How effective are Tufts' distribution requirements at delivering a broad education?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tufts University
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<p>I know that some Jumbos chose to attend Tufts because it had an international focus. Here's the list of distribution requirements Jumbos must fulfill in order to graduate:</p>

<ul>
<li>1 English course</li>
<li>1 philosophy or 1 additional English course</li>
<li>3 foreign language courses</li>
<li>3 foreign culture courses (may be used on foreign language courses; Tufts defines a foreign culture as having non-English-speaking origins)</li>
<li>1 non-Western civilization course (can be used to fulfill a distribution requirement or a culture requirement)</li>
<li>2 mathematics courses (Math 4 can be one of the two if one scores 550 or less on the Math portion of the SAT or 22 or less on the Math portion of the ACT, which almost no Jumbo will have in practice)</li>
<li>2 science courses</li>
<li>2 humanities courses</li>
<li>2 arts courses</li>
<li>2 social science courses</li>
</ul>

<p>Here's an excerpt of the last email I received from a Tufts professor before I made the decision not to apply at Tufts for grad school for Fall 2013:</p>

<p>
[quote]
Additionally, Tufts wishes to educate balanced people that are open to several cultures and fields, etc. There is a cost in terms of what can be made in a program: there are less major-related courses.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Do the hefty distribution requirements (which amount to 18/34 credits if you schedule properly) really ensure Jumbos get a broad education? Or it still leaves holes in their education?</p>

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<p>OP–I won’t try to answer your question, but would like to point out that many students come to Tufts with AP or IB scores high enough to fulfill some of these requirements. I believe the information on scores/credits may be found in the Bulletin. Also, I suspect many students probably graduate with more than the minimum required 34 credits, so the distribution requirements are not as large a fraction of overall credits as you make out. But I really don’t understand why the undergraduate requirements at a university would factor into your decision whether to apply to a graduate program at that school.—???</p>

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<ol>
<li><p>The Bulletin says that you can claim, at most, 8 credits from AP/IB sources. What I listed was only a summary of what the Bulletin said about the distribution requirements.</p></li>
<li><p>I don’t think it is the same TAing 10-20 people for a lab section in an intro course at Tufts vs. TAing at another U that has markedly different distribution requirements. Because grad students normally start out TAing intro courses.</p></li>
<li><p>Even if you graduated from Tufts with 40-50 credits (I think most people that can afford a Tufts education stay for all four years) 18 credits is still a good chunk. Granted, it will be a smaller chunk if you use up your AP/IB-granted credit to the max…</p></li>
</ol>

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<p>I suspect the “effectiveness” of distribution requirements in “delivering a broad education” depends more on the student’s desire to obtain a broad education than the requirements themselves. That’s true at any school, though some schools have self-selected students who are there to get that broad education (e.g. St. John’s College or Reed, or I suppose students choosing Columbia for its Core). </p>

<p>D1 matriculated to Tufts with more AP credits than she could use. She still has distribution credits not covered by AP, but I’ve not heard any complaints from her about how the distribution requirements. The breadth of her education comes from many different sources–coursework, of course, but also talks and symposia and extracurricular groups. And travel! When she compares the required courses she’s taking for her major with what’s expected at other universities, the course list is pretty much the same. The comment from the professor you quoted about how the distribution requirements result in fewer major-related courses sounds odd to me–dunno if that’s something that depends on the major, or if it means there are fewer course offerings (meaning fewer electives within a major) or something else entirely. </p>

<p>Will there be holes in her education? Of course. No one comes out of college (or grad school!) conversant in all things. :slight_smile: </p>

<p>Not following your reasoning for how being a TA at Tufts is different than being a TA at another university with different distribution requirements. Intro courses are intro courses at pretty much every college/university.</p>

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<p>Brown, not having any distribution requirement (that’s why some students good enough for either Tufts or Brown might choose Brown, after all) can leave students with far more holes than a Tufts education would. I know that there still will be holes, even with a Tufts education.</p>

<p>The actual teaching doesn’t change that much in intro courses. There is the possibility that TAs might interact with undergrads outside the lab, recitation or office hours, be it in talks, colloquia or extracurricular groups, too. I know that each school has its share of intangibles, though.</p>

<p>Finally, to put the professor’s comments in context: even though the major-related courses are largely the same in content, that professor was comparing his undergrad college (which is my own undergrad college, too) to Tufts. However, he compared his undergraduate experience to the experience an undergraduate Jumbo would live as a physics major that elected to claim AP/IB credit only in math and natural sciences. </p>

<p>That Jumbo would then have at least 16, or 20 courses to fulfill the requirements of the major. But even with 20 that Jumbo wouldn’t see as much physics and mathematics as he would at my college; to do so, that Jumbo would have to take 27+ physics and mathematics courses more advanced than Physics 12 and Mathematics 34, respectively, to match, and take at least 3 graduate physics courses. We ourselves have to pass classes equivalent to any two of PHY131, PHY145, PHY153, as well as pass a class equivalent to PHY163 (respectively PHY3131, PHY3441, PHY3214 and PHY2813) as undergrads just so that we can be eligible for grad school in my home country.</p>

<p>His undergraduate college is notorious for not having many off-major requirements, worth 1 or 2 credits in Tufts terms, depending on whether you double-major or not (if you double-majored, you had 1 credit to take, 2 if you didn’t)</p>

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<p>Catria, what you’re describing sounds very much like Caltech (where everyone ends up with a de facto physics degree regardless of “major” :smiley: ;)). Going somewhere like Caltech for physics, or to a conservatory for music or other fine art, is going to be quite different than attending Tufts or many many other schools which offer a less intensely focused undergrad experience. That’s hardly unique to Tufts. </p>

<p>It’s uncommon (to say the least!) for a grad student to be considering undergrad educational issues as a factor in choosing a grad school. Funding, reputation within the field, funding, placement, funding, general liveability of the area, funding, and having advisors who aren’t jerks (and did I mention funding? :)), all that is much more important.</p>

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<p>I’d say funding and advisors that aren’t jerks should be your first concern. And an advisor that gets published regularly in respectable journals.</p>

<p>My son IR major, is not going to get as much breadth as he’d really like. He’s using science and math APs and only took a Statistics class. Because IR won’t give him credit for any IR type courses he’s taking on a junior, he has to take all those courses on campus. It means he’s getting extra IR type courses. Because IR requires 8 foreign language courses (or until you demonstrate fluency), he may well have enough to be an Arabic major by the time he’s done.</p>

<p>My older son managed to get through Carnegie Mellon taking only three courses outside his major (Comp Sci) or minor (Physics). (Freshman writing, technical writing and a world history course). I was not convinced I approved, but he loved it!</p>

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<p>As far as funding is concerned, I know the ~$23k stipend (it was $22,660 for 2012-2013) at Tufts comes from TAing (a Jumbo doing a physics PhD is guaranteed to TA for the first year and, if his/her supervisor has no funding, a PhD will still have to TA then) and I think supervisors can ill afford to be jerks when they themselves only have, on average, ~1-2 grad students. But I had these concerns covered in a previous email. And, as far as living on $23k yearly is concerned, I asked on another thread for advice about off-campus housing in Medford.</p>

<p>I may very well have described a place like Caltech when I described what I live as a physics-mathematics dual-major but it’s a non-elite university.</p>

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<p>For one thing, these requirements are only for the School of Arts and Sciences. The experience in engineering is much closer to the one you describe.</p>

<p>On that note, I think you may be unfamiliar with the concept of a “liberal arts” education. Tufts is far from unique in the number of distribution requirements. The majority of the schools in the Ivy League and NESCAC (Tufts’s own athletic conference) are focused on Liberal Arts and providing a more rounded education to their students. This is true of many of the more elite “research institutions” around the country as well as the small liberal arts colleges. From my experience, the number of courses required for a major at most schools is on the order of 10-12, with the rest of a student’s classes being distribution requirements or other intellectual pursuits.</p>

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<p>That professor I had emails with was a physics professor, and physics falls under the jurisdiction of the School of Arts and Sciences, so the requirements still stand.</p>

<p>I knew Columbia and U Chicago had a good quantity of distribution requirements (a.k.a. the Core) as well as a number of lesser schools (Fordham, for example) had pretty hefty distribution requirements, but what one actually learns under a college’s distribution requirements may vary from a college to another. Tufts requires stuff from Jumbos that, say, Fordham wouldn’t ask, and vice-versa. So I know Tufts’ number of distribution requirements isn’t special by any means.</p>

<p>From my experience, even introductory graduate courses at my college are virtually untouchable by undergrads as far as physics is concerned; mathematics is another matter, since my college requires an undergrad to maintain a B+ average with a minimum 60/90 credit-hours (depends on whether you’re in-province or out-of-province) done to even be allowed to request instructor’s permission to take a graduate course, but, at the same time, take in account that in-province students at my college come with ~30 credit-hours of college-level coursework prior to admission. </p>

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<p>I wonder how often Jumbos take graduate courses as undergrads but the Jumbos doing it are perhaps the better Jumbos, academics-wise.</p>

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<p>Graduate coursework has very little to nothing to do with undergraduate coursework or requirements, either in or out of major. Why bring it up in this discussion? An undergrad physics (or other natural science) major’s course schedule is going to be stuffed full, and the coursework is often sequential. Advanced undergrad work generally can’t start until junior year. Undergrads are better served taking electives in physics subfields that interest them (or taking additional STEM-related courses) rather than moving on to graduate-level coursework. </p>

<p>Outside of STEM fields, it’s certainly possible and not uncommon for an eager Tufts undergrad to enroll in graduate courses. D1 took a Fletcher course last year on the recommendation of several upperclass friends.</p>