Hello,
After an info session and speaking with a close friend at Tufts, I came to the conclusions that the most important components of an application are the essays. I know that the test scores have to be in their range, but I got the sense that they’re not as critical as some other schools. Is this is far assessment?
Very important but it’s a combination.
The official line seems to be that Tufts practices “holistic admissions,” meaning they are looking at the whole person, not just a set of SAT scores. Not a school with a lineup of perfect test-takers, and I’m not sure they want to be, thank goodness. There does seem to be a lot of emphasis on the essays. However, like most very selective schools, I think Tufts looks very strongly at the high school transcript, the choice of classes, rigor and of course, student performance in an academic setting. At our info session last year, that’s what was emphasized: transcript. My impression is that they do want SAT/ACT scores to be in a certain range, but that’s not a dispositive factor. My daughter is now a freshman at Tufts (loving it), and was in the range with scores and grades and worked very hard on those essays. She finds classes interesting, innovative, challenging but not overwhelming, and the student body eclectic, fun and multi-dimensional. She came from a very demanding academic high school, but wasn’t the champion of AP classes by any means. Based on my very limited experience, I would say test scores come in 3rd after transcript and essays.
Maybe they come in third after a certain threshold is met. My son, who’s a sophomore at tufts and also loving his academic and social experience, shot above his GPA two years ago. He was admitted to a bunch of very selective schools despite a GPA (3.7) that according to our school naviance was slightly below average for those particular schools, but we think his 2260 SATs and 2330 3SAT2s help tip him in. I think for most selective schools, having decent scores is just a threshold but if there’s some other part of your app that is weak, having strong scores may outweigh the Achilles heel. They certainly don’t hurt.
My son, a first year at Tufts, is also loving it. His GPA was good, but his course selection at his boarding school was the most rigorous available. I agree with the above posters. The transcript and SAT/ACTs are the most important and used to get over the first admissions hurdle. That being said, your essays are very important here and are used to determine “fit” which is likely why my daughter, a student at another university commented on the “niceness” of all my son’s friends at Tufts. One little hint: They indicated on an orientation lecture that they feel that students with interests diametrically opposed (or seemingly so) make for very tolerant and open students.
I also heard them say at my D’s matriculation ceremony that they look for applicants who are kind. However, test scores and GPA, rigor of classes, etc are all very important.
All the schools talk about the holistic approach but I think Tufts really means it. My son is a sophomore and very happy at Tufts. Everyone he (and we) have met just seems so darned nice, and interesting to talk to. His GPA in a rigorous dual curriculum was about a 3.66 with about a 3.4 in 11th grade. His superscored SATs were 2220. No hooks at all. But he had good leadership positions, teachers who really cared about him and whom I’m sure wrote thoughtful recommendations, and a very unusual job that he was clearly passionate about. His essays weren’t perfect by any means, but it was clear that they were written by a kid who cared deeply about the subjects discussed. I think the person who read his application just emerged from his application with a good gut sense about him, and with Tufts, that might be the most important thing.