<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I would also try to email the admissions office and see if they could arrange an appointment with someone at the engineering school. A number of the faculty members are on campus during the summer months and will be more than happy to answer your questions or give you a tour of the facilities.</p>
<p>I would also recommend a tour of the Science Tech building along with Halligan.</p>
<p>Cheers!</p>
<p>Vlad Gil</p>
<p>Actually my previous post made me wonder, how are the fitness facilities? I am not an athlete so I really rely on the gym to keep in shape. Is it crazy hard to get use of cardio machines, etc? Are there shower & locker facilities in the gym?</p>
<p>i have a question for any of the tufts students
1) How are the english, poli sci, psych, history, or econ departments? I know I just asked alot, but if you know anything that would be great.
2) How is double majoring? Is it able to be done in four years with the core? Do many people do it?
3) Lastly, are their any churches near the campus(Christian)?
Thanks, anything you know would be great.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Good, not sure, good, good, and not sure. Honestly, I dont' know much (see next question).</p></li>
<li><p>Not bad. I did engineering and liberal arts in four years, and engineers have a lot more requirements than liberal arts types. I think that almost 1/3 of Tufts students double-major. You will just have to plan your courses well (taking requirements when you can, because they can conflict with each other). </p></li>
<li><p>There are a bunch of churches within walking distance... a Methodist on College Ave (?) and a Baptist in Davis, for sure. Don't know outside of that.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I think all the above mentioned departments (English, PoliSci, Psych, History and Econ) are all fantastic. For the most part, Tufts has great humanities/social science departments. Sometimes the intro English profs aren't as good as the full professors but for the most part, the department is great.</p>
<p>How are the facilities? Is the camus big?</p>
<p>The campus is about a 10-15 min walk from end to end, but Tufts is on a hill so it seems bigger than it actually is. As for facilities, most buildings are in pretty good shape. There are some that are in worse shape than others but there's a lot of renovation and new construction going on on campus.</p>
<p>As for the gym, it's supposedly really really nice, but completely on the other side of campus. I'm told by current students that they get a better workout walking/jogging to the gym and back than when they're actually using the gym because it's so far away lol</p>
<p>Actually the whole "far away" thing is quite relative - shows how lazy we've become! The whole campus is maybe 10-15 minutes wide. The walk from downhill, where I lived my freshman year, to the gym was eight minutes tops. :) But it's funny, everyone loves to complain about it.</p>
<p>The walk from downhill to the gym isn't bad - unless there is sub-zero weather and you're walking back with wet hair, which will be frozen upon return. ;)</p>
<p>Whenever we heard from Jj, we knew he was on the way to the gym. He uses his walk to the gym each day as time to call home, his buds from home, and so on.</p>
<p>Hi, </p>
<p>thanks soo much for doing this! okay heres my question...</p>
<p>I read that 3/5 people that do minors at tufts do communications. Why is that?</p>
<p>I'm doing a communications minor because... I like it and it's potentially a good way to supplement my major. I assume others think similarly :)</p>
<p>tufta what is your major?</p>
<p>My major is international relations.</p>
<p>What exactly IS communications anyways? :)</p>
<p>What is communications? Well, the courses I am taking have to do with journalism, printed media, news, etc. There are three minors in the mass media department: mass media/communications, multimedia studies, and film studies. Mass media/communication is the most broad of the three, including courses on journalism, media ethics, and broadcast stuff if you so choose. It basically helps you geta grasp on how the media works, what sort of skills it uses, how it reaches the audience, etc. You can kind of customize to your interests. Multimedia studies, I believe, is more technical and in conjunction with the engineering school; you learn to implement concepts like Java, web design; and film studies involves some hands-on activities through the ex-college about filmmaking, as well as theory of film as an artistic medium and various types of film survey courses. Hope that describes it basically, but you might want to check out their site online (don't know the link off the top of my head).</p>
<p>It is a small department, of course it's not as great a program as at BU (which has a whole communications SCHOOL), but it seems to be a useful minor to add to a strong liberal arts curriculum. In my case, I am minoring in mass media/communications so as to get into publishing and print media. So far I've taken a course called Media Ethics that I really enjoyed; it was about ethical concepts in journalism in the current day and age.</p>
<p>How good is the job placement for International Relations and Communications? Do you think you're gaining a strong background in both of these?</p>
<p>I can't answer that directly because I haven't experienced a lot of this first-hand yet: I am only a sophomore. However, I do know of people who have gone on to work in international media, journalism, etc., with some combination of these or similar majors. Many end up in finance (double majors with economics are very popular). But I also know people who have had difficulty finding an applicable job after graduation. It can go both ways, and that's the risk of a liberal arts education. However, it can also be a great investment. In terms of 'job placement', as you ask, that is a concern to me but I think a lot of it depends on presentation and your personal 'marketability' upon graduation; but that's a debate for another time. </p>
<p>I think the IR program is demanding and very strong here and I like my major a lot. This year in my political science classes I've done a ton of reading, critical thinking, and have improved greatly in my political writing. It definitely helps you to understand what is going on in the world, and makes you more aware as an individual, which you can then apply to your writing. In IR, you do have to pick courses carefully; with some planning, it can be a major with much practical potential in combination with specific skills. I find that the biggest asset of my international relations major is to provide a foundation of critical thinking about political, historical, and cultural events while developing an intelligent writing style. Other people I know who are more into math often end up in some sort of international banking or finance corporations. I prefer political science, history, writing rather than the economics side. </p>
<p>As for the hands-on media aspect: I have not yet taken all the media courses to assess the program appropriately, but I enjoyed the couple of courses I've taken so far and feel I could potentially apply them to the working world (for example, in one class we often discussed some of the ethical decisions you may have to make as a journalist covering international affairs, or the benefits/downfalls of current war-on-terror 'embedded' journalistic practices). I'm taking more classes next semester. I also know there is an extensive mass media internship program that is extremely popular and assists in helping people get their foot in the door, so to speak. I am looking into it personally but don't have a lot of information as of yet. I would really like a job when I graduate :)</p>
<p>I hope this was somewhat helpful...</p>
<p>More than helpful! Thanks so much!</p>