<p>i know this is a really general question but what are they looking for in the essays?
i know when i asked other colleges i got specific things like "overcoming adversity in life", "intellectual curiousity", "authentic interest in living", "creativeness/uniqueness" and blah blah blah</p>
<p>so i just wondering if Tufts had specific things they liked or looked for</p>
<p>any help (esp. in the second-"describe your environment" and third-"who are you?") would be awesome!</p>
<p>Well, if you go look at the Tufts Undergraduate Admissions website, you'll actually be able to find about 10 examples of essays the admissions committee thought were particularly terrific, written by applicants who got in and chose to join Tufts' Class of 2010.</p>
<p>You should know that Tufts' mantra of the decade is "active citizenship." You can look at the admissions website for more about what that means; you can also look at <a href="http://www.activecitizen.tufts.edu%5B/url%5D">www.activecitizen.tufts.edu</a> though that might be too specific (it's the website of the Tisch College of Citizenship & Public Service).</p>
<p>these essays are amazing and making nervous</p>
<p>but thanks! at least now i know what i have to write up to</p>
<p>i looked at the website and couldnt find the example essays could you post the link please</p>
<p><a href="http://admissions.tufts.edu/?pid=148%5B/url%5D">http://admissions.tufts.edu/?pid=148</a></p>
<p>thanks so much but these essays are much longer than 200 words which is what it says on the suplement form any thoughts</p>
<p>I think the ones online are the Personal Statements.</p>
<p>kind of off topic, but for the required short answer, it says "Describe the aspects of Tufts’ curriculum or undergraduate program that prompt your application." would it be alright if i talked more about the school's environment, such as its diversity/activism, rather than the more academic regions?</p>
<p>Yeah, that was what I wrote about, and I got in EDI. Good luck!</p>
<p>Would it be considered not answering the question if, for the "Describe the environment in which you were raised and how it influenced you" question I wrote about my family's rite of passage into manhood of jumping into this ice cold pool of water naked and how everything shifted afterwards (figuratively speaking, of course)?</p>
<p>You have my attention. I’ve read a plethora of interesting essays, but I’m more than curious how you’re going to spin joining the Polar Bear Club into a life transforming experience. Care to elaborate?</p>
<p>My family and a couple of my parents' friends from college's families go up to this big house in middle-of-nowhere Pennsylvania every Labor Day weekend. This house is on something like 2000 acres of land, just nothing around for miles. Anyway, every year the men would take a hike down to "the swimming hole," which was actually the confluence of two streams that essentially made a sizeable pool of running water. The water has really dense tree cover, so barely any light reaches it. Needless to say, its damn cold.</p>
<p>Well, the dads would all go down to the swimming hole once a year and take a "swim." The water was so cold you could hear their screams for at least half a mile. I was eleven at the time, and I thought my dad and his friends were idiots for doing it. The dads always tried to pressure their kids into going to the swimming hole with them, be we all felt we were far too smart for that.</p>
<p>On my twelfth visit, I got fed up with being teased for not being man enough to jump in the swimming hole that I felt I had to prove my dad and his friends that I actually was a man. So I boldly went down to the swimming hole, threw off my clothes, and dove into the the water. It was colder than I could've ever expected. I screamed and squealed and shrieked. It felt horrible.</p>
<p>After the trauma, though, there was a noticeable difference in the way that the dads treated me. They didn't feel like they couldn't cuss in front of me, let me eat steak with them at dinner while the other kids ate hotdogs, and even let me have a little champagne. I had gained their respect, and they treated me like a man. It was one of the proudest moments I 've ever had.</p>
<p>In order to pass from adolescence to manhood you used to have to kill a bear with your teeth, or spend 30 days in the wilderness with nothing but a knife and an old Sears catalog, which substituted for toilet paper. You got off easy.
Strange significance your family places on freezing a free willy</p>
<p>I like that story. :-)</p>
<p>Funny you should say that, skiitifucan. It just so happens that I forgot to mention that in the streams did not flow water, but actually the blood of one thousand hand-slain grizzlies, and one could not actually touch the floor of the pool, for they would get at least two dozen papercuts from Sears catalogues that we had used to wipe our rugged and chiseled bottoms with and thrown into the pool.</p>
<p>"It just so happens that I forgot to mention that in the streams did not flow water, but actually the blood SNIP"</p>
<p>Then that’s entirely different experience. By all means, write about it for your essay. ;)</p>
<p>Well, I would say you're definitely in at Tufts. lol</p>
<p>Well, I would surely hope so, at the very least for the safety of other Tufts students. One never knows when campus will be attacked by a hoard of urban, yet very vicious, beasts. That is why Tufts would be wise to enlist me, certified wild bear/cougar/mountain lion slayer (and world renowned womanizer), to make Tufts a safer place for all students.</p>
<p>...I think I need some sleep.</p>
<p>Oh great!! The second coming of Jeremiah Johnson with an overactive libido.</p>
<p>If you are comparing me to Robert Redford, I cannot be upset with you for calling me a gigolo.</p>