Research

Tufts is one of the nation’s top research universities, earning the distinction of "Doctoral/Research Extensive" institution from the Carnegie Foundation - its highest classification for degree-granting colleges and universities. Tufts faculty and students are engaged in a wide-range of innovative research spanning many fields and disciplines. 

Undergraduates are often involved in research projects, both on the Medford/Somerville campus and at Tufts’ graduate and professional schools. In addition to providing several avenues for funding research projects, the Office of Undergraduate Education sponsors the yearly Research and Scholarship Symposium to showcase the contributions of undergraduates to the creation of new knowledge. 

Research is at the heart of the engineering program at Tufts. More than 60 percent of Tufts undergraduate engineering students participate in independent research. Whether it’s through a research internship, a scholarship program, or a connection made with a graduate student or faculty member, chances to make significant research contributions abound. There are eight major research centers on campus, each with dozens of individual research spaces.

One of our signature campus programs is the Tufts Summer Scholars, a unique collaborative initiative that funds research apprenticeships with faculty/clinical mentors to motivated Tufts undergraduates from both the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering.  Each summer, support is provided for about fifty Tufts undergraduates to do summer research with faculty from Tufts schools and affiliated hospitals. Each student received approximately $3,500 for full-time research designed to result in a senior honors thesis, plus a $1,000 grant to defray research expenses throughout the project.