Tufts Blogs

When people talk about going to Tufts University, they always mention Boston as a bullet point, a perk, a nearby resource. It's technically true. Boston is "right there." But that's not really how it feels when you're a student. It's more like Boston slowly seeps into your life until you forget it was ever separate from campus in the first place

At first, the city feels like a trip. You plan it. You coordinate with friends. You check the T schedule like you're preparing for a minor expedition. Someone always says, "Let's go into Boston this weekend," as if you're leaving something behind. Then, without noticing exactly when it happened, Boston stops being a destination. It becomes your extended campus.

You start using the city in small, practical ways. Class ends, and suddenly you're on a train heading downtown. It's just a random Tuesday afternoon when you step out of "student mode" and into something that feels like your real life. That's the strange part. The line between "college" and "everything after college" gets blurry here

Some days, Boston is academic. A class takes you to a museum where the material you've been reading about is suddenly physical, massive, impossible to ignore. You're standing in front of something instead of highlighting it in a PDF. Other days, it's completely unproductive in the best way. You go in with no plan, wander through neighborhoods, sit in a café and reflect on your life. 

Both versions exist. 

Boston isn't just opportunities neatly lined up for you. It's more chaotic than that. It's a web, and when you tug on one thread, something unexpected moves. What surprises me most is how the city changes your sense of scale. On campus, it's easy to feel like everything matters a lot: your classes, your clubs, your deadlines. They fill up your world. Then you go into Boston, and suddenly you're one person among thousands moving quickly in different directions, each with their own priorities, careers, and problems. It's oddly comforting. Your world expands just enough to put things in perspective. Sometimes you come back to campus a little lighter.

Of course, not everyone uses the city the same way. Some people build their entire routine around it, attending internships, research, or networking events. Others go weeks without leaving campus and then spend one long, spontaneous day exploring everything at once.

There's no "correct" way to take advantage of Boston. That's kind of the point. If you're expecting Boston to hand you opportunities the moment you arrive, you might be disappointed. But if you're willing to be a little curious, and occasionally a little lost, the city opens up in ways that don't feel scripted.

It doesn't necessarily feel like a feature of Tufts. It feels like something you grow into. By the time you're a junior or senior, you stop saying "I'm going into Boston." You just say what you're doing. And that's when you realize the real advantage was never about proximity. It was about becoming the kind of person who knows how to step off campus and make something happen, and then come back with a story that didn't exist before.