I applied Early Decision to Tufts earlier this fall and have the great privilege to be accepted to the Engineering School. Throughout my college process, one of the most important things I learned is to pursue the place where your heart takes you. I knew that Tufts was the place for me because it offers the academic opportunities I was looking for, as well as the extracurriculars that I have always enjoyed, and finally in an environment where I know I will be happy for the next four years.
The Engineering Psych major stood out to me as an opportunity at Tufts that stands as a symbol of the Tufts mentality. As an incoming engineering student with passions for many cross-disciplinary studies, this major combines the study of technology and human interaction in order to create products that are user-friendly and useful. This interesting major serves as an amazing symbol to what Tufts education stands for: a practical combination of engineering and liberal arts used to further thought and better the human experience. This major as well as the other majors available at the Engineering School allow for the amazing chance to be able to study Engineering with the practical application of liberal arts knowledge. Not only do the academic relationships between engineering and liberal arts at Tufts help prepare students for the real world job environment, but also attests to the extremely high level of cooperation that flows in the blood of Tufts kids.
The first time I walked onto the campus, I felt immediately welcome and comfortable. Students everywhere walked around outside, sitting on picnic blankets, throwing frisbees, chatting about their classes with their friends. Walking into the students center, you can hear several club promotions going on, as well as the laughing of students in the small dining hall downstairs. However, in the student center, the thing that most grabbed my attention were the class flags draped on the walls of the lobby. Different classes decide what gets displayed onto their flag and each banner displays a message or symbol that the class stood for. Standing there, looking up, I knew that I wanted to have my own flag up on that wall. Thinking about the student center, I can picture the hundreds of fliers all over the walls of club meetings to attend, with a table set up with students attempting to pull you in towards their table so that they can passionately explain why you should donate to their amazing cause or join their fantastic club. The extracurricular scene has a little something for everybody. Having been to tour 17 colleges, I know firsthand how eager admissions officers and tour guides are to talk to you about how easy it is to start your own club and how their are hundreds of clubs to be a part of. Walking around the student center and campus in general, it is honestly amazing to see how passionate Tufts students are about their clubs, how willing they are to be involved, and how much fun they have in the process. I personally plan on playing on the squash team as a freshman and even though I am not sure about which clubs I want to join, I plan on being an active club participant and even, as I explained in an earlier post, hope to start a fantasy football league on my dorm floor.
Over every number, ratio, ranking, and statistic, it is important to align with the feelings and mentality of the school. I fell in love with Tufts because everything that I have felt about the value of education, cooperation, involvement, friendship, and learning tools for the rest of my life matched with the beliefs and practices of Tufts. Tufts students are unpretentious, passionate, vibrant, kind, and curious. It would be unfair to characterize every single Tufts student as outgoing, involved in a bunch of clubs, and highly cooperative in all their work, but that is part of the experience of going to college. You find a place where you align with the beliefs of the school, where you enjoy interactions you have with students, where you can picture yourself learning and pursuing the academic and career opportunities that you have dreamed about. At Tufts, there would about 1,300 other students that are different than you in many ways, coming from many different parts of the country with many different sets of beliefs, many different interests, and many different outlooks on life. However, every student shares the quality that they believed that they aligned with the mentality of Tufts, and that they want to pursue their education at a place that values cooperation, a passion for learning, and involvement in the community. I am privileged and honored to be part of the Tufts community and as an accepted student next year I cannot wait to start getting to know the rest of my incoming class. Ultimately, I chose Tufts because I love it and I know that it is a place that I will be able to grow, learn, and have fun with students that share the same values as me.