Undergraduates FTW!
The Gordon Institute, home of the Engineering Management and Entrepreneurial Leadership programs at Tufts, hosts a $100K Business Plan Competition each spring. Submissions in the classic business competition and social entrepreneurship competition come from teams that consist of undergraduate students, graduate students, students at partner schools, faculty, staff, and recent alumni. As seen in BostonInno’s coverage of the competition – in a year where the caliber of the contestants blew away the judges, the winning spots were swept by Tufts undergraduates!
Everyone loves a secret...
I often hear some of my friends wonder where the enjoyment comes from in tackling a new STEM topic when it just means more math and crazy symbols (see eigenfunctions for a wild example). To me – there is something uniquely fulfilling about getting the chance to better understand what is happening in the world around me. Things that most people aren’t aware of. It’s like learning a secret! Like finding out your life-long best friend has had six toes on one foot the whole time and you didn’t even notice it.
How Engineers Make a World of Difference
The School of Engineering at Tufts is more than a collection of students with engineering majors. It’s a community. Tufts engineers stay active in the community by finding opportunities outside of the classroom to share in their mutual passions. Students often team up and enter competitions in areas that range from game design to problem solving to design challenges. They are a great way to have fun with friends, push the boundaries of what you learn in class, and of course win some prize money! The Tufts National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) chapter recently won an award for their entry into the IEEE Student Video competition on “How Engineers Make a World of Difference.” Participants were asked to provide a personal profile to teach an 11-13 year-old how an engineer can make an impact on the world. This is the entry from Tufts NSBE which won the award for Best Content/Message:
Candy-Coated Committee
Some of you may have heard a description of the committee process before where we perform the final review of the applications. It probably sounded something like this: A group of admissions counselors are huddled around a table. Laptops are open. Glasses are on. Thinking caps are donned and files are read, discussed, and voted on. Can you picture it?
The one piece left out of this image is what many in the business consider the darkest side of committee, and what I find to be the most important. In the middle of the table is the part that strikes fear into the hearts of many-an-admissions counselor…
Tiny Dancer EXplained
The Common Application asks each and every one of you (college applicants) to list your Extracurricular Activities from the past four years. Research, babysitting, sports, service, and more can all go here. [Admissions Note: This is no time to be humble – put everything you are proud of on there!] The only space you get to share these things is a one page list and a short answer question, which always seemed a little funny to me because this is often the stuff you are the most proud of and most interested in writing about.
In that light – while I love talking about Tufts, I love my Extracurricular Activities too! Admissions Counselors are not just traveling and application reading robots; we have fun too. At Tufts, I began what is now my biggest outside activity: hip-hop dancing!!!!!! If you ever come to my info session, you’ll notice my inability to sit still. I like to move. I like to dance. I’m BEYOND fortunate to have been invited to dance with Boston’s best dancers on Concept Artists...