Before we dive in to all the details of the SMFA at Tufts art portfolio, here's the scoop.
 
When you apply to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (that’s Tufts’ BFA or Combined Degree programs), you’ll submit a portfolio of studio art samples alongside your application. The Admissions Committee reviews this portfolio as part of our holistic application review process, seeking to understand what ideas motivate you to create, what technical skills you’ve already unlocked, and how you have demonstrated preparation to establish a committed studio practice alongside the SMFA at Tufts community.
 
Alright, now let’s get into the nitty gritty.
 
A visual art portfolio can only be submitted via the Applicant Status Page, available within 24 hours of receipt of an application for admission. We recommend signing up for a portfolio review prior to the application deadline to receive personalized feedback and advice for curating your portfolio to apply to SMFA at Tufts.
 
The ideal…

First-year applicants to Tufts University are asked to respond to two required short answer prompts. Responses offer the Admissions Committee insight into the interests and qualities that make you you and help us better understand your interest in Tufts.

Short Answer Prompt #1: Please describe how you have learned about and engaged with Tufts during your college search process (75-150 words).

Rather than write an overview of Tufts that draws on broad language from websites, reflect on the following in your response:

• What actions have you taken to learn about Tufts so far? 
• What did you learn that made you eager to apply for admission to Tufts?

Whether virtual or in-person, formal or informal, on-campus or off-campus, if there was an event, video, blog post, or other piece of content or conversation that made Tufts stick with you, describe it to us in this response. 

Short Answer Prompt #2 is specific to your intended school/program at Tufts:

Beantown. Title town. College town. Home to hundreds of thousands of Dunkin’s fiercest defenders. The best place on Earth: Boston.

Picture daffodils along the Charles River Esplanade, bright lights at Fenway Park, Paul Revere’s Freedom Trail running under glittering skyscrapers, and the melodic screeching of MBTA trains.

Boston’s not just a major inspiration for art; it’s the place to study it. Hear us out:

Artist Community

The Pro-Arts Consortium is an association of nearby colleges dedicated to the visual and performing arts, where SMFA at Tufts students can cross-register and make friends.

Artist hubs including SoWa Art + Design District, Fort Point Arts Community, and Brickbottom Artists Association provide networking and exhibition opportunities for students and a landing pad for creative practices post-graduation.

The working-artist faculty who teach SMFA at Tufts studio art courses plug students and alumni into their wide-ranging creative networks and projects here in…

When students are considering where to attend college, one of the most common factors in the decision-making process is location. In addition to the academic offerings and campus culture, the location of Tufts is one of the many things that students fall in love with. Integrated with the vibrant landscape of the greater Boston area, Tufts gives students the perfect opportunity to have a college experience that blends city and suburban atmospheres. Students at Tufts have the traditional, residential college environment with a defined campus space, and a close-knit community feel, and they also have all the resources of a large city right at their fingertips.

Medford and Somerville, the cities where Tufts is located, are wonderful communities to live. Medford has about 60,000 residents. It’s one of America’s oldest cities and was even the birthplace of “Jingle Bells,” which was written in 1850 about sleigh races held in the community. Middlesex Fells Reservation gives residents access…

One of the many values of a college education is learning how to think deeply and critically about meaningful topics in academia, ethics, current events, popular culture, and more. The Center for Expanding Viewpoints in Higher Education (CEVIHE) at Tufts embodies these values by fostering opportunities for engagement across ideological, religious, and cultural differences throughout the University community.

The Center’s director, Professor Eitan Hersh, noticed Tufts students’ interest in engaging with all sides of political and social issues through a course he teaches on conservatism. From conducting weekly lunch series, to hosting events with a range of speakers, to creating a cohort of Edge Fellows, CEVIHE was built to help Tufts students embrace difficult topics and challenging conversations in a way that will better prepare them for the complex challenges they will face beyond the classroom.

If this sort of work resonates with you, you may be wondering how you can get involved…

Tufts is home to all kinds. Students at Tufts are intellectually curious, collaboratively-minded, and research-driven. We produce the next generation of world leaders, future doctors, engineers of tomorrow, and up-and-coming C-suite executives. One aspect of Tufts not to be overlooked is the performing arts. From coursework to student organizations, open-to-all to competitive auditions, to the inspirations behind some of your favorite movies, read on to learn more about the opportunities performers can find as a part of the Tufts community.

In the Classroom: Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies

Students interested in performance have many avenues at Tufts. Through our Department of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS), students can pursue a major in TDPS, minors in both Theatre and Dance, or even a PhD in Theatre & Performance Studies. This department hosts a wide array of courses every semester, from with specific themes like Acting Comedic Shakespeare, leaning into comedic…

If you’re a veteran reader of the Tufts Admissions blogs, you might’ve noticed a theme: “the people” is a phrase that comes up over and over again, from the first paragraph of Ishika’s Things I would tell myself as a new transfer post to a blog literally titled Definitely, the people. 

The people referred to here are Tufts people - students, faculty and staff, even our neighbors in Medford and Somerville - who make Tufts such a welcoming place. If there’s one thing I want prospective transfer students to know about Tufts, it’s that the same kind, welcoming, collaborative, and excited people are here all year, every year, for everybody.

Transferring to a new school can be daunting, and one question we get asked all the time by prospective transfer students is how will I find community? Although our incredible transfer-student bloggers have answered this question with examples of their experiences with orientation, clubs and housing groups, I want to approach it from a 10,000 foot view…

So it’s May, and you’re not sure what to do this summer…

In the world of college admissions, there can be some perceived pressure to use your summers to do something unconventional. Students may feel that they need to secure an internship at a Fortune 100 company, create a hit podcast, develop a vaccine, etc. It’s wonderful if you end up doing any of those things, but achievements of that scale are not necessary to find success in the admissions process. If you’re not sure what to do when summer comes around, here are some things to consider:

Find a job

When in doubt, a part-time job is a great way to spend your summer. Whether it be at a grocery store, coffee shop, local recreation department, or (un-airconditioned) screenprinting shop, a part-time job is a great way to develop a new skill, meet people you otherwise would not, and save up money for things like club dues, college applications, or a senior trip! Working is a great way to practice time management, communication, and…

Juniors, I know it probably feels like just yesterday you were starting high school, and college felt like a long way away. Now you are about to be seniors applying to college and graduate from high school. How fast time flies! Don’t panic. I was once in your shoes. 

When I was a junior in high school, I felt completely lost on what to do or where to start. I was a first-generation college student and my parents were unable to support me with the college search process. Everything was new and unfamiliar to me. I truly had no clue what my future would hold. But I made it through and so can you! 

Here is my guide on how to prepare for the college search process as a first-generation student:

1. Seek resources and support:
Do you want to go to college? If yes, envision it, set that as your goal. I didn’t know how, but I knew college was where I wanted to go. 

I made an appointment with my school counselor to start having a conversation about college. I was also part of TRIO Upward Bound…

I still remember when I first visited Tufts as a junior in high school. I was drawn to the kindness of my student tour guide, the hill dotted with Adirondack chairs and diligent students, and the stories and statue of Jumbo. Location, academic offerings, and happy students were all important aspects to me as I thought about colleges. 

The beginning of the college search process is exciting but can also be overwhelming. The beauty and benefit of applying to college is that there are so many of them! But, it provokes the question, “where is the best place to start?” Here is some advice on how to begin your approach to the college search process. 

Brainstorm some ideas around the kind of school you would like to attend.
Which factors are important to you in a college? Maybe you would like smaller classes with more face time with your professors, or perhaps you prefer lecture-based learning in a larger format. In other words, does the size of the student body and of your individual classes…

Congratulations to our newly admitted Jumbos! Being admitted to college is an incredible achievement and now, for Regular Decision admits, you’re faced with an equally important decision: where will you spend the next several years? Brochures and statistics are nice, but now that it's time to commit, you’ll want to dig deeper to further understand if a college is a fit for you. Here are some elements to consider when making your decision: 

Seek out the specifics

Sure, the college you're considering has your intended major, but what would your full academic journey look like? What exactly does the general education curriculum entail? How much (or little) flexibility is available? What kinds of projects do students complete? What kinds of internships have students in similar fields pursued? What support exists for finding an internship? What happens after graduation? And don’t stop there. Find the stories of current students, alumni, faculty, and staff: are there blogs you can read?…

First thing’s first: We know you waited months for a response to your application and the outcome you received was…more waiting. But! An offer of a place on a Waitlist is a positive reaction to your candidacy. In recent years, several dozen students were admitted from Tufts’ Waitlist. While we don’t know yet whether space will be available this year, an offer of a place on the Waitlist indicates that the Admissions Committee was impressed by your application and we hope your interest in Tufts remains high. 

The internet is filled with advice about how to navigate the Waitlist process. Some of it is helpful and some of it is…not. So we want to be very clear. Here’s what we ask waitlisted students to do at Tufts:

First: Decide whether you wish to remain on the Waitlist. If you remain excited about the possibility of enrolling at Tufts in the upcoming fall, follow the steps below. If you are wholeheartedly committed to another offer of admission, congratulations! We wish you the very…

Almost exactly seven years ago, I was writing my Early Decision 2 application to Tufts halfway across the world in Shanghai, China. Outside of being the de facto guinea pig as the oldest of three children, I was applying to university from a competitive high school, where prestige and the pressure to perform was front and centre. Despite mainly speaking English and growing up in an American education system, the idea of studying in America was a foreign concept, even though it was the most popular destination to pursue higher education. In theory, I should have been excited for the new opportunities that lay ahead, especially given that I had already lived in three different countries with a variety of different cultures and norms ranging from the okadas on the streets of Nigeria to the Cha chaan tengs of Hong Kong. Yet, when I first arrived in Medford, Massachusetts, I never felt more concerned about fitting in or whether I was up to the challenge of a Tufts curriculum.

Fortunately…

As one of the smallest engineering schools in a R-1 research university, Tufts’ School of Engineering offers undergraduate students exceptional access to professors, classes, and lab spaces that prepare them for careers at top companies in Boston and around the world. Alongside its small class sizes and personalized advising, Tufts offers 16 different engineering majors and 18 engineering minors - but don’t worry if you don’t know which to choose! Everyone at Tufts, including our engineers, matriculate undeclared. With the help of your pre-major advisor and our exploratory Introduction to Engineering courses for first-years, you can hit the ground running toward your future with internships, co-ops, research, and study abroad as opportunities along the way. 

EN-1 and pre-major advising
Did you know that electrical engineering plays a huge role in the development of medical devices? Are you still trying to decide whether you are a software (computer science) or hardware (computer engineering)…

December can be a busy time of year and that’s especially true for high school seniors in the midst of the college application process. Some of you may be waiting to hear back about Early Decision or Early Action applications, while others may (hopefully!) be putting the finishing touches on your Regular Decision supplemental essays. If you’re applying for financial aid, you’ll also need to add the FAFSA and CSS Profile to your list of priorities. This week, we’re sharing several helpful tips for navigating the financial side of your college search.

1) Have a conversation with your family now about how you’ll pay for college.

The earlier you start talking about finances, the better. It’ll be helpful to you to know if your family has saved funds in a 529 Plan or other savings account, how your family feels about the idea of borrowing student loans, and how much they can reasonably contribute each year toward your educational costs.

2) Look beyond the sticker price.

Tufts meets 100%…