Cheers to You, Little Jumbos
To the Tufts Class of 2020,
For the last five months, twenty-five readers have devoted days, nights, and weekends to getting to know you. We teased through academics, extracurriculars, essays, recommendations, interviews and all manner of details that fall into the “miscellaneous” bin in an attempt to sum you up, showcase the essence of who you are, where you’ve been, and where you’re going. We searched for your voice, then tried to imagine how it would add to our distinct institutional culture. We weighed the pros and cons, making a case for why strength in one area mattered more than weakness in another. Then we shared your application with our colleagues who saw it all again, found more to love, raised questions, played the devil’s advocate. We shepherded you into the class with the dean’s highest blessing, or brought you through the committee room where we defended your merits to garner a unanimous vote of approval. Your application has been on quite the journey.
And now here you are, with the option to attend Tufts in the fall. We hope you’re proud. We sure are.
Our process is exhausting and challenging, a statement that was truer this year than ever before. Selecting you was excruciating. There have never been so many students vying for a seat (20,000+) and we have never said no to such a large chunk of them (86%). And as much as our hearts broke for those who received bad news, they soared for you.
We’re searching not just for test scores and grades, but for that wonderful mix of academic ability and “Tuftsy” feel. A sense of fit, manifested in countless ways. Evidence of an ability to be deadly serious about topics of import, without taking yourself too seriously. That impression of genuine enthusiasm, authentic engagement, and casual brilliance that gives Tufts its air of playful intellectualism.
And you had it. An “admit” from Tufts means we loved what you represent and where you’re going. It means we want you on campus to serve as a student, roommate, lab partner, editor, barista, entertainer, athlete and friend for the next four years. It means we think our faculty will love you, our classrooms will benefit from your voice, our alumni bragging rights will someday be furthered by your accomplishments. It means we were wowed by your enthusiasm, grit, texture, eccentricities, self-awareness, and nuance.
We saw something (many things, really) in your application that was exciting, compelling, and promising. Something that wasn't just good on its own, but a fabulous fit for our community in particular.
We hope you appreciate this moment. We hope in a time of uncertainty and unknowns, you can pause for a moment and pat yourself on the back. Cheers to you, little Jumbos.