I’d love to be able to find the 2 tour guides who showed us around Tufts. They totally captivated my son and that was it for him. Many schools had programs that would meet his needs but as we all know a tour means so much to a potential student. It can really make or break a students desire to attend a school. Very excited to be a Jumbo parent – I now have a good excuse to go visit Boston more often. One of my favorite cities.
@mauswa @ncyankee-I agree with both of you! We had the most adorable tour guide last spring break, she actually had tears in her eyes as she told us how happy she was at Tufts. After that it was very hard for my daughter to look at anything else. Her list was extremely short and that was terrifying for my husband and me. My daughter,on the other hand, never wavered!
Congratulations on your D’s acceptance to Tufts! Other than her health problems, my daughter couldn’t be happier.
Health Services has been good.They have walk in hours and will always see students without an appointment. I do think my daughter has been seen by some nurse practitioners, rather than MDs but I think they have provided her with good service and treatment. They seem to be following her pretty closely and today when she returned complaining of horribly swollen tonsils they prescribed pednisone (short term). They gave her the 1st dose in the office and will have the rx delivered to campus, saving my daughter the walk into Davis Square, which she really can’t manage. They provided her with a medical note and have given guidance re: the academic problems that are arising due to the illness. Her advisor also gave her good advise. So, I guess no complaints other than we’re just upset that this has happened. My daughter hasn’t signed a FERPA yet so, no, we haven’t spoken to the doctor/nurse but I do not feel that’s absolutely necessary. I did ask her to sign one next time she goes for an appointment, just in case we need to talk to them and she agreed to do so. One big piece of advice: Purchase the tuition insurance. Tufts will send you some information on this. For $300/year you can insure tuition, room and board. I hope we don’t need it but we might. At least we don’t have to worry about losing a semester’s worth of tuition if my daughter can’t make it through.
Best of luck. Tufts is a very, very happy place!
We had very different experience with health services. Son hurt his shoulder in a club game. Health services sent him to some small. ER room near campus. The X-rays were sent back to health services. They completely misdiagnosed it. They said it was nothing. His shoulder was bothering him for months. A year later he finally went to the orthopedic dr and months of physical therapy. There was not much dr can do because it wasn’t handled properly right away. It was probably partially our fault. We should of taken him to dr when he got home. But he didn’t complain and we thought health services took care of it. The bottom line is if it’s anything serious I wouldn’t trust health services. Maybe just for initial visit.
That being said he’s very happy at Tufts.
@njmom666, I’m glad to hear that it’s easy to get in and be seen.
@momworried, we all know that darn hindsight saying! I guess I’m leaning toward having my daughter fill out forms giving us permission to call and speak with the health service office. We didn’t think to do that with our son at Colorado College and it became a big problem when he was sick in CO and we were in NY. I don’t aim to be a helicopter mom but when it comes to their health … I think I’ll stop in health services when I’m there for Jumbo Day and ask some questions.
@gardedesSceaux Actually, Americans can go to school for free in Germany. Just heard a report on it on NPR yesterday. Can’t find a link to that story, but here’s another one, if you’re interested: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/attending-college-for-free-overseas/. Thought you might be interested.
With that said, my child is thrilled to have been accepted to Tufts. No FA, though, and they don’t offer merit money, so not sure how/if we can afford it. Somehow their calculation of what we can afford to pay is a lot higher than our calculation. 
Hoping we can work it out if she feels the love after her visit.
Congrats to all the new Jumbos!
For parents of current students…How many students choose their own roommates for freshmen year versus going with the random assignment using the res life survey? My son will be starting in the Fall. I know that other schools allow you to choose and use online systems to help them choose. Is there something like that for Tufts?
Yes you can choose a roommate and many do from the FB page, etc. That said, both of my DDs went random and it worked out fine. One had a great year, did not find a best friend, but remains an acquaintance and occasional meal together relationship 2 years later. The other is one of DD’s best friends and they lived together sophomore year as well. The benefit of random is that there is no obligation to be friends because you chose each other. Particularly since real world friendships are difficult to predict from virtual friendships. YMMV.
My son is a sophomore at Tufts. Chose roommate quickly from Facebook as they were on the same team. It did not go well. My son is from a different part of the country, non-partier and babysat this kid most of the time on weekends. I think kids want to rush in to find a roommate based on social media responses but would agree that random - as long as you fill out a solid questionnaire, would be fine, too. Also, Tufts is not perfect so I suggest that some people not set it up to by Disneyland. It is hard and it is a big culture adjustment for kids. Professors are accessible and the admin is supportive in as many ways as they can be. Jumbo days, all this stuff is a glimpse but there are some life lessons/choices along the way. We are glad he is there but we were realistic about things and it was much harder than we anticipated. I felt we did a good job of not overselling college as what they see on TV, but it still becomes their experience. It is an exciting time for sure, but also a time for letting go as parents - it is hard. Since this is a parent forum, I am sure many of you have thought of that. This is the moment you have thought about since they were little. Maybe because we are a very tight family and he is our first - it is not super easy. He is a tough athletic and academic kid and has done well. But there are lonely times. If you get a bad roommate situation, it can make things really hard so proceed with as much caution and expectation as possible. My guess is that most work out fine but set the expectation that roommate might not equal best friend, especially when you come from way different backgrounds…part of becoming an adult for sure.
I have a junior. He picked his roomate from some kind of questionnaire. Can’t remember which one. But it wasn’t from Facebook and he didn’t go random. It worked out great. He had a good year. They’re not best friends now but still see each other every so often and do hang out. My daughter is starting at washu in the fall and going through the roomate selection process now. Trying to decide if she should go random. She’s not looking for her best friend. She just wants to make sure that there will be no issues and they’re compatible roommates. It is stressful though. I’m worried about her picking someone she’ll be stuck with for a year if it doesn’t work out. But from what I remember Tufts had a very comprehensive questionaire
@RickAstleyCAN, I can relate. My eldest chose substance free and his roommate was an athlete. The roommate moved in earlier for practice and had bonded with his teammates and had no interest in having any relationship with my son. Most of the fall he was at away games on weekends, so my son had the room to himself.( My son made great friends on his floor.) They got along fine until the season ended, then the kid would come in at all hours drunk (after passing out one night, proceeded to get up and urinate on the floor in the middle of their room.) My son handled it, never told us until we were moving him out at the end of the year. He said it was really stressful, but he didn’t want to report the kid for violating the substance free contract.He just wanted to get away from him ASAP. I could tell from conversations throughout the year he was disappointed it was not as he thought it would be. (Oh by the way,this did not happen at Tufts.)
@momworried- I’m hoping my daughter just uses the questionnaire, not FB. It’s just very tricky…she does not like advice from her mom!!
My daughter, who’s a junior, selected a roommate via Facebook; or, I should say, she accepted someone’s invitation to room together. They wound up running in completely different social circles, but got along fine while living together and are still friendly (though they rarely see one another). One of my daughter’s good friends had a random selection, which turned out to be an international student, and after nearly three years they’re still thick as thieves. Other of her friends, not so much. Basically, until two people actually have to coexist in what are pretty close quarters, it’s anyone’s guess how they’ll get along, regardless of how they’re chosen.
Also, I don’t know that the freshman athlete scenario in the above post is an equal concern at Tufts like it might be outside of the NESCAC. I don’t think ANY of the fall sports there requires freshmen to report early for tryouts/practice. In fact, NESCAC schools have the shortest pre-seasons and shortest regular seasons of any athletic conference in the country. That said, however, it’s at least foreseeable that an incoming freshman who plays a fall sport will quickly become part of a ready-made social group; especially in football which will have probably 20 similarly-situated kids, as opposed to 5-6 for the other fall sports teams.
My son will be a freshman and has elected to go random for his room mate selection.
I agree with him that it’s a good way to go. We all know that the virtual world is not always the real world.
It’s a crap shoot either way.
I guess that’s what I was trying to say! You can’t even trust that substance free will be substance free X_X
Hi Jumbo Parents: Quick question about move out; do most of you have your kids store some of their belongings over the summer or do they bring everything home? If you do summer storage, any suggestions?
Thanks!
We recently had this discussion here somewhere in this Tufts universe, but now I can’t find it. I think the consensus was if you live far away, you use Storage Squad to store all your stuff. That is what my D has done every year. Good prices and makes her life easier.
There are also some storage unit facilities nearby. Mostly this is useful for DCs moving off campus. The storage services worked well for us when they were moving dorm room to dorm room.
My son was accepted eD2 and we also just attended Jumbo Days. Great trip - I had never seen the school so now feel very positive about it since I’ve seen how great the students seem and the professors and the close involvement they seem to have with the kids. Just read your post that someone has pledged a fraternity already before going to school. This is my first child in college and just wondering - is that common? isn’t there usually a rush process to go through once school starts either beginning of first or second semester?
You cannot pledge a frat until your second semester at Tufts (which is when the rush process takes place).