<p>Hi guys,
I have been out of the country for awhile, and i had just gotten back. I have the open house bright and early tomorrow at 7:15, and I am wondering if it is worth going(jet lag).
Could someone inform me on what goes on during the Open house/ what the itinerary is.
Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>My son and I went last week, and he liked it enough that he decided to go to Tufts this fall! The Open House starts with a funny speech by Dean Coffin and comments by 5 current students. Then you have the opportunity to attend one or two “classes” - these are not actual classes with current students, but rather small lectures/discussions by actual professors for accepted students and their families. We went to one and were very favorably impressed. The rest of the afternoon consists of panels discussing issues like study abroad, financial aid, etc., plus an activities fair on the main green, tickets to eat lunch in the dining halls, etc. If you’re at all interested in Tufts and can summon the strength to get over your jet lag, I would recommend it!</p>
<p>We were there for the 2nd of the 3 open house days today. Beautiful day, but, oh so much walking! :)</p>
<p>Have you seen the school yet? How important is this school to you? Do you have questions that could be answered during open house? Could you go for part of the day? Do you live close enough?</p>
<p>Only you can answer these questions! </p>
<p>Btw: Dean Coffin’s speech was supposed to promptly begin at 8:15am, but was @10 min. late, if that helps gauge what time to arrive…</p>
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<p>I thought these were really interesting but also sort of useless. Sitting in on an actual class gives you a much better sense for what it’s really like to be a student at a particular college, especially whether students are engaged and contributing to class discussions etc.</p>
<p>The introductory speeches were way too long. Too much self-consciously adorable quirkiness and not enough about the school itself, but maybe that was the point. The rest of the day was pretty good. We came in with a somewhat bad impression as my D was supposed to stay overnight before the open house but was stood up by her student host. We sat in the library for an hour (host kept texting to push back the meeting time and finally stopped communicating and by then it was 9:00 and we gave up and went back to the hotel) with a steady stream of kids walking by talking about how much pot they planned to smoke that night (why Tufts thought it was a good idea to schedule overnight stays for 4/20 I can’t imagine). But the open house was good enough to mostly overcome the negative first impression.</p>
<p>I just visited today, and I had a GREAT time. Keep in mind that I have been accepted EDII.
The welcoming ceremony with the speakers was wonderful. Some thought it as a bit lengthy (and it was), but I personally enjoyed it thoroughly. The freshman was an amazing speaker, and I enjoyed his talk. The sophomore was interesting, too. However, as it went down the line, it did get a bit boring, as the people were asked to answer the essay question “what makes you tick,” and they more or less ranted and wrapped it up in the end. Regardless, I thought it was interesting to hear and didn’t mind it too much. The “class” was a disappointment. I picked an area I’m very interested in; yet, it was still very boring for me. This isn’t to say that the professor was a good speaker who knew his stuff. It just wasn’t for me… or for my parents no less. I would have much rather sat in a real class to get a real feel of what life would be like, but I can see the difficulty of that with so many AOH students there. There were a ton of spontaneous things going on that I thought were great. There were some students with “free compliment” signs that gave accepted students free compliments as they walked by (along with hugs upon request, if I do add). There were tours going around, which were also good. The dorm tour was extremely brief, but I guess it did it’s job. There were tons of signs, groups, and people welcoming freshmen, telling them about what Tufts and the community has to offer, and other activities. There was a tent with the major programs at Tufts with a bunch of student-run activities. They had pamphlets and speakers and freebies (the best part!). Those were especially helpful for learning more. I received a Fall 2011 course guide, which was good, too (the free cupcakes certainly didn’t hurt either). By far the best part was the freshmen panel session where there was a “free” conversation between accepted students and a panel of 5 or so freshmen. It was comical yet informational. Finally, I went to another panel of students who talked about defining moments at Tufts. It was a tad on the boring side, but their endeavors were interesting nevertheless. Overall, it was a great time, and you certainly learned a lot about the school and the student body. That’s the major part. The student body. You saw students being so friendly and open. Some did one of those “public freeze” things where they blend in with the crowd and then stop all at the same time as if statues. Some students were advertising the pre-orientation programs. All in all, they seemed excited and accepting. Not to mention that there was a power outage to start the day off, too, but Tufts handled that rather well.</p>
<p>We had the mp3 experiment during Open House today!</p>
<p>The mp3 experiment was awesome!!!</p>
<p>So Catch what was this mp3 experiment?</p>
<p>We went yesterday. I think it is very hard to judge a college by attending a couple of classes, either real or sample . I was impressed by the intellectualism of the profs at Tufts’ sample classes, although one paced back and forth so much, it kind of made me a little nuts. We attended another college’s open house and sampled some real classes. I thought the one I went to with my D was very high schoolish and not a good representative of the “greatness” I’d read so much about that school. I thought all-in-all, Tufts did a good job of showcasing the college.</p>
<p>My d is very jaded (by now) about these open houses and refuses to “drink from the kool-aid water cooler.” When the dean of admissions said that the student panel for the opening remarks was just a sampling and not picked for their specialness, she didn’t buy it. And actually when one has gone to enough of these, one can just write one speech and interject any college/university’s name in it because they all say the same thing–best, greatest, research with profs, small classes, amazing study abroad opportunities! They are all masters of marketing.</p>
<p>And my d is still undecided…</p>
<p>I think Lee’s point at the welcome wasn’t that those five students weren’t “special” (they are) it’s that we picked them because they are representative of the normative culture at Tufts, not because they were the all-stars who got nominated for every award or run every student club. </p>
<p>We choose students, deliberately, who fall in the band of what’s typical at Tufts, precisely because of how easy it is to get jaded by these things. I remember my own reaction to the students typically showcased at admissions events, which was to dismiss what I was seeing as the outliers on the achievement box-plot. Of the five students at the welcome, I read three of their applications when they applied. And, I’m lucky enough to know all five now. They are/were reflective of a typical admitted student, and are reflective of the typical opportunity available at Tufts.</p>
<p>I know how ridiculous this sounds, but those five are what passes for normal at Tufts. Truth be told, I adore all five of them, and we did our best to pick from a range of majors, but beyond that, there was nothing choreographed about the welcome. 8:15am on the first day of AOH was the first time any of us (in admissions) had heard their speeches.</p>
<p>Hi Dan:</p>
<p>We said hi to a few admissions reps including Dean Coffin, AOH day 2. We looked around to say hi to you…were you there and we missed you? Oh well! It was a great day and my S is psyched to begin!</p>
<p>Attended the open house with my daughter and your student body is truly impressive. She tried to stay for overnight but it was full. However, attended the Super show the night before and it really sold both of us on the school. In particularly, the diversity of students that participated in groups like Spirit of Color, Envy, Bhagran (sp?) and Blackout was awe inspiring. The student energy was great and it seemed like the student honestly enjoy their school. Simply stated, it was the students that really demonstrated that Tufts would be a really great place to attend school. </p>
<p>Only negative comments - </p>
<p>Cohen Auditorium - The seats are so thread bare that some are duct taped. I know that sound shallow, but I really couldn’t get the condition of the facilities out of my mind.</p>
<p>Learned from students that some students hosts didn’t get assigned students which mean spots could have been available for a few additional students. C’est la vie…</p>
<p>But overall, I really enjoy the school and if my daughter doesn’t attend, I will recommend it to my son in two years.</p>
<p>@Chocchip - Sorry I missed you! I was there, but as you could tell, I didn’t get to spend a lot of time in one place.</p>
<p>@Mommiedearest - Yay! Glad you had a great day. The unhosting students are almost entirely because students who were supposed to be hosted didn’t show up or canceled last minute. There are a handful like that on each AOH day, and while it is unfortunate, c’est la vie.</p>
<p>I was pretty surprised at how underrepresented the humanities were. Was this the same for the second AOH?</p>
<p>Interesting, Mommiedearest, that aged facilities put you off. I haven’t been in Cohen for many years, but my overall impression of campus has been the opposite. In fact, when the economic downturn came, I was happy that I could tell prospective students that Tufts had recently poured a lot into physical improvements and was reaching a potential period of austerity in a good position. I’ll be on the watch for other reports. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, good luck to both your kids. An exciting time period for your family.</p>
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<p>For the first day of AOH: out of the 14 Mock Classes, I count 5 Humanities courses. Out of the 5 welcome speakers, 2 were humanities majors. Of the 6 first-year students in the panel, at least 2 of those were intended humanities majors. We worked pretty deliberately to cover different curricular areas - a particular challenge in the humanities where professors are more accustomed to smaller classes and less enthusiastic about teaching lecture-style to 50-100 people at once. </p>
<p>I’m not discounting your feeling that the humanities were underrepresented, and I’d love to pass on something valuable to the planners for next year. What do you mean by underrepresented?</p>
<p>I’m sorry to say that my D did not feel the love enough at the open house to commit to Tufts, so she will be attending another college.</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone attending Tufts! I know you will all get an awesome education.</p>