<ol>
<li>EVERYONE recycles here. </li>
<li>On that same green note, we have one of the most environmentally-friendly dorms in the country (Sophia Gordon Hall).</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>That nearly every senior in my class of 2007 has said they will sign the following graduation pledge:
[quote]
I pledge to explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job I consider and will try to improve these aspects of any organizations for which I work.
[/quote]
This says SO much about Tufts, and it makes me real proud!</li>
</ol>
<h1>125 really DOES say a lot about Tufts. Gotta love this school</h1>
<p>well, i'm glad we all recycle, but we often don't really have a choice - which is GREAT, dont' get me wrong. I'm just saying, if you walk outside wiht trash and there's a bin for bottles, one for paper, one for trash, and you don't actually have to go to the recyclying center yourself, it's easy to recycle. I'm glad Tufts makes it so easy, though.</p>
<p>Well, it certainly made a recycling convert out of me. When I was abroad in Paris, I made my host family recycle. They thought I was nuts. Spread a little green!</p>
<p>Sometimes making it easy for everyone to recycle isn't enough: my high school had all the special bins, but no one paid attention to them and just through whatever into whatever. People here don't really do that, so it does say something that we respect recycling. (I also think all the bins from my high school went into the same dumpster anyway, which made me sad...but that's another story...)</p>
<p>
[quote]
When I was abroad in Paris, I made my host family recycle. They thought I was nuts.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That's surprising, because I lived in Germany for a while and they are recycling maniacs. (Different people, I know, but you'd think it would carry across the border.) I knew people who, at the end of the week, would have a fist full of trash, and that was it. Everything else was recycled, including rain water which was caught in a cistern and used to water the lawn. They always used real plates and no paper cups or napkins (God forbid you should have a party, even a large one, and use paper plates or cups...people would be horrified). No bags are provided at stores, you bring your own. Actually, I still hate to see how we get all these bags and packaging here and then we just throw it into some landfill. It's nuts.</p>
<ol>
<li>Because these are the kinds of kids who not only get into Tufts, but choose to come here:</li>
</ol>
<p>
[quote]
Introducing the Tufts Class of 2010</p>
<p>Asking who I am in 500 words is like asking me to summarize the history of Italy in a page, lamented an applicant from Washington, DC. It cannot be done. Happily, summarizing the Tufts Class of 2010 is a less daunting task.</p>
<p>Drawn from 15,294 candidates for admissionthe second-largest applicant pool in the Universitys historythe 1,284 members of the Class of 10 are an exciting collection of academic and personal achievement. New freshmen arrive in Medford from 46 American states, D.C., Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and 35 nations. The School of Arts & Sciences matriculates 1,101 freshmen while the School of Engineering welcomes 183 new undergraduates, 31 percent of whom are women. Overall, the freshman class includes 651 women and 633 men.</p>
<p>As usual, residents of Massachusetts and New York are the largest state contingents in the entering class but 10 percent originates from the West Coast and another 15 percent have an international background. While South Korea and Singapore produced the most international freshmen (13 apiece), countries as diverse as Argentina, Finland, Jordan, Mauritius, Nepal and Tanzania are also represented. More than 34 languages as diverse as Kiswahili, Polish, Portuguese and Urdu are spoken in the homes of more than 150 freshmen, although Spanish and the Chinese dialects are most common.</p>
<p>Each applicant was asked to describe the environment in which he or she was raised, and these personal narratives illuminated candidacies in vivid, and often poignant, ways. Incoming students described upbringings by a military family stationed in Guam; as the third of five daughters in a strict Italian-American family from New Jersey; as a Zoroastrian religious minority in Pakistan and a Tibetan refugee in India. An African-American from Detroit described the ostracism she experienced for being the smart black girl in the inner city; a student from Chicagos South Side reported being mugged three times as a 9th grader. Some witnessed political discourse at the family dinner table. We come from two ideologically divergent backgrounds, an applicant from Rochester, New York wrote about her family. Half of my family loves guns, farms and Jesus while the other half, to which I belong, is agnostic, Starbucks-sipping liberal elitists. My family provides a perpetual test of character, a sprawling conglomerate of ideas that has pushed and prodded me into standing up for myself even when the odds are seven to one. </p>
<p>Americans of color represent 25 percent of the new class, and the ethnicities and creeds of the Class span the full range of human diversity. Laotians and Vietnamese; Jews and Muslims; Puerto Ricans and Brazilians; a Lakota Sioux and New England Yankees are represented in the first-year class. In fact, 23 percent identified themselves as Jewish on the Accepted Student Survey; 20 percent as Roman Catholic; and 16 percent affiliated with one of the Protestant denominations. Nearly 30 percent indicated no religious preference or denomination, including an avowed atheist from Iowas Bible belt who declared, Because of my love of freedom and self-reliance, I like to do things my way. Not surprisingly, he also described his political affiliation as Libertarian.</p>
<p>As admission officers shaped the class and assessed its voice, a strong sense of self-identity was a defining quality of many candidacies. A Latina from New York City described herself as a conservative Republican in a sea of liberal minds. Some were straightforward. I am the product of technology and my mothers love, announced a proud test tube baby from California. Some were succinct: I am Katherineidealist, albino, reader, and explorer. And others played to type: Im a good ole Southern boy who embraces the notion of Southern hospitality and helping others. And for what its worth, one shaggy fellow with an interest in philosophy reported that his last haircut occurred on April 2, 2004. His unusual hirsuteness symbolizes my easygoing attitude regarding things of minimal importance, he explained.</p>
<p>Forty-five percent of incoming freshmen were raised in a suburban community; a third come to Tufts from urban environments; and 26 percent from rural areas. A cul-de-sac in Orlando; an inn in Hood River, Oregon; a Hong Kong high rise; an Indiana farm owned by one students family for over 150 years; and Section 8 housing in Boston offered defining backdrops for adolescent world views and college aspirations. My goals are simple, wrote a student from rural Texas. I wish to expand my educational horizons by pursuing a degree outside of Texas, where I will be introduced to new perspectives and ideas. I am tired of the rut; I seek a challenge. I want to meet people with whom I have nothing in common and argue about values and beliefs. After being orphaned, a student from Phoenix spent part of her childhood living on the streets, where she slept in a box and begged for assistance. An Iowan wrote about life on his familys farm, where laziness and unreliability are fatal. He noted, Sheep dont know about taking kids to the doctor or a PTA meeting. All they know is when it is time to be fed. As a child, a Rwandan was a witness to genocide. He plans to study engineering at Tufts before returning to Africa to rebuild his nation.</p>
<p>A Mexican-American from the Rio Valley, the daughter of illegal immigrants, proudly noted that her mother won the Parent of the Year Award for the State of Texas despite having a sixth grade education. Others were raised by an uncle on a Dominican chicken farm; a transsexual in Portland; rabbis in New York City; a barber in upstate New York; and a gas and oil geologist in Texas. A manicurist in New Jersey; two gay men living with AIDS in Colorado; the former prime minister of Morocco; taxi drivers in Honolulu and Boston; the general manager of the San Jose Sharks; a wetland ecologist in Connecticut; the surgeon for the Saudi Armed Forces; a school lunch administrator in Medford; a nurse at Mass General; and 28 Tufts faculty and staff all have children in the Class of 2010. Five percent of incoming students were raised by parents who did not attend college. Conversely, 97 are the sons and daughters of Tufts alumni. </p>
<p>As the US Congress debates American immigration policy, Tufts welcomes recent immigrants from Eritrea, Sudan, Venezuela, Mongolia, Vietnam, Afghanistan and China, to name just a few. Their journeys to higher education in America were often inspiring and poignant. The class includes a Liberian who emigrated from Ghana, where he lived with his grandparents and three siblings while his parents fled the Liberian civil war. An Uzbek-American reported his family left his homeland because of religious persecution; in America, he was elected president of the Amnesty International chapter at his high school. And a Haitian student from Boston explained that English was not spoken in her homeso she often had to translate for her parents at teacher conferences. And, in a different type of immigration, two freshmen are refugees from Hurricane Katrina.</p>
<p>Like its recent predecessors, the new class was chosen through a most selective admissions process in which 27 percent of all applicants were offered a place at the University. Not surprisingly, the Class of 2010 joins Tufts undergraduate community with an impressive record of academic achievement. Forty-four freshmen enroll as National Merit Scholars. When ranked, 82 percent graduated in the top 10% of their high school class, a figure that includes 49 valedictorians and 33 salutatorians. The Class of 10 earned the distinction of being the first class to enroll at Tufts with a combined SAT score greater than 1400 (using the two-part exam). With mean SAT scores of 702 Critical Reasoning (Verbal) and 703 Math, the combined mean of 1405 represents an all-time high for the University.</p>
<p>In addition to such statistical excellence, the intellectual passions of the freshman class are wide and varied. As usual, international relations and biology rank as the most common anticipated majors for students entering the College of Liberal Arts. Among freshmen heading for Anderson Hall, mechanical engineering and chemical engineering top the list, although 31 percent of entering engineers listed the unqualified engineering as the academic interest.</p>
<p>The Class matriculates from 817 high schools; 59 percent attended a public secondary school and 34 percent graduated from an independent school. In a nice bit of symmetry, 10 graduates of Lexington High School in Massachusetts enrolled in the Class of 10, the largest school group in the freshman class. Eight freshmen from Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland and seven from Miamis Ransom-Everglades School complete the top three feeder schools for the year. Among overseas schools, the American School of London takes the top spot with five freshmen.</p>
<p>Despite this broad array of secondary schools, many freshmen described a strong sense of intellectual yearning as they completed their high school curricula. I often find myself asking questions that my present curriculum is not designed to cover, lamented a student from Connecticut. A D.C. applicant concurred with his new classmate. Its unfortunate that the things I am most interested in arent taught in high school, he wrote. I love history that was touched on for 15 minutes during an entire academic year. I love music that is ignored by teachers and literature that is passed over in favor of the classics of the Mediterranean world or Victorian England. Teacher recommendations often acknowledged this idea. He has interests that seem to surpass the usual conversations in high school student lounges, wrote one teacher.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>continued, from above:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Aesthetic anthropology and cultural performance; Costa Rican sea turtles and tropical conservation; Egyptian hieroglyphics; crop technology in developing countries; and youth literacy in under-developed areas of the U.S. are just a few of the intellectual yearnings expressed by enrolling students. Literature electrifies me, wrote a Californian who wants to major in European literature with plans of being a literary activist. Curiosity abounds. I see a soccer ball and think of the physics of its motion, wrote a student from Saint Louis with interests in math and music. I hear music and think of music theory in mathematical intervals. </p>
<p>Others have already made contributions to an academic field. An incoming engineer from Philadelphia won a national engineering competition for creating a heart-rate monitor that can transmit information wirelessly. He plans to study biomedical engineering. A pre-vet from Connecticut conducted summer research on the behavior of red wolves in captivity with a UC-Irvine professor; he also led an effort to establish a colony of beetles that will clean a skeleton for subsequent assembly into teaching models. Said the UC professor of the quality of the students work: This guy should skip college and go straight to graduate school!</p>
<p>Undergraduate research is, of course, an important signature at Tufts, and students arrive with surprisingly clear plans for projects they hope to pursue. A pre-dental student with experience as a registered dental assistant is intrigued by the use of baby teeth as a source of stem cells, an idea he gleaned from Popular Science. After writing a research paper on the struggles of mentally-challenged African-American men and the unique forms of discrimination they face, another freshman plans to study genetics in order to assist individuals who are mentally challenged. An art history student from Los Angeles plans to introduce more Arab artists into the American art scene. Similarly, a prospective community health major enrolls with a clear academic plan for Tufts and beyond: She plans to invent a concentrated nutritional paste to ease malnutrition in war-ridden areas, propose formal education for midwives in African villages or brainstorm solutions to prenatal care, all with assistance from the Gates Foundation. Like many Tufts freshmen, she thinks big!</p>
<p>Incoming students faced personal and physical challenges during their young lives. Twenty-one have experienced the death of at least one parent, including a New York City firefighter killed at the World Trade Center on 9/11. Two are orphans. But more often than not, optimism pervades these experiences. When I commit myself to something I do it all the way and give 110 percent, wrote a student afflicted with Crohns Disease. Unfortunately my body applied this doctrine to my illness as well. A visually-impaired student from New Jersey echoed this sentiment: The phrase I cant, Im blind is something I say frequently. While I say it at least once a day I do so only as a joke: it is a reminder to everyone that I never let anything get in my way.</p>
<p>A three-sport athlete from Connecticut suffered a severe concussion and brain damage from a car accident in his junior year; impressively, he comes to Tufts as a basketball recruit. A Pennsylvanian was diagnosed with severe growth hormone deficiency and took hormone injections in order to grow; she is now 54. A poet from New Jersey underwent eight micro-surgeries and the eventual reconstruction of his ears with artificial bones to restore his hearing. Another is profoundly deaf. She was the first person in the United States to receive a behind-the-ear FM hearing aid as well as the first to receive a digital aid. She hopes Tisch College will train her to become a public policy and media advocate for deaf children. </p>
<p>Indeed, a commitment to active citizenship and public serviceinside and outside the classroomis a common theme of entering freshmen. Several arrive with well-articulated plans to use their intellect to make a difference in the world. Photography and art are undeniable elements of my being, stated an anticipated IR major from Santa Fe, whose interests also include fine arts and Asian studies. I aspire to highlight the beauty of the world, ignite discussion and initiate progress. Having seen the aftermath of a hurricane in Mexicos Yucatan Peninsula, an engineer from Virginia told the Admissions Committee, I want to be an engineer who solves difficult problems and develops practical solutions to make life better for people in difficult situations. For his Eagle Scout project, he made 5,000 oral re-hydration packets for famine and disaster relief in Sudan. Similarly, a student from Bridgeport, Connecticutthe grandson of the founder of Neo-Confucianism in Koreaplans to become a gerontologist and open a health care facility in his rural Korean village.</p>
<p>New Jumbos initiated a club against rage and bullying; a support program for inmates in Egyptian prisons; and a safe cosmetics campaign in which she co-drafted California Senate Bill 484 with her state senator. Sometimes protest or persistence was in order: a graduate of Somerville High School founded Students Against Mitt Romney after the Massachusetts governor cut 15 percent from the states education budget in 2003 while a student from Washington State taught English at an underground Christian school in China.</p>
<p>A significant leadership profile distinguishes many freshmen. More than 60 served as president of their senior class or student government last year, including one who was elected President of the Student Council for the State of Maine. Twenty-four Eagle Scouts and 14 Girl Scout Gold Award winners joined the Class of 2010, and 18 were selected by their high school faculty to attend Boys or Girls State programs. One represented Pennsylvania at Boys Nation.</p>
<p>The arts scene on The Hill has been enhanced by the presence of a Colorado rocker who owns nine US song copyrights as well as a guitarist who finished fifth out of 1,000 participants in the International Young Guitarist competition in 2003. In addition to students who earned All-State recognition in voice, bassoon, French horn and jazz, other freshmen offer musical talent in the folk fiddle, Chinese hammer dulcimer, bagpipes and Irish tin whistle. People in my church choir call me a transvoiceite because I can sing a wide vocal range, reported a Rhode Island crooner. Perhaps he was accompanied by his fellow Rhode Islander who won five All-State medals in piano.</p>
<p>The Class features a puppeteer engineer; a Ford model; 27 editors-in-chief of a high school newspaper; and a 61 lacrosse player who loves to bake, according to his guidance counselor. A combat correspondent in Iraq and a first responder with the Montgomery County Fire Department in Maryland; a ballerina who has danced in 265 performances of The Nutcracker with the Boston Ballet; a pediatric neurological intern from Berkeley and Arizonas state champion in Latin are all new Jumbos. So is a Mainer reported that folding laundry is his unexpected Zen and a math whiz who memorized nearly 500 digits of the number pi.</p>
<p>More than 250 freshmena fifth of the classwere elected captain of at least one varsity team in high school. Ten received All-State recognition in ice hockey, track, soccer, football, volleyball and field hockey, and 168 were recruited for one of Tufts 33 varsity teams. Members of the Singaporean national cricket team, the Puerto Rican national tennis team and a five-time member of the US National Team in rhythmic gymnastics matriculated with the class. So did the two-time Massachusetts champion in the 4x400 relay; a 35-year old marathoner from Orlando; the gold medallist in squash at the 2005 Maccabiah Games in Israel; a member of the U.S. National Championship team in ultimate Frisbee; and a junior world champion in sailing.</p>
<p>For the second class in a row, Michael is the most common name among men (26). Andrew, Daniel and Matthew, with 23 apiece, hold a three-way tie for second. Among women, 22 first-years share the name Katherine and its derivates. Elizabeth (18), Emily (17) and Rebecca (17) complete the top four. However, the class also includes 41 students named Alex, Alexander or Alexandra. If each uses the unisex Alex as a nickname, it is the undisputed champion of the Class of 10!</p>
<p>For all these points of distinction, the Class of 2010 arrives with a few things in common. Each chose Tufts for their undergraduate experience and many join their classmates on The Hill with great expectations for a dynamic undergraduate experience. Tufts is not boxed in, wrote an entering student from Mount Vernon, New York. It is completely original and unique. I want my college experience to be about accepting change and stepping outside my comfort zones to discover who and what I am and to encourage me to be daring. Her classmate from Baltimore echoed her sentiment: I want an education that will inspire me to get out into the world and shake things up, tear things down, and make things better. Simply put, that is Tufts. </p>
<p>Lee Coffin
Dean of Undergraduate Admissions</p>
<p>August 30, 2006
[/quote]
</p>
<ol>
<li>AOPi girls were giving out hot chocolate on the library steps yesterday, lol.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>Porter Square japanese food</li>
</ol>
<p>You can have a full meal at Porter Square if you go to one of those mini Japanese restaurants in the center of the complex for ~$6-7.</p>
<p>Yeah, but stay away from Bluefin unless you're taking someone on a date...it's $20 for a meal there but it's more formal of a resturant, but the food isnt better than the small resturants</p>
<p>I'm from the Boston Area, I know all the best places in Boston ^^ (Fire and Ice, anyone?)</p>
<ol>
<li>Sunday Brunch at:</li>
</ol>
<p>ON-CAMPUS
a) Dewick
b) Carmichael</p>
<p>OFF-CAMPUS
a) Broken Yolk
b) Rosebud Diner
c) Sound Bites</p>
<ol>
<li>Sunday brunch at Sabur in Teele square if you're looking for something a bit more fancy though still reasonable (8-10$).</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>With global warming, the weather here is super pleasant. ;-)</li>
<li>The squirrels on the quad can't believe how warm it is either, so they're super fat (as they're eating more than usual). It's cute (yes, okay, a little freaky).</li>
</ol>
<p>This thread deserves to be bumped up!! :)</p>
<ol>
<li>Tufts Mountain Club and the pumpkins they put all over campus for halloween (one on the dowling smokestacks, one on president bacow's house...one on the top of carmichael!!)</li>
</ol>
<p>and by 124. i meant 133.</p>
<ol>
<li>Being able to take advantage of all the opportunities and resources: yesterday this group that I'm going to the World Future Energy Summit in the UAE with met with President Bacow for coffee in the Tower Cafe and he gave us advice on our presentation, got us in touch with people we had been fruitlessly emailing, and even offered us some funding from his "discretionary fund." That is definitely a reason why I like Tufts, lol.</li>
</ol>