Tufts Blogs

A joy of being an admissions officer is sharing so much of Tufts with so many different students. I never know which part of our community will resonate with the students I talk with – it could be the electric racing team or the fact that we have Sundae Sundays in our dining hall (yes…we do have a FULL ice cream buffet on Sundays) or the eight identity-based resource centers on campus or Tuftonia’s Day or…well…any other number of things!

The Tufts community is an incredibly diverse one, but there are some common threads that pull us together: our kindness, collaboration, commitment to civic engagement, and our intellectual playfulness.

To give you an idea of the many reasons why students gravitate toward Tufts, I asked 3 students from 3 states how they found their way here.

Blake’s Journey to Finding Tufts

QuestBridge exposed me to Tufts. Being a QuestBridge applicant to Tufts, financial aid was THE determining factor in my college search, and Tufts checked that box off with ease and transparency. Now, this might be a hot take, but I wasn't picky as some of my peers. When ranking my QuestBridge schools, I remember seeing a photo of Carm (which would become my first-year residence hall!) and thinking, "I guess I'll rank this school, that hall looks pretty." Although I advise doing more research than I did, I am SO glad I followed this gut feeling I had. Once I looked more into it (majors, research opportunities, location), I knew I could love my life at Tufts - and I do!

When you write your application essays for Tufts(!), the last question you will have to answer will be a simple one.

In roughly 250 words: "Why Tufts?"

My "Why Tufts?" ended up being a romanticized version of the life I would live at Tufts. Running into friends at our student-run coffee shop, The Sink; laughing with classmates as we attempt to decipher 19th century Spanish poetry; spending nights in the nearby metropolis of Boston... candidly, my "Why Tufts?" ended up being the life I live now. I love what I learn, and I love where I live. I wouldn't trade my journey to Tufts for anything.  

Maddie's College Search Process

When I first started looking into colleges, I knew two things. First, I wanted to travel far enough away from my Virginia hometown to feel independent and have access to city life. Second, I felt moderately certain that Tufts was my dream school. Several of my family members went to Tufts, like my mom (for her Master’s in Education) and my Aunt Kara (for her Bachelor’s in Environmental Engineering). It was simply on my radar growing up. Although I felt tied to the community through my family’s proximity, my path at Tufts has been shaped by my own experiences. This journey is ever evolving, with differences and similarities to the preconceived impressions I had of Tufts as a spectator, as an applicant, and now as a student.

As a high school student entrenched in the search and application process, I mostly combed through websites. A lot. Like, “enough to compile spreadsheets-upon-documents-upon-stacks of loose admissions checklists” a lot. What stood out to me about Tufts through my internet searching, my visits, and my discussions with alumni was its sense of community. Every student interview and life-on-campus vlog about Tufts seemed to say, “the people are really nice!” and “the hill is no joke…” (it’s all true). This was the through line of my “Why Tufts?” short essay. I still believe Tufts’s strengths are found within this community-minded atmosphere, the collaborative nature of the student body, and its interdisciplinary programs that allow students to explore and interlock their academic passions. For instance, my entire first year I was on track to be a chemistry major and then decided to completely change my mind and head in a new direction while I could. As a sophomore, I’ve declared majors in sociology and STS (science, technology, and society), and I take great pleasure in incorporating classes that involve gender & sexuality, medieval studies, art! history! literature!...and much more. In thinking about my journey to Tufts, the university motto, Pax et Lux (“Peace and Light”), comes to mind; peace and light is what I’ve found here and luckily…it feels right.

Josh’s Decision-Making Process

Hailing from a small independent high school, I knew that I was looking for a collaborative undergraduate environment where I could build relationships with professors and where my peers looked out for each other and felt mutually invested in each other’s success. I started my college search process by scouring the websites and admissions publications of schools I was initially interested in. Current students’ emails will often be listed on admissions websites for prospective students to contact— taking advantage of this resource was so valuable in getting a real feel of what a school was like!