Tufts Blogs

Before moving away for college, I spent my childhood between small-town Georgia and rural Alabama. My family has lived here for generations, and most of my relatives stay nearby after high school. The majority of my youth was spent following my grandparents around as they worked at their Piggly Wiggly grocery store, where I sometimes half-heartedly mopped the floors. Outside of that, I played soccer, ran cross country, and spent time at the Baptist church down the road. I’m grateful for the time I was able to spend with my family; I have a strong affinity for the outdoors, and I’m really good at baking peach cobbler. Still, I was always curious about what else was beyond West Georgia when I was considering going to college.

That curiosity eventually led me into the college search, where the options felt overwhelming compared to the familiar world of my hometown. I was the first person in my family to ‘go away’ for college. I had a very limited understanding of what schools were out there, admissions and financial aid applications, or what it would take for me to succeed once I was there. Even though I knew little about admissions—and even missed a major deposit deadline—I was fortunate enough to receive a generous financial aid offer from a liberal arts college in Tennessee. 

The initial transition was a little overwhelming: most of my classmates attended private or boarding schools, the classes were more rigorous than anything I had ever experienced, and I wanted so badly to fit in. With the support of professors and a tight knit group of friends from my on-campus coffee shop job, I found my footing and started to appreciate the different doors that my college was opening. Many of my classmates were from different parts of the country and world than me, and their different cultures, religions, political beliefs, and perspectives expanded the way I thought about the world. I also never would have learned about my love for Roman art and literature or spent a summer working at a museum in Zanzibar if I hadn’t stepped outside my comfort zone.

‘Going away’ to college also doesn’t mean that you can’t go home. I’m not alone in this experience. My colleague Will Wilson, Tufts ’21, describes it this way:

Every moment living in Somerville, MA is a smaller version of the culture shock I had when I first moved to Tufts. I was born in small town Grant, Nebraska and grew up in Lewiston, Idaho. Lewiston is a big-small town, around 35,000 people, it feels like you know everyone. From the moment I toured campus I knew I wanted to make Tufts a new home. I was the first person from my high school to attend Tufts. I reveled in introducing myself as the guy from Idaho to everyone on my floor in Harleston Hall. I enjoyed my experience, so much so that I’m still here, meeting and admitting students who are just as eager as I was to explore something bigger than the rural community they come from. And while “getting out” is a sentiment I felt as a fresh college student, my understanding about rural student experiences has changed a lot. Now I get to dedicate my time to improving access to students who, also like me, want to bring a new perspective back to their rural home. 

It’s completely understandable to want to do what feels familiar, but I really encourage you to consider stepping outside of your comfort zone when thinking about where to go to college. For me, stepping out of my comfort zone meant meeting people who changed the way I thought, traveling to places I'd never been before, and learning that I wanted to make a career out of college admissions.