Whenever I share that I’m a transfer student, most people are surprised since I’ve managed to meet everyone on campus despite only being here one year so far. Their first question is usually, “what brought you here? Why Tufts?”
Tufts offered me opportunities I couldn’t access at my previous institution. I was looking for a studio art program, rather than just student-run art extracurriculars, and I needed facilities like a darkroom with proper ventilation. I was also looking for research opportunities for undergraduate students related to my international development and economics interests. Even though my previous institution wasn’t the right fit for me, it ended up alright – the professor who didn’t have space for me in his lab wrote a letter of recommendation for my transfer application.
In my application, I talked about the Ex-College class I was dying to take. I described the economic research I wanted to do regarding redlining practices in the Boston area, alongside a photo series where I would walk through different neighborhoods in the city to document how these economic policy practices have impacted present-day communities. I talked about my desire to live in the *and*, not the *or*. I wanted to be a Jumbo and a Rhino, meeting up with my professors in the Joyce Cummings Center to discuss my research work before heading into Boston for a museum date with my friends.
Of course, there’s all the reasons that didn’t make it into my essay. I love getting to live 15 minutes away from my family in Melrose. I love being able to take the MBTA to my favorite Turkish restaurant in Watertown when I miss my family roots. I love being able to sit in The Sink at the Campus Center and greet eight different friends who find me sipping a half-melted latte while getting through my class readings. I love getting to lock myself in the darkroom for hours and use cameras from the SMFA Media Stockroom I could otherwise never afford on a student budget. I love the conferences and places I get to discover as part of my research through the Laidlaw Scholars program. I love the pumpkins I get to photograph around campus that suddenly appear the night before Halloween. I love spending late nights in the Tufts Daily office on newspaper print night, eating free pasta and picking up a physical copy of my advice column the next morning.
Ultimately, the Combined Degree program is what excited me most about SMFA at Tufts. I love watching tour groups wander both the Medford/Somerville and Fenway campuses with the same wonder that made me fall in love with this place. Now, I get to give tours and try my best to speak over the whirring ventilation system in every corner of the Fenway campus. I get to become the person I needed a few years ago.
My heart is so full whenever I get back to either campus.
I know I’m meeting the people I’ll cherish forever. As a tour guide, the first thing I share about Tufts might not be the late nights I spent on my friends’ porch with a bowl of popcorn and a table full of Bananagrams, but I know these are the memories I’ll hold with me forever after leaving campus. That might not be why I first came to Tufts, but that’s why I’m so happy to stay.