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Oftentimes, when someone inquires about engineering at Tufts, there can be a focus on the negatives because of the program’s difficulty. While the cons are important to know, there are also a lot of positives! For me, these are my favorite parts of the engineering curriculum:

1. NOLOP

If you are unaware, Nolop is our in-house makerspace that lives on the ground floor of the Science and Engineering building. They have everything an engineer needs in there, even a sewing station. The desk staff are also super helpful and always willing to help and answer any questions you might have. So many projects are borne and revived there, making it hold a very special place in my heart. For instance, this semester I worked on a grueling project for ME40 and it took revision after revision to get it right. Also, it may seem a bit intimidating to enter at first but it is a very welcoming space!

2. Bray Labs

Bray is the mechanical engineering building that is home to the machine shop and design lab. There are so many different machines in there that I often forget their names! But, there are always openings to get trained on each machine. The projects that take place there are often more hardware than anything, but it is still such a great resource for working on projects. After spending many days working on final projects there, I can confidently say that there is still so much I have yet to learn, and I love that.

3. Faculty

The professors in the engineering department are genuinely gems! They are super understanding of your schedule outside of their classes, and are always willing to work with you. They also try their best to coordinate with one another to make sure their projects and exams don’t align too much. They are also super gracious about deadlines and want you to do well, you just need to utilize their resources. Some of my favorite professors are Hoda Koushyar and Jeffery Guasto. I remember going to office hours feeling completely stuck on a problem, and leaving not only understanding the material better but also feeling way more confident, which really speaks to how supportive they are.

4. Clubs

There are a lot of engineering clubs on campus. One holding a special place in my heart: the Electric Racing Team. I currently serve as a treasurer for the club and I’ve been fortunate to do so! The people are great and it's always a fun time. Also, the club does a great job of helping apply what we learn in the classroom, helping foster learning outside of the classroom. It’s also just cool to go to competition each year and race the car we spent the year building, because we get a break right before finals and get to see what other schools have worked on.

In conclusion, there are so many fun and rewarding aspects of the engineering program at Tufts, and I hope you learned something new about it!