students often complain about the social life, but i think they are usually just being lazy. frats have parties most weekends, tuesday night is a big night at the local bars and boston is only a cab ride away. social life would also be better if the administration wasn't so tough on parties and if the tufts police (upon instruction from the administration) would relax a litttle

Tufts is small. There is no school spirit. There are many activities that attract the same types of people per event. Diverse groups do not mingle. There is no strong school pride. There are very few (none) school-wide sponsored events for African American students like at other Boston area universities.

The size honestly is just perfect. As a senior, I still felt like I was meeting new people all of the time, and that they honestly didn't have a pre-conceived notion of me, like everyone did in high school. But at graduation, I felt like I was surrounded by people I knew and loved. The location is also perfect, you feel like Tufts is your home and you identify with the place, but you can walk easily to restaurants and bars, and the T is close. What I would change is school pride. I am glad that we don't revolve around sports, but people could be a little more into school spirit.

Tufts is a rising star when it comes to universities and our degrees will mean A LOT more as the years go by because Tufts is getting more and more renowned. When I first told people that I was going to Tufts, nobody had heard of it! I was always really embarrassed when people didn't know about Tufts when it had been one of the biggest decisions of my life up until that point. The situation is different though when you get in and around the Northeast. People know Tufts, and they highly respect it. If you want a diverse student body with an excellent administration (everyone LOVES our President Larry Bacow), a tight-knit community of students that isn't too small but not gargantuan, and a perfect distance from a truly fabulous city, then come to Tufts! It will deliver!

Tufts is my dream college. I have had so much fun here and I would say without doubt that the first 2 months were the 2 best months of my life! By far the best part is the people. It is such a happy campus. I have a really diverse group of friends who come from all across the country and from around the world. It is absolutely incredible how interesting they all are. Everyone has a passion, a unique experience, a personality that makes me feel truly privileged to be with them. The campus itself is beautiful, and I can walk anywhere in less than 15 minutes. It's wonderful to have an open, green campus yet still get on the T and be on the boston Common in 25 minutes. Winter is about 2 months too long, especially you spend all day walking up or down the hill.

Tufts has a great reputation for being a challenging liberal arts school. People are fairly impressed when I say I go to Tufts. The school has about 4000 undergraduates which is too small for my liking. People you've never met before somehow know things about you and know who you are simply by word of mouth. The social scene at tufts is horrible. We have about 6 frats on campus who throw parties on average every other weekend. Frats get really old really fast, however, because you see the same people everytime there is a party. People have house parties sometimes but those are lame because you never know who is going to be there. When I'm not in class or at practice, I spend most of my time in the library doing homework. We have had some safety scares on campus within the last few years (rapes, robberies, and one suicide), but for the most part Tufts is safe. The only time I've been scared on campus is when I walk home from the library late at night. Last year one of the republican newspapers on campus published a racist christmas carol in their december issue which sparked alot of controversy on campus within racially ethnic groups, the african american community specificially. Being an African-American woman, I have never personally had experience with racism on campus, but judging from the ignorance inherent in that newspapers' publication, I am sure there exist people on campus uncomfortable with whatever little racial diversity there exists at Tufts.

Tufts is a pretty great school. You know it's a great school because all of the students who go here are awesome and they all love it. Actually, most everyone who goes to college loves where they go. If you didn't, then you're either REALLy in the wrong place or there's something really wrong with you. Tufts has tons of cool students (but sometimes you have to find them). Very liberal campus, but that's the way it is. There's lots of rich selfish kids that go here, but you get used to that. I was at first dissapointed with the students here, noticing WAY too many popped collars. But I soon realized that the rich-preppy-white-kid presence was only one part of the people here... you have to find your niche. Supposedly the faculty here are outstanding, but how would I know that? I've never been to any other schools. I'm an engineer, so my education isn't "global" despite anything the tour guides tell you. But I can tell you that you're going to get a great engineering education, and you can take great classes at a wonderful liberal arts school. Perfect for technical people who can be nerdy, but just not all the time.

the best thing about tufts is the diverse student body.

The size is great. Getting involved in extracurriculars is easy, and since it's a sizable university there are a lot of them. That said, playing a leadership role in those extracurriculars is fairly easy because the student body isn't as big as those of most universities with as many extracurricular programs as Tufts has.

Tufts is perfect in a lot of ways...it's a gorgeous enclosed campus, but it's right by Davis Square, which has a lot of restaurants, bars, and coffee shops. Boston is really accessible by T or bus (20ish minutes), and Cambridge has countless fun little neighborhoods to explore. The school is a great size because I always recognize people at events and run into people I know on my way to class, but there are always people I haven't met yet. After four years at Tufts, I never felt claustrophobic--it's big enough that everyone can keep their own business private. The president of the university (Larry Bacow) and his wife (Adele) are SO adored by the student body. They are incredibly accessible and make an effort to be involved in all activities on campus. We can tell that they care so much about this school and its students, and that's clear in the fanclubs the Bacows have amassed over the years. Tufts is fairly old, so we do have some pretty stellar traditions (the Naked Quad Run is famous and it's my personal favorite). Although our athletics aren't well known, they have had a great run in the last 4 years. In general, the student body is friendly, smart, and really fun. Kids care about learning, but they're also here to have a good time. Tufts has a good balance of working really hard, but also knowing how to loosen up sometimes. There are a lot of kids here who may come across as ditzes or slackers, but then you have a class with them or read their papers and you realize they're actually closet geniuses.

The best thing about Tufts is the focus on Undergraduate education, and the strong possibility of receiving funding for any personal projects a student may desire to take on. This students to develop an independent study for credit or not for credit in order to further his or her own interests. The student body size is just right: you can feel like you know a lot of people, but there are still always new ones to meet. When I tell people I go to Tufts people either a) have never heard of the school or b) are pretty impressed. I spend most of my time on campus either with my housemates or in the library. Tufts has a pretty great location for a college. It is just outside Boston, and is complete with its own town square in the town of Somerville. The downside to being just outside of Boston is that transportation late at night, after the T stops running is unavailable. This means if you want to go partying in Boston you need to either have a designated driver or take a cab back (which is not too terrible). I have mixed feelings about Tufts administration. The university is open to student input, but at the same time the window for compromising on certain big issues can be narrow. For instance, the university is currently moving in the direction of being a research oriented institution, meaning that all faculty are basically required to pursue some research and the students are also encouraged to do so. This means that if there is a great professor who is not conducting research, he or she can be removed from their position by the university. I have run into a difficulty with this, as one of my two favorite professors was recently required to leave Tufts due to lack of research. He was voted "Professor of the Year in 2006" by students. I think that Tufts may be forgetting too much about their pride in undergraduate education through its quest for top- level research. I would also say that this is one of the main controversies here at Tufts. There is TONS of school pride. Once you step on campus, you will never stop hearing the three words: brown, blue, and jumbos!

Tufts is a rising liberal arts college that has a strong international focus. It is probably the right school to choose if you are interested in going abroad for part or all of your junior year. It has one of the strongest undergraduate IR programs in the country and a large part of the student body is made up of students from outside the US. It is very campus based. Although students enjoy sports, the athletic program is pretty weak. This is not a the right fit if you are looking to spend a lot of time at football or basketball games, since Tufts is a third division school and the games aren't very well attended and a lot less glamorous than a D-1 school.

Tufts is a school of 5000 undergrads. It has good food, okay dorms, very nice people, a variety of things to do, it's near boston (quick train ride), it has it's own police force (weird? yes), a variety of academic situations (Some more structured, some big lectures, some small seminars)...it's an overall good place.

I think Tufts is a good size for a University. At around 5,000 students, it's neither too big nor too small. Medford isn't the best area, but it's a great option for students who want the convenience and opportunities a city like Boston offers, but prefer not to be in an urban environment. Boston is a great city for college students, and it's easily accessible from Tufts. We're trying to increase Tufts' name recognition. When you tell someone back home that you go to Tufts, they're impressed if they've heard of it, but there's a decent chance that you'll just get a blank stare.

Tufts rests right near Davis Square in Somerville - one of the most up and coming areas of Boston. The area around Tufts was once considered a slum and now its nearby Davis Square is getting trendier and more fun by the minute. Everyone who lives in Davis is cute, does yoga, and has tattoos.

The people I've met and the friends I've made are incredible; so intelligent, interesting, funky, hysterical. They really care about the bigger picture, what's outside the university bubble that so few see beyond. also, Tufts has given me opportunities related to my major--international relations--that I never would have had, had I not attended tufts. Right now, for example, I'm taking a semester off and interning at the UNHCR. It's interesting because in the humanitarian field, when I tell people that I go to tufts, they react as people do domestically when someone says that he/she attends harvard; it has an incredible reputation abroad, especially concerning international humanitarian law, human rights, refugee/migration issues, etc. Obviously there are problems. I worked on a divestment campaign with the administration, encouraging it to divest funds from companies that indirectly do business with sudan (weapons cos, oil cos, etc). representatives just kept dishing out the same, transparent excuses, and a fletcher student interested in the movement said that the admin pays attention just long enough to make students feel as htough they've accomplished something, made some headway; then the students graduate, there is no more pressure for the admin to do anything, and the issue dies down. tufts is a business, in it to make money, but this certainly isn't unique to tufts.