Blood, Sweat & Crumbs

Like bears, admission officers hibernate during the winter.  We retreat from the world for a couple of months but, unlike our ursine friends, we don't snooze away the cold and snow.  You keep us occupied. 

From our respective caves (figuratively speaking, of course) around Greater Boston we read and read and read some more. It’s a solitary and labor intensive task as we open each file and meet the paper version of each of you.  Like a good book, we lose track of time as we flip through the pages, and 9-to-5 work habits evaporate.  Tuesday morning? Thursday night? Sunday afternoon?  Keep reading.

If you saw the reading season version of each of us you might not recognize the admission officer who gave your info session or visited your high school.  We certainly don’t look as spiffy as we do on the “Meet the Admission Officers” web page, that’s for sure.  Think about it: if you don’t plan to leave your house for several days, bed head is not an issue, right? 

We're a motley crew at this...

Professor Dennett wins Erasmus Prize

Tufts' own Professor of Philosophy, Dan Dennett, has won the Erasmus Prize for "a person or institution which has made an exceptionally contribution to culture in Europe." From the announcement:

Daniel Dennett is a strong advocate for the power of thinking. He has taken up the major cultural questions of our time, questions that have defined our self-image, such as: where do we come from and what is consciousness? As a philosopher he has addressed these fundamental questions and has added new and groundbreaking insights to other fields of study. Daniel Dennett has chosen a wide range of themes in his work, from religion and Darwinism to consciousness and artificial intelligence.

Professor Dennett is teaching two classes this semester, one just for freshmen and sophomores, A Toolkit for Thinking, and one for philosophy and cognitive and brain studies majors, Artificial Agents and Autonomy.

You can watch Professor Dennett give a lecture on his specialty, Charles Darwin:

Tick Tock

Admissions committee is set to start in just over a week. You know that that means? In the words of Elder Cunningham, “it’s time to man up” or in the words of Dory “just keep swimming.”

I’m pretty sure I only know what day of the week it is because of the schedule at my gym. For example yesterday: get up at 7am, pour coffee, readreadread, lunch, readreadread, Zumba (which means it was Tuesday), dinner, pass out. Or take today: get up for 6:30am spin (which means it’s Wednesday), shower, pour coffee, readreadread, lunch, readreadread, dinner, pass out.

But day of the week doesn’t matter; reading applications matter. As we march to the end of reading season files, more often than not, you will find me in my reading season uniform (college sweatshirt, occasionally with the hood up- it’s cold in my apartment!) here:

That’s my kitchen table, otherwise known as ERD’s Application Reading Headquarters. The poster on the left is from the Imperial War Museum in London where I studied abroad in college...

Why Tufts?

President’s Day is like New Year’s Day in an admissions office.  It’s the wicked moment in which two admission cycles converge, when our primary focus is shared between the high school seniors whose applications are being evaluated and the high school juniors who are launching their (active) searches as February vacation gets underway. 

As a bridge for this transitional moment, here’s a sampling of pithy ED2 responses to the “Why Tufts?” question on our supplement.  Consider it as advice from an older sibling, things to notice if you will, as you learn how to follow the tour guide walking backwards. Anyway, here’s what some of them said as they declared their affinity for Tufts in 100 words or less:

•  “My dad always used to tell me, ‘Strangers are friends you just haven't met yet." This is how I already feel about the students at Tufts—the nerdy and passionate, the fabulously quirky; the learners and the dreamers and the inventors and the thinkers-I want to meet them all.’ 

• “The...

Best Laid Plans

Best Laid Plans...

Here I am a month and a half after my last blog post, blushing with embarrassment for two reasons.

1. It has taken me this long to get back to the blogosphere.

2. I may or may not have completely lost track of one of my reading season resolutions. Okay, I admit it: I totally lost track. 

I'm still heading to the gym. My spin addiction has not waned and I have discovered Zumba (how did I ever live without you?!?!). I've added buttermilk corn biscuits, shrimp and scallop scampi, chicken and potato curry, pepper and herb crusted pork roast and spicy corn chowder to my repertoire. I have a couple new confections ready for the gluttonous decision making fest that is regular decision admission committee.

 But reading... Reading books for fun has come to a screeching halt. After reading for 9+ hours a day filling my head with your stories and the anecdotes relayed by your teachers and interviewers, I pick up a book and my eyes cross. If I'm to get up the next day...