What's it like to transfer to Tufts? Part 3: Tien Long (Artem) Dinh
In this final part of this three-part series, Tien Long (Artem) Dinh shared some of his time with me to chat about his experience transferring from a two-year college. Artem is Ukrainian and Vietnamese and went to high school in Vietnam before going to community college in California and transferring here in 2020. He is a second year Biomedical Engineering (BME) student and is involved in the Russian Slavic Central Asian Student Association and Vietnamese Students Club as well as Sino-US Relations Group Engagement (SURGE).
What brought you to transfer to Tufts?
My freshman year was at a community college in California. When you go to community college, they definitely expect you to transfer at some point, usually after sophomore or junior year and they have agreements with state schools in California. Transferring in-state is a pretty straightforward process, everything is laid out and all the advisors help you through that protocol. However, I realized that my major in Biomedical Engineering (BME) would take at least three years to transfer. I felt like it was better for me to transfer to a private school that accepts transfers. Fortunately the experience wasn’t lonely as I had other students I could talk to, but as a freshman, I was the only one transferring out of the people I knew since most of my friends were first years. Advisors are not as able to help you when you’re applying out of that system. You can ask them for help or quick questions, but no-one is going to tell you what to do like they can for UC schools. The transfer process is a little messier when applying to private four-year schools.
My major was my first priority and I found out about Tufts in part because Tufts is famous for BME, but also because a Tufts alum came to my college to talk about his research and that’s how I found out about Tufts. I also found out that a family friend went to Tufts for their masters, so I felt all those connections, did more research and decided to apply.
What kind of things were important to you apart from your major?
One of the things that also helped is the interdisciplinary strength here, that it is still a liberal arts school. The other thing that appealed to me was the small campus. I had the opportunity to go to another Boston area institution, but the fact that it was a huge school meant there was no feeling of campus community. I learned in community college that community was very important to me. As someone who is also interested in International Relations, also the fact that Tufts had clubs and the Fletcher School so I could get involved even if I didn’t have time to take a class! Now I am involved with an International Relations club at Tufts (it’s called SURGE) so I get to know a lot of IR students and it’s really interesting.
Have you had a favorite class here?
I had a few favorite classes. The class that impressed me most was a fundamentals of biomedicine class taught by Professor Oudin (BME 33, you can read more about the class & Professor Oudin here) because it’s a really new class from the BME department. Thinking back to high school, you expect biology to be about memorization, but here the lab quizzes were built so you have to really apply your knowledge based on the information you have. It was really challenging and fun! You do the quiz and you enjoy the process! Professor Oudin and her team put a lot of effort into making these online classes interactive — it would be amazing in person, but it’s still great online.
As I said, I like a lot of classes, but the other is BME 194 — Special Topics on Entrepreneurship — which is cross listed with the Gordon Institute. We have a professor from the industry with experience in sales/marketing, which is awesome, he’s the CEO of a medical startup company and has 23 years of experience in the market, so he’s teaching from experience. We also get guest speakers who share their experiences. It might be better to take as an upper-class student for networking, but I've learned a lot from the other students who are seniors and grad students on what pathways to take. It’s a little different from the other entrepreneurship classes in the entrepreneurship minor. I have considered the minor but for now, I might just take some classes that I want to without doing the minor to have the flexibility - it’s on my transcript anyway.
Favorite professor?
I haven’t taken part in as many office hours, but I joined my advisor Professor Irene Georgakoudi’s ODDET lab (Optical Diagnostics for Diseased and Engineered Tissues). It’s a lab that focuses on biophotonics research. I just asked her for the opportunity to become a research assistant and now I’m grouped with some post-doc researchers. I’m looking forward to being able to have more of a casual conversation in office hours when it’s in-person again and you can just drop in to chat.
Any advice for people who are trying to transfer?
Don’t do this alone, get help. It’s essential to have the support of your parents, your best friends, whoever. Sometimes you might get stuck picking a school or a city, they can give you advice.
Make sure you read what is available on the website first, but if something on the website is unclear, don’t be afraid to reach out to the admissions office even if it’s a small detail — I had to do that a lot — better safer than sorry.
Take advantage of the advisors at your school: I got a lot of help in the application process, thinking about schools, proof reading my essays (because English is not my first language). Some professors might not be responsive, in that case speak to your advisors, they can help.
Transfer essays are hard — it’s different to your first-year essay — you have to have an idea of what you want to do, it’s not just about telling a story anymore, you need to lay out a plan showing what you did and what you want to do.
And when you get to Tufts?
TAs and peers are great resources for you. I dropped a class that I regret now because there was a moment that it got overwhelming and then it got easier. I think reaching out to a TA or someone who had taken the class before would have been a good idea to know if it's just a passing phase.
There are lots of resources for students to find their place. There’s no problem with joining something, trying something out and leaving it saying that it doesn’t work for you, or just leaving quietly - that’s even easier online [laughs].
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Thanks for reading this series and we hope it was helpful as you prepare to apply. Thank you again to Artem, Olivia and Tait for sharing your stories.