<p>What about tufts is bad? what are its negatives</p>
<p>I’ll be honest.
My one complaint about the engineering school is that there isn’t really a general survey class that gives an overview of different areas of engineering. I’m pretty sure this type of class does exist elsewhere and would also be useful in helping decide on a major and informing engineers of what types of stuff their counterparts in related fields are doing.</p>
<p>One observation I’ve had is that while there are obviously a ton of smart and highly motivated people around, I have come across a surprising number (for me, at least) of people whose academic performance or other actions made me wonder what they were doing here or how they even got in in the first place.</p>
<p>hebrewhammer-
I’d been wondering about the apparent lack of an engineering survey class. How does one go about choosing a major within engineering? I see that the first year curriculum is mostly Calc, Physics, Chem, Freshman English and a Humanities or Soc Sci elective, with just a couple of engineering courses in there. What do these courses cover and what, if anything, do they offer to help a student find his/her interests?</p>
<p>There is lack of school spirit. For some people, this might be really important, but I could care less about that. The only displays of school spirit I have seen are people wearing Tufts apparel. </p>
<p>
you have those types of people at every school, even at like Harvard/Princeton (I know some of them)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Really??? I’ve heard the COMPLETE opposite!</p>
<p>To choose a major in engineering, I think they expect you to talk to different advisors and use that information along with the classes you’re in and I guess your gut feeling? to make the decision.
For me, I was torn between ChemE and MechE, and ultimately decided to do MechE a few weeks ago because ChemE is a lot more work and there’s a required class that would make me miss the most important XC practices of the week.</p>
<p>As far as school spirit, I guess it depends on your definition. There aren’t a lot of people who go to football or basketball games just for fun (other than homecoming), but most students here are very enthusiastic about the school.</p>
<p>For a school with great IR and poli sci programs, S has complained about the lack of information and guidance re: internships and summer jobs, esp in regard to government positions.</p>
<p>^^ Tell your son to go to career services; They are extremely helpful and put a lot of direction in my life freshman and sophomore years.</p>
<p>Thanks, Detail-- he’s actually now considering staying for the summer and looking for a job on campus.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think that’s exactly right. When you consider how we have to turn away dozens of people who want to be tour guides, even though it’s a volunteer position, or the number of people who proudly sport Tufts gear around campus, it becomes clear that most students are enthusiastic to be Jumbos. If you’re looking for that enthusiasm in the bleachers of a basketball game, you might be disappointed, but one doesn’t need to look hard to find school spirit.</p>
<p>True -
The first thing H’s Boston brother said when he heard our son was going to Tufts was “The Jumbos! The Jumbos LOVE their school.” </p>
<p>Also, since it’s Div. III, NESCAC, you get plenty of athletes who enjoy playing their sports rather than watching. But yes, if you prefer a big sport scene and football weekends, it’s probably not the place.</p>
<p>Yeah, ok, that’s what I thought! From what I’ve heard, there’s awesome school spirit - meaning, everyone’s proud to be a Jumbo and won’t hesitate to tell you.</p>
<p>If I go, I hope I can be a tour guide… :D</p>
<p>That there is a delay between admission notices and financial aid info. It’s hard for my D to get excited about Tufts if she’s not sure we can afford it :(. Other schools offered the info simultaneously, or at least within a day or two…but we will hopefully know soon!</p>
<p>Some of the freshmen dorms are not very nice. Tufts definitely would rather allocate money in their budget towards financial aid & academic offerings–that’s their priority. The dorm that I am in hasn’t been rennovated since 2002 apparently. </p>
<p>The upperclassmen dorms are much nicer because they’re newer.</p>
<p>westernhillsmom, info is up now on TAMS.</p>
<p>
Is that a complaint? The dorm that I am in hasn’t been renovated since the 1970s, apparently…</p>
<p>Yeah, living in a dorm that was renovated 7 years ago is pretty nice actually.</p>
<p>Yes, I am a little confused on that myself. Exactly how often do you expect a school to renovate a dorm?</p>
<p>Aside from when a given dorm was last renovated, I think saying that not all dorms are that great is a fair criticism. However, while there may be discrepancies between different dorms on campus, from what I have heard about other schools our dorms are still pretty good.</p>
<p>However, I remembered another thing I don’t like today: SIS. SIS is the online system we use to register for classes. While it’s still better than the old days, I’m sure, it definitely is not up to date (although I believe they’re is exploring new alternatives). In it’s current state, though, it really isn’t a very good program. For one thing, it logs you out very frequently and you have to go back and log in, usually after refreshing the log in page a few times. There are also a lot of small glitches. This morning I was trying to register for a class that filled up much faster than I expected; by my registration time, all three sections were full and had full waitlists. I emailed one of the professors, who said it had been a mistake, so when I checked back I saw that now all three sections had 9 open spots each. However, they still had full waitlists (the waitlist maxes out at 5 people), so, despite the fact that there were more open spots than there were students on the waitlist, SIS wouldn’t let me register for the class.</p>
<p>True, I’ve been to schools with better dorms but you also have to pay for those dorms. Hence, only the wealthier students who can afford them get them, thus segregating students and creating campus ghettoes. </p>
<p>The dorms aren’t even really that bad I guess compared to other colleges.</p>
<p>They are very clean, I’ll give them credit for that, Facilities even comes on Saturday & Sunday to clean up!</p>