One thing I’ve noticed throughout my time at Tufts so far is that no two Tufts students are the same. From one student to the next there are identifiable differences in backgrounds, passions, and pursuits of study. Each of these differences encompass the multifaceted student body, allowing us to learn from one another and broaden our perspectives. Because of this every student's “day in the life” can differ drastically. I’ll walk you through my typical Tuesday as an example!
On Tuesdays I normally wake up around 7:30 and get ready for classes. My first class of the day is at 8am: Freshman Writing Seminar: Expository Writing. In this class, we workshop drafts of our essays for about a week at a time. For each essay we are given artistic freedom to choose from a couple of choices to write about. So far I’ve written essays about the power of language in Biculturalism, the sexism faced by women writers, climate change’s effect on health, and more. For our papers we receive feedback from our professor or our peers and focus on one element of our writing to improve each week.
My next class is Spanish 4 at 9:30, so I walk uphill to Olin, our language building. Right now in Spanish class, we have moved on from our grammar units and are now reading our novel called No Paso Nada. The novel is narrated from the point of view of Lucho, a 14 year old Chilean boy whose family has moved to Germany. My Spanish class ends around 10:20, and I then have about an hour and a half before my next class at 12:00. During this time, I normally head to the Campus Center, grab a coffee and a light lunch and get some homework out of the way.
At 12:00, I head right across the street to Cohen Auditorium for my Bio 13 Lecture. Getting used to a 100+ person lecture definitely took some getting used to, but I’ve found great friends in class to study with. Recently in Biology, we’ve been focusing on the central dogma and specifically comparing transcription and gene expression in prokaryotes vs. eukaryotes. This lecture is an hour and fifteen minutes during which we usually cover new material and complete a few practice questions.
After lectures on Tuesdays, I have my Bio Lab right after from 1:30-4:30. This time period can be shorter or longer depending on our lab activity for the day. Our labs often focus on one project over the span of three weeks. Each lab block we have a short assigned reading of our lab protocol/instructions for the day. Recently, we have focused on genetic analysis of yeast. This upcoming week, we will be looking into the pattern inheritance of three certain genes in yeast in order to determine which are genetically linked.
After the lab, I am done with my classes for the day. I’ll often grab a snack from Kindleven Cafe, one of our on campus cafe’s, and head back to my room. After classes I’ll take some time to decompress whether that means meeting up with a friend or watching an episode of a TV show. After a while, I get some more work out of the way before I meet my friends for dinner!
This is what a normal Tuesday in my life looks like but you will find that someone’s Tuesday at Tufts could be completely different. That’s the beauty of the college experience!