Jumbo Parents

<p>Just thought it would be nice to have a parent thread here in the Tufts forum. Many of the other college forums seem to have one, and it would be great to have a little on-line community for Tufts parents. If you are interested – please introduce yourself.</p>

<p>I am about to be a double Jumbo parent with a current sophomore and a HS senior about to commit for the class of 2016. D1 just declared as an Economics and Child Development major. She is very, very happy in Medford. D2 is leaning more towards history, IR and PJS, but it is too early to tell. Both chose Tufts for the academic opportunities, the size, the open happy accepting students, and the superb location.</p>

<p>I think that is a great idea. My daughter will be starting in the fall-class of 2016. She is in the School of Engineering and hopes to be in the Biomedical engineering program. We were at the Jumbo day on Friday and felt more than ever that Tufts was the place for her.!</p>

<p>My son is about to commit to class of 2016. He’ll be doing pre-med. Not sure what the exact major will be yet. Possible double major in chemistry and biopsychology. We went to jumbo days yesterday. Even with a pouring rain the campus looked beautiful! He knew all along that he wanted Tufts. Me and my husband are just worried about the cost.</p>

<p>Thank you 1012mom! My daughter just decided, and will major most likely in International Relations, and is thrilled to become a Jumbo! She wants to play in the orchestra (violin) and go to the Tufflepuff (Quidditch) games!</p>

<p>My younger son was accepted EDII but attended JUMBO days anyway and loved the school even more. Looking forward to sharing some Tufts wisdom! Thanks 1012mom. Great idea!</p>

<p>Son was accepted ED2. Also considering child development, econ major</p>

<p>Welcome to the Tufts community, all!</p>

<p>Long time lurker here. I once or twice logged onto CC whe S was a sophomore, saw two or three chance me threads about 2400 sat’s and broke unto a cold sweat. Never could log on again until after Dec 15 when DS was accepted ED to Tufts. We went to accepted students day on Friday. Everyone was very happy, especially S.</p>

<p>Great idea, 1012mom.</p>

<p>Hi everyone:</p>

<p>I have a freshman S (class of 2015) at Tufts. He applied ED and LOVES it! I love that he chose a college not too far from home (@hour and a half or so) and to our astonishment, just finished pledging a frat. (He said ahead of time it wasn’t for him :eek:)</p>

<p>Loves the Boston location and has explored the area several times as well as visited friends at other Boston colleges. He can’t wait to go abroad in Junior year for a semester. Very happy with his choice of schools.</p>

<p>I have a sophomore at Tufts. IR major studying Arabic. He took EPIIC as a freshman. He’ll being doing a junior year abroad next year. He’ll be in Jordan in the fall, not sure yet where he’ll be in the spring. When he’s not studying he takes Krav Maga off campus and is involved in Allies which is one of the the Global Leadership Institute’s programs.</p>

<p>Mathmom, we have been back and forth about this before, but I would be interested in you son’s perception of the Arabic program. We tried to meet with one of the Arabic professors when we were at Jumbo Days but could not connect.
What it the approach to teaching?
As you may recall, my son has done 4 years of Arabic at his high school so we are not sure where he will place. His high school Arabic teacher told him that in her opinion the Arabic faculty at Tufts was quite tough…thoughts?</p>

<p>Oh, and by the way…we live in a nearby town and my son also takes Krav Magna in Medford,…must be the same place</p>

<p>Great idea 1012mom! My d will be starting Tufts in the class of 2016 and is thrilled to be going there. She is thinking of IR as a major, but is not completely sure. She also wants to play club lacrosse and field hockey and I’m sure would love to join a game of Quidditch which we saw being played on the res quad. She chose Tufts for the same reason as your kids and I think it will be a great place for her.</p>

<p>My son tells me that Arabic has the reputation for being one of the toughest out there. They use the same books as everyone else (and everyone agrees they aren’t that good), but they supplement it with a lot of extra materials or jump ahead in grammar. They also do a fair number of projects (compared to my college language learning which was no projects at all). They recently did a little movie where they interviewed people about American schools with Arabic language instruction. Last year they gave a bunch of seniors C’s on their final exams (who had not been C students up to that point) doing a number on the GPA. My son likes the teachers just fine, but I get the sense that they are a little too proud of being difficult. Most students do much better than my son, who had Latin in high school (so had no practice with a spoken language) and who is natural not gifted at all in the language area. He says lots of his fellow students have some Arabic in their backgrounds or speak several other languages, often related languages, so he feels like he started behind. He took an Arabic course in Jordan last summer and it was an easy A, unfortunately, it only seemed to help him for the first semester this year. Sigh… If your son has more specific questions about Arabic, PM me and I’ll have my son answer them. I’m sure he’d be happy to.</p>

<p>Maybe our kids know each other! The place moved recently I gather and is not nearly so easy to get to.</p>

<p>So glad to meet you all!</p>

<p>Mom2 - interesting to hear of another child development/econ combination. D1 thinks she might want to work in policy kind of stuff so it will be a good combination. I don’t think it is common though I might be misinformed.</p>

<p>mathmom- D2 wants to do EPIIC but is not interested in the global health topic - so maybe sophomore year. She is also very interested in ALLIES. What do they actually do in the group?</p>

<p>My son is in ALLIES. I know he’s met people from the military academies as well as other local colleges. He went to some sort of military exercises one weekend to get a taste of what the training is like. This summer a group is planning on going to Rwanda to advise/learn about the military there.</p>

<p>1012mom - I’ll be joining you as a double Jumbo parent. D is a sophomore Chemical Engineering major. S just committed to the Class of 2016, undecided Engineering.</p>

<p>I think it’s a wonderful sign that there seem to be so many double Jumbo parents - it says a lot of good things about a place when siblings want to follow their older counterparts there!</p>

<p>Hi- This question goes out to the double jumbo parents- any advice regarding the pre-orientation programs that Tufts offers? My daughter was interested in TWO. Have any of your children done it? Also she plans on applying to the Biomedical engineering program- any first hand info on that? Thanks for any advice or suggestions.</p>

<p>I’m only a single Jumbo parent, but D1 (finishing her freshman year) LOVED TWO. Even though they got evacuated after one night because of hurricane warnings. :eek: Her TWO group still gets together for dinners. </p>

<p>My D1 like chocchip’s son was an ED admit last year. She came in planning on majoring in IR, and just declared as CS. She’ll be taking EPIIC next year.</p>

<p>My D1 wanted to do TWO but did not get a spot (it is a lottery since they have limited capacity on the trips). Her friends who did it absolutely loved it. D2 will likely also try for TWO although she is not much of a mountain girl.</p>

<p>D1 did FOCUS and absolutely loved that. She worked with adults with develpmental disabilities - taking them on outings, playing agmes, etc. She had regular dinners with her “FOCUS family” all through freshman year, and is still friends with most of those kids as well as several others who were in her church. That sounds strange but no worries - not a cult - several FOCUS families are grouped together and sleep in the common rooms at local churches, so they have the opportunity to meet an even larger group prior to orientation.</p>