Tufts Blogs

I think the most nervous I’ve ever been in the college experience was in the month before I arrived for the fall semester of my first year. The fact that I was about to start a whole new chapter of my life felt incredibly real, and though many of the fears of the huge adjustment completely disappeared within the first month, I found it reassuring to hear about other students’ experiences beforehand. I wanted to share many of the aspects of my transition to Tufts, and what it was like to adapt to the college environment. 

The independent lifestyle of college is definitely the first new experience most people think about, and it’s one of the most impactful for sure. I really wasn’t used to having so much time in between classes especially compared to high school, and it definitely changed how I thought about my day. Courses being spread out instead of within a defined section of the day meant I had a lot more freedom to choose what the open time in my schedule was dedicated to, but that came with a level of organization I needed to have as well. After some trial and error during the first few weeks, I found that I worked best when I did a lot of my work in the middle of the day, since it was much easier for me to stay in the academic mindset. 

Another transition I went through was into social life here at Tufts. As someone from a high school graduating class of just a couple hundred, the much larger student body was overwhelming. I met a lot of new people during orientation and in my residence hall, but that was of course only the start of it. I found that clubs and extracurricular activities at Tufts are way more important to social life than they were in high school, since they’re really a shortcut to finding people with similar interests. It was tempting to just stick to my experiences during orientation, but branching out and going to club events let me find really close friends and gave me another way to fill that free time I had. It’s good to have some down time, but I realized I really had to push myself to participate in events and activities to become part of the community.

I come from a smaller, more rural Massachusetts town, so the move to suburban Medford and Somerville was definitely a big change too. Adapting to the area was a process for sure, but it turned out to not be as difficult as I thought. The suburban area avoids a lot of the Boston traffic and noise, and I loved being able to have quiet spaces but still have the city close enough to make use of its benefits. I decided to do some studying at cafes in Davis Square, or head to a library in the city, because having that change of scenery rather than always staying in my room was refreshing.

Overall, the transition to Tufts was one of having a huge number of opportunities available to me instantly and learning to make proper use of them. There are so many things to do in college that adapting to them is really about taking the time to explore your options and finding what you enjoy most!