Safeish?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tufts University
1

<p>Hi!</p>

<p>I'm looking for safety schools, and while i know Tufts is challenging, i was hoping it might be on the safer side for me. Let me know if you think it's a reach/match/safety or some combination of the three. </p>

<p>SAT I: 770 CR, 800 M, 780 W (12 essay)</p>

<p>SAT IIs: 800 Bio-M, 770 Math IC, 800 Latin</p>

<p>APs: English language (5), Latin Catullus (5), Environmental (5), US History (5), Latin Vergil, Calc BC, Physics C, English lit, Psych. </p>

<p>GPA: UW: ~97.7, W ~99.7
(our school adds 5 points on the grade averaged into the GPA for honors/AP classes, of which i've taken 9 in 3 years)</p>

<p>Rank: 2-5/325 (unranked past 2) </p>

<p>Senior Yr Courseload: French 2, AP: Latin, Physics, Calc, English lit, Psych,
Spanish 4 (without test)</p>

<p>ECs listed on app:
Theater: 3 various shows
Math team: high scorer, 4 years
Science Olympiad: 12 time medalist (1 state medal)
Student govt. - 4 years, BOE liason and PR officer
Class officers - 2 years, Treasurer/nothing
Gay Straight Alliance - 4 years, President 1 year
NHS - 2 years
Job - 1 year at local arts center running classes for autistic people
Lots of various tutoring
4 weeks (2 summers) of volunteer work at NYSDEC environmental camp
2 years Columbia Science Honors Program
2 weeks Northwoods environmental restoration project
1 summer stream monitoring w. Westchester CVMP
2 weeks GYLC conference</p>

<p>Awards: Something like 20 awards from school, Yale book award, 3 National latin exam gold medals, one silver, Medusa Mythology exam Corona Olivae, invitation to AIME exam junior year, local Audubon Society scholarship. </p>

<p>Teacher Recs: 1 superamazingcouldntbebetter... 1 good</p>

<p>Counselor Rec: should be good</p>

<p>Essays: probably not amazing</p>

<p>Upper middle class white male from a high quality public school in New York.</p>

2

<p>As a highly selective college, I don't believe Tufts can really be a safety school for anyone. However, I do believe it can be a SAFER BET for some people. For instance, Tufts is always keen on having worldly students who do substantial community service. But it really depends on what the college admissions officers are looking for, and you have to keep in mind that they're always trying to create a balanced class. If they accepted only worldly students who do substantial community service, they would lack any real diversity. Based on what you've written, it looks like you're academically a match for Tufts. But I honestly cannot tell you whether or not your application as a whole is what the Tufts admissions officers are looking for -- I'm not psychic! Just make sure to write passionately; that's always a good idea.</p>

3

<p>yeah i don't really think tufts can be called a safety for anyone. It's at that weird stage where if you don't have good enough stats (which you do), you can't call it a safety. But if you have too good of stats, they'll think you're just using them as a safety and waitlist/deny you, thus making them a non-safety in most any case.</p>

4

<p>Whoa. Ok two things. First of all, I'm pretty sure you didn't intend to, but your post comes off as really arrogant. This forum is full of people who are very proud to call themselves jumbos, and your statements rub me the wrong way, as I'm sure it does many people here.</p>

<p>Second of all, please visit this thread <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=211499%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=211499&lt;/a> , it pretty effectively conveys the general opinion on chances threads.</p>

5

<p>In short, you have nice stats (although if you think your essays are not good, make them better, of course :) ), but so do many of the applicants to Tufts. Here are the two things to remember:</p>

<p>1) Tufts admissions will use the exact same standards as other highly-selective, elite colleges -- they have the same high requirements and want to pull the unique yet brilliant student from the masses of great-looking, but otherwise standard file for "outstanding student." To the OP, you must understand that the school has the same stats as GTU, JHU, etc. etc and will deny plenty of top students who lack that special "zing" that Tufts wants, which may be of course different from the special "zing" that JHU wants, for example (hence, the wackiness of the process).
2) Within those parameters, every top school has it's own "niche" that they're looking for. If it's Northwestern for example - they love journalism/business oriented kids. In Tufts' case, they like international/culturally immersed students.</p>

<p>travelgirl references a nice thread.</p>