Tufts University: Off the Record - College Prowler (College Prowler: Tufts University Off the Record)

Introduction from the Author

One day about four years ago, I stood on TuftsÂ’ library roof; as the wind blew over my head, I could clearly see the Boston skyline. I just knew I had to spend the next four years of my life there. Fortunately, the admissions committee agreed with me, and here I am writing to tell you about life on the hill.

By the time I arrived at Tufts, I had been to a lot of other top-tier schools where the people I saw were just like me, and I thought that was great. Tufts was different, however. At Tufts, I saw that college is really about growing into something you arenÂ’t yet, and the people at Tufts seemed like the kind of people I wanted to become. Tufts students, on the whole, are smart, funny, and interesting, but most importantly, they are passionate about what they are doing. They get excited enough about a topic to create and teach their own course to freshmen. They plaster the entire campus with posters in hopes that a few more people will find out about their group. They are leaders and thinkers, and together they have managed to create an incredibly dynamic community.

Our former provost, Sol Gittleman, once said that he thinks Tufts has perfected the undergraduate experience. An ideal-sized school of about 5,000 undergrads, Tufts teeters on the fence between being a small New England liberal arts college and a large research institution. ItÂ’s a city school, with a beautiful suburban campus that is situated on the town line of Medford and Somerville. At Tufts, professors truly focus on their students, and the students take everything they are learning and really try to use it. It is a place where extra-curricular activities are just as important as academics, and the University has as much spirit as one four times its size.

What impressed me most about Tufts was that the school had a sense of humor about itself. In the past 20 years, Tufts has become more competitive and more prestigious than its deans ever expected. There are new buildings everywhere, and Tufts is attracting the most talented students in the world. Still, with school colors that don’t quite match, an alma mater that nobody knows, a mascot called Jumbo, and a hill so big that first-years need not worry about the Freshman 15, Tufts has retained the spirit that Nathan Tufts breathed when he vowed to “put a light on the hill” in 1852.

Granted, if you live somewhere for an extended period of time, you’re bound to find a blemish or two—like my freshman year bathroom, or the unpredictable weather. Still, the college experience here has never been so appetizing. Now, it is your chance to taste a little bit of the world Tufts has to offer—Jumbo sized.

Emily Chasan, Author
Tufts University