Tufts

What makes Tufts special?  First, it truly is a small liberal arts college and a first class intensive research university.  What does that mean for you?  With an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 5,000, Tufts is able to maintain a sense of community where no one gets lost, people know you and you don’t have to do much beyond walking outside your dorm door to find a friend.  However, it also has an extensive top tier research program allowing undergrads research opportunities, only graduate students at many other schools can get.  The focus on the undergraduates is not by accident.  Most of the graduate programs are at a separate campus.

In addition, Tufts has purposely tried to encourage cross and interdisciplinary research and inquiry, realizing that most of the world is not divided into departments.  The barriers between the liberal arts college and school of engineering are very low.  Because of this, research projects may be staffed by biology, computer science, engineering and maybe even poli sci or ethics professor.  This benefits the students because they have the opportunity to gain insight into different disciplines and see how they are related.  Evidence of the success of this philosophy is that at most colleges often graduate far fewer engineering students than originally start out because the experience is so demanding.  At Tufts one year the school had more engineers graduate than initially enrolled because the work they were doing was so inspiring and liberal arts students had the opportunity to see participate and eventually enroll.  Tufts usually has a 100% retention rate in engineering.

Students also rave about the faculty at Tufts.  One students explained that the professor student relationship often feels like that of a peer imparting knowledge to a junior colleague.  Professors are usually identified as the number one reason to choose Tufts.  

Another huge draw for the school is its international perspective.  Not only does Tufts have one of the best international relations programs in the country, but it also maintains  a world view in its inquiry.  As one administrator put it, “The world is enormous and complex. College is about how you engage the world.   How are you going to engage and affect it comfortably in this ever growing multinational reality.  Because of this world view, students are required to take six classes in a foreign language.  This can be satisfied with all six classes in one language, two groups of three classes in two languages or three classes in one language and an additional three classes in the history, culture, traditions... of that language.

Once thought of as the school students go to when they don’t get into the Ivies, Tufts is now so much more.