any certain characteristics? Anything will help!
I’m not going to say that there’s a specific mold that fits students at Tufts, but generally I’d say that you have to be incredibly intelligent with a real passion for learning and engaging with your peers.
My friends have a huge variety of interests. They run the gamut of IR majors who are socially/politically mindful to engineers who only think about designing new technology, but they all have relatively diverse backgrounds in terms of academic curiosity and I’d say most people are interested in learning about something new or having a discussion on a topic they might not be familiar with. I’ve talked to applied math majors about Dante’s Inferno, psych majors about biophotonics, and computer science majors about film analysis.
Just be genuine about your interests when you’re applying. Don’t try to fake being interested in things that you’re not. It’s fine if you couldn’t care less about relativity or who’s going to be the next President of the US, but try to convey what you ARE interested in and what really gets you excited to go to school or talk to your friends. Maybe you and your friends talk about baseball analysis all the time. Or maybe you want to study literature and love analyzing rap lyrics for meter and symbolism.
The only other thing I can say is that Tufts students are genuinely really kind and down to earth. Don’t downplay your accomplishments in any way, and definitely try to paint yourself in the best light possible, but also try to show that you care more about getting a real education and meeting some of the most interesting people of your life than you do about going to a school that people will say “wow” when at. Hope this helps!