Tufts Blogs

In more ways than one, college WILL surprise you. Today I am going to be writing about specifically academic surprises! As an Arts and Sciences student at Tufts, I have a variety of distribution requirements to fulfill. This essentially means I have to take a few classes in different departments which encourages me to try classes in all different subject areas. It really is a perfect guide to discovering what you like before you declare your major and it also allows you to diversify your schedule. So, here I am almost three weeks into classes, an intended STEM major, finding my favorite class to be history. To give you some background, all throughout middle and high school, history would probably have been the last class I would have defined as “my thing” so you can imagine my parents astonishment when I called home and told them how much I was enjoying history. Out of all my classes, I feel the most engaged and interested at 10:30am every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Although unexpected, I think it goes to show how important it is to try classes in a variety of disciplines. It can be easy to write off a certain subject because of one bad teacher or class in your past (guilty as charged) but my experience with history at Tufts thus far has taught me to be more open-minded and lean into the learning that I am loving.

The class I am taking is called Intro to Islam - a class that, by the way, was never part of my original plans when I thought of classes I would take here at Tufts but I am so glad I did. The class is focused on learning about the religion of Islam through multiple lenses such as prophetic traditions, ritualistic practices, scripture, law, and more. Thus far, we have read excerpts of the Qur’an and passages of various novels and engaged in in-depth discussions and analysis of these texts. What I find most interesting about this class is that we often compare what we are learning about Islam to other widely-practiced religions such as Christianity and Judiasm. To make accurate comparisons, many of our homework readings also include excerpts from the Bible and the Torah. In comparing each of these religious scriptures, our class has begun to uncover incredible differences yet similarities at the same time. To dive deep into the nuances and complexities of Islam has given me so much knowledge that I otherwise never would have gained. In addition to the naturally interesting nature of the material, I believe that an enormous part of my love for this class is my professor. He remains to be incredibly passionate and meaningful in his teaching that I feel more and more compelled to discover more each class. When they say Tufts has the most incredible professors, they are telling the truth. It is clear our professor wants us to love the topic as much as he does, and clearly he has done his job. It truly is a new and refreshing experience to be taught by a professor who is so clearly invested in our learning as a class.

I hope this window into my experience so far shows that Tufts is the perfect place to define your own academic path. The distribution requirements give you the best opportunity to fully divulge yourself in all aspects of education that Tufts has to offer. You will find what’s for you- and learn a whole lot along the way!