Tufts checks a lot of boxes for my senior, but when we visited, he had a pretty lukewarm reaction. I’ve asked many other parents and seniors about their impression of Tufts after touring, and it is overwhelmingly “meh” – “soulless” has come up more than once and “I want to like it but I don’t.” I’ve also talked to a few students who go there, and they like it but are not selling it. From talking to students and the message that admissions puts out, the culture seems “nice”, but I can’t get a handle on anything beyond that and would love to understand it better – any thoughts?
My DD22 LOVES it! She loves the flexible curriculum, her peers, the campus, and the location (so easy to get into Boston). She really feels like she found her home away from home! She is able to do a major and 2 minors easily, even with taking electives and studying abroad. She has a lot of friends who are double majoring, even with one of those majors being engineering. So it really ticked all of her boxes. Please message me if you have any specific questions!
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My D loves it and nice is part of it.
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Hopefully he finds a school that he feels like - wow. And that checks a lot of boxes.
Forgetting on paper as a parent, it’s likely not one of interest for the student.m
Both mine - you could tell quickly if it could work or not. If I got that reaction, I’d know it couldn’t work, regardless of what I as the parent hoped for.
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Can you expand on this? When I look at Tufts’ A&S gen eds, they seem like a lot, including three semesters of foreign language. If one doesn’t place out of some language classes, the entire culture/language requirement would be six classes. Then add two English class requirements, and ten distribution requirement classes from five areas (where not more than two classes can be from the same dept)…that’s a substantial proportion of the total credits required for graduation.
I accept that the choices in the five distribution areas are many, but I don’t consider/wouldn’t counsel a student that Tufts has a flexible curriculum, especially compared to some of its peer schools. Many students seem to not want to study foreign language in college, which I also understand.
https://admissions.tufts.edu/discover-tufts/academics/school-of-arts-sciences/curriculum/
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So I have let my DD handle all of the curriculum stuff, so I can’t get into the weeds on this. However, I do know how it works for my DD. She took a foreign language placement test the summer before starting, and it was determined she only needed 1 semester of foreign language. Just for reference she did complete Spanish AP and got a 5 on the exam. She also had English AP credit, as well as AP credit from other disciplines, such as Calc BC. I think Tufts allows 5 APs for credit? So taking that into account, my DD has a lot of flexibility! Her major is also just naturally interdisciplinary, so she has no issue with requirements and has lots of room for electives each semester.
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I wouldn’t say flexible curriculum. There are many requirements. But in practice I see a lot of my D’s friends double majoring and on track to finish in 4 years. This is even true of engineering students, which is usually not that common.
Some of the courses can be double counted for requirements and there are a lot of choices in courses to fulfill requirements, both of which help.
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It is also relatively easy at Tufts for students enrolled in the School of Arts and Sciences to initiate a transfer to the School of Engineering (and vice versa). In fact, we were told at Freshman drop-off this Fall that the School of Engineering actually graduates more students than enroll in Engineering in their 1st year. Also - no foreign language requirement for engineering students. As for culture, the Dean of Admissions mentioned that a tour guide described Tufts students as “kind nerds”. So far, my son says that all of the kids he has met are smart, creative and friendly. Tufts definitely promotes itself as a very collaborative - rather than competitive - learning environment (an important factor in my son’s college search).
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We had exactly the same impression of Tufts. I have 2 cousins who went there - they both really liked their experiences and said “you will have a really good experience at Tufts, but you could have a very similar good experience at lots of other schools, there is nothing unique about Tufts”. Tufts seemed to check the boxes, but without a lot of definition. I think “nice” is a good descriptor. I think the students there do have a good experience -and that many carve out their own groups that define the experience for them. Mine ended up not applying - but did not dislike it.
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