Why Tufts Now?
With Regular Decision acceptances coming out so soon, I can’t help but think about when I found out about my own admission to Tufts. In the spirit of…
However much you adore a university, however much you celebrate your acceptance and eagerly commit to matriculate (or take your time and judiciously weigh the options), there are always unknown positives. Sometimes, having known these hidden gems prior to enrolling would have made an otherwise tough decision easier. Maybe it would have assuaged some hesitations toward committing. Or maybe it would have just made your dream school that much dreamier! Here is what I’ve discovered in my first three quarters on campus that would have made my decision to join the Tufts family even more emphatic.
In case you didn’t know—I had no idea—Tufts dining is ridiculously fantastic. From fig and goat cheese paninis to miso-glazed salmon, a bountiful salad bar, up to four soups a day, a carvery, a noodlery, and extensive vegetarian, vegan, and multicultural options, once you taste the food in our dining halls you’ll realize why many students prefer the food on campus to back home (my mom is an amazing cook, so her recipes are still my favorite, though most of my friends rank our dining services well above their parents’ cooking—I won’t name names, in case their parents read this!). So it’s no surprise Tufts dining is rated Top 5 Best Colleges for Food in the Country and #1 Best Campus Food in Massachusetts—I admit, no college I’ve visited has served food as delicious and diverse as Tufts. In addition to our two dining halls, we have a number cafes, grab-and-go spots, and a real Kosher deli so popular its line often runs out the door!
As an identified Jewish student, I’ve found the most inviting community fostered by Jewish life at Tufts. Hillel on campus provides services, meals, and programming as well, but I have grown closer with Chabad, which the incredible Rabbi Tzvi Backman and his wife Chanie, in tandem with their ten children between the ages of newborn and 15, run directly out of their house just off campus. Every Friday night, they open their doors for a cozy, family-style Shabbos dinner. Renowned not only for its mountains of delicious food but also its special community, Chabad welcomes anywhere from four to over forty students for Shabbos, including those who aren’t Jewish but love the warm atmosphere or are just curious to experience it (a month ago, we were joined by Celene Ibrahim, Tufts’s Muslim Chaplain, for some heartwarming and fascinating conversations). In Chabad I have found not just a religious landmark but a place to “go home” when I need that home feeling, where I can eat the most amazing home-cooked meals, and most importantly where I can engage in the sort of unrushed “over-the-dinner-table” conversations that you only get with family.
While I knew Tufts has been hailed among the “New Ivies,” it wasn’t until classes began that I witnessed just how brilliant Tufts academics truly are. I’ve now taken ten classes, all under 100 students, most under 15. As a first-semester freshman, I was already studying with two nationally bestselling novelists, a department chair, two directors of independent labs on campus, a news anchor, and the most fascinating psychologist with a background working cases one-on-one with mental patients in the top maximum-security prisons across the country. Add to that my second semester lineup—two more department chairs, a celebrated filmmaker and president of her own film company, a director of groundbreaking interdisciplinary research on gender, race and ethnicity in children’s animated television, and a WME agent turned theatre lecturer who herself is a triple Jumbo (BA, MA, PhD)—and I couldn’t help but feel this astounding access as an undergraduate to such authorities in their fields was not the norm outside of Tufts. It’s humbling and tremendously inspiring. Even in other schools also notable for their world-class professors, seldom will so many of them be working with, let alone developing personal relationships with, students as early as freshman year!
As someone who enjoys performing as an extracurricular pursuit, I knew Tufts had a somewhat strong theatre program; I had no conception of how strong it turns out to be. Stunningly crafted sets, lighting, and costume design, all purely the work of devoted and talented students, frame everything from avant-garde experimental theatre to classics to Broadway favorites acted by students and directed by an assortment of students, grad students, faculty, and visiting professionals. At Tufts, there is honestly no casting preference shown to students majoring or minoring in theatre (with an undecided major, I was still fortunate to be cast in the lead role of the spring major musical, for example). But beyond the mere caliber of the theatre program, I feel being in a Tufts show mirrors the spirit of all of its extracurricular activities. Students here are allotted the creative freedom to take an idea and run with it and are given the requisite resources to carry them as far as their passion goes. I told my film professor about some personal films I was producing, and she arranged for me to learn and leverage top-of-the-line, industry-standard film equipment, all courtesy of the university via the ExCollege. I asked my romance language linguistics professor a question about the phonological history of Italian, and she brought in a native speaker to work with our class. The saying rings true here at Tufts: take the step, and the stepping stone will appear.
With Regular Decision acceptances coming out so soon, I can’t help but think about when I found out about my own admission to Tufts. In the spirit of…
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