Tufts Blogs

Years of late-night studying and last-minute cramming. Dozens of essays half-written, only to be deleted by a pressured backspace rooted in frustration. Extracurricular activities galore. Enough community service to make Mother Teresa shed a tear. All of this—summarized into a few thousand words submitted through the mystical Common Application—has been acknowledged today.

By now, you’ve opened the e-mail that you’ve (hopefully) been anticipating for the last few months. You’ve logged into TAMS and selected the “Get Your Decision” option, and you see before your eyes the sentences that will determine your entire future.  If you did not get in to Tufts, I want to commend you. Just the fact that you applied to Tufts speaks a lot about your character, including the fact that you are serious about your studies (and that you’ve got good taste in colleges).

But, for the 3,370 of you that got accepted today, CONGRATULATIONS AND WELCOME TO THE CLASS OF 2017! Right now, right before our eyes, it’s happening; the class of 2017 is being formed, and you’re part of it!

While some of you might not pick Tufts as your final choice, I want to give insight on how I decided that Tufts was the right school for me. The situation and circumstances are obviously different for everyone, but here’s how I came to the conclusion that I wanted to commit to Tufts University.

I entered my senior year with a steadfast idea in my mind that I would be attending a popular public university in my home state of Texas. My summers had been spent at this university for the last two years at debate camp, and I was pretty happy with the thought of going to college there. Then, in October of my senior year, I received a letter that now seems to be equivalent to the letter Harry Potter received inviting him to go to Hogwarts. The letter contained information about attending an overnight program at this university I had visited a few years ago called “Tufts.” The program was called the Voices of Tufts Diversity Experience, and, as soon as I saw that I would get a free trip to Boston for a few days, I was sold. I told myself that this was going to simply be a mini vacation to Boston, nothing more. Little did I know that my entire future would change direction after this experience.

Like I said in my application to Tufts, “the Voices program was my seventy-two hour break from my social confines.” I come from a very homogenous community where over ninety-eight percent of the population is Hispanic, and Spanish is the predominant language spoken here. When I got to Tufts for the Voices program, I experienced true diversity for the first time. This new experience brought a serendipitous feeling over me. I was happy to meet other teenagers that were from different cultures and backgrounds, and I wanted to learn more about them (and consequentially more about the university). I suddenly came to the conclusion “Hey…maybe I should pay attention during these lectures that we’re gonna be having.” So I did, and, just like that, I was converted to an Early Decision applicant to Tufts.

But Ramiro, diversity couldn’t have been the only thing that made you choose Tufts. What else influenced your decision?

True, anonymous question-asker, diversity wasn’t the only reason I chose Tufts. I’ll list a few other factors that influenced my decision to commit ED.

1. Academics: Tufts is ranked in easily the top thirty undergraduate universities in the entire United States. It’s prestigious and well-known. Call me shallow, but after working my butt off for four years to college, I’d like to attend a university that can secure me a spot somewhere in the… 
    
2. Job Market: Tufts has so much empiric success when it comes to entrepreneurs, politicians, and business executives. When I read that New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, and Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase all went to Tufts, I feel a little more confident that I’m making the right choice for my future.
   
   
3. Financial Aid: Tufts blows most universities out of the water with their extremely generous financial aid for students. Due to their amazing donors and alumni, they’ve been able to maintain yearly donations that help make Tufts dedicated to offering one-hundred percent need-based financial aid for students. I have no shame in saying that I applied for financial aid, and you shouldn’t either. I am very satisfied with my financial aid package, and it is so relieving to know that I won’t be in debt coming out of college. Had I attended the aforementioned university that I was set on, the odds are that I would’ve been in a lot of debt due to student loans and a lack of financial aid from the university since it has a total of fifty thousand undergraduate students.
   
   
4. The People: I’ve visited a good share of colleges. At most of them, you get a tour guide who has a fake smile plastered on his face and who makes it pretty obvious that he or she would rather be doing a million other things than to give a bunch of teenagers a tour of their college for the umpteenth time. This didn’t happen at Tufts. When I visited for a simple tour, my tour guide was amazing! She knew so many cool facts about Tufts and the different organizations on campus (and she could walk backwards like a boss). During the Voices program a few months ago, I met so many Tufts students that would smile to you randomly or wave as you passed by them around campus. Tufts has the happiest, most genuine students in the world, in my opinion. Although I had never thought about it before, I realized after Voices that I wanted to attend a university where the academics were excellent but the people weren’t as pretentious and competitive as the students at other universities. Tufts was the perfect choice.

These were some of the main factors that influenced my decision to apply ED. I’m proud to say I regret nothing .When I look back at my senior year, some of my best memories will probably be some of the conversations that the other Baby Jumbos and I have had on the Class of 2017 Facebook page. Even though most of us have never met face-to-face, we’ve already bonded over favorite movies, books, and Mean Girls quotes. For those of you who were accepted today, I hope that you choose to come to Tufts so we can all share these experiences together.