Why Tufts?

We caught only part of Yulia Korovikov’s talk on what it is to be an (international) student at Tufts University, academically and socially, but it was enough to get us hooked. In fact, we wished we could turn back time and choose more wisely. Korovikov gave plenty of examples, some from her own experience as a student at Tufts, - she graduated from the university in 2013, - most from her work as Assistant Director of Admissions responsible for Eastern European applicants, among others.

When Korovikov talked about Tufts’ academic strengths, what stood out were the school’s interdisciplinary programs across all fields. In 2016 it seems it isn’t enough to “just” study engineering or psychology, one goes for engineering psychology now. (Engineering psychologists apply knowledge of human behavior to the design of products, equipment, machines, and large-scale systems for human use, we learned.) If you don’t choose an interdisciplinary program, you can combine majors - even some that have seemingly nothing in common, like mechanical engineering and drama, for example. This was the exotic choice of a real Tufts graduate, who added drama to his engineering major for a very practical reason: he needed to come up with a way to make the robot he was developing less stiff. This way, the student found out that drama was his calling. But it doesn’t have to involve a frustrated engineer, as apparently, Apple, Microsoft, and the likes just love Tufts graduates.

Next, Korovikov touched on the part of university studies most important to high-school students: social life. Tufts’ campus, she said, is small enough to give you the feeling of a home. Joining sororities or fraternities is optional, while snowball fighting skills more of a must. On that note, ACSers interested in Tufts were advised to not underestimate the power of (a few pairs of) warm socks. There are about 300 different clubs at Tufts and Korovikov listed quite a few, yet somehow we found just the “don’t need to know how to dance” dance club in our notes.

As per the necessary evil of the admissions process, we learned that Tufts admits 3000 students each year. Three different people read the entire application. Grades are every bit as important as wise grown-ups around you have been saying. Next in importance are the essays. Here, we can’t help but share the example that Korovikov gave of a kid named Eli who wrote a code instead of an essay… and got admitted. So, if you want to join the 2,999 other students Tufts admits per year, and you probably do, because they are “smart as in intellectually curious, fun as in able to leave academics behind, and nice as in being able to disagree respectfully because they know people come from different backgrounds,” then make good use of the school’s admissions blog (we keep hearing of those, they seem to be the thing), take their virtual tour to feel the atmosphere, and... good luck!