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Tufts University

How this student rated the school
Educational QualityA Faculty AccessibilityA+
Useful SchoolworkA+ Excess CompetitionA-
Academic SuccessA Creativity/ InnovationA-
Individual ValueA University Resource UseB+
Campus Aesthetics/ BeautyA- FriendlinessA
Campus MaintenanceB+ Social LifeA-
Surrounding CityA+ Extra CurricularsA+
SafetyA+
Describes the student body as:
Friendly, Snooty

Describes the faculty as:
Friendly, Helpful

Female
SAT1440
Quite Bright
Lowest Rating
University Resource Use
B+
Highest Rating
Faculty Accessibility
A+
She rated most things higher than other students did.
Date: Jan 20 2007
Major: Math (This Major's Salary over time)
I am rating this comment positive because I do believe that the good outweighs the bad; however, I am going to comment on what I consider to be both the good and bad aspects of the university.

First the positives. Overall, I think this is a great university where people can learn, especially if they apply themselves. I have found my professors to be engaging, friendly, and very helpful. In other words, they WANT YOU TO LEARN! There are lots of opportunities for outside research (something which I have had the opportunity to do twice), and I think that these experiences are invaluable to both your future and your eduction. There is nothing like applying what you are learning to real-world situations.

The students are smart and generally want to do well. I don't find it to be cut-throat competative- no one asks how you did so that they can compare themselves to you; instead, it's more of an internalize competativeness where they try their best to beat themselves.

The dorms are not bad. I have certainly been to worse. A few people say they have had problems with bugs, but from my experience, a lot of these problems are due to unhygenic practices by the inhabitants- ie, leaving food out to rot. The on-campus apartments are small but cozy. The dorm food is, in comparison to other places, not bad at all. There are lots of options, and even if you simply HATE the hot entrees, you can always make a salad or sandwich, or eat some cereal. Having had friends from other universities come by, I have heard all of them say that in comparison, our food is better.

I think the campus has a nice layout and is quite pretty from a fairly urban setting. People might complain that we need to spread out more or that it's oddly planned, but they have to remember that we straddle Somerville/Medford, and land is damn expensive, not to mention hard to come by. Tufts does try to upkeep the buildings. They just built a new eco-friendly apartment building, along with a new music building.

The range of classes offered is great. Some of my favorite classes were not in my major, but instead in art, italian literature, etc. Tufts has a great cross-registration option with the School of the MFA, so you can mingle with a very artsy crowd. There is also the ExCollege, were people can take different, random classes, often taught by other students or experts in whatever field it is.

Now for the bads. There is a bit of non-mixing between different racial groups. This is not true in all cases, though- my friends come a variety of different backgrounds. But, in general, there seems to be a certain racial divide. A lot of people are very quick to defend their background, regardless of if it was actually being insulted in the first place. Sometimes the school is almost too steretypically liberal- and this is coming from a die-hard social liberal! However, sometimes it just feels like unless you are an international student or a minority, you count for a lot less.

Keep in mind, though, this seems to only reflect group mentality- individual encounters that I have had are very informative and open-minded. It just seems that if you get a larger group together, the old barriers come more into focus. It's group mentality versus invidivual experiences.

Why does this happen at Tufts and not other schools? Well, one idea is that since we do have a very diverse (racially) population, that in schools with less, there simply aren't enough differences to come to light. Another idea is that maybe the school points out race (as a good thing) so often, that all the bad things also come out. I don't know. I do think the University is trying hard to create more intermingling between racial groups, but it's the individual ethnic-centric clubs and programs that need to reach out more as well.

Another bad thing is that a lot of Tufts students, regardless of race, come from very high-level socioeconomic backgrounds. This seems to lead to lots of whining. I hear people talking about spending several hundred dollars on clothes each weekend, or about the next flight to the Bahamas. Some people are so used to having everything handed to them on a silver platter that everything warrants complaint, from the weather (it's Massachusetts, it gets cold, deal with it) to how so very far away Boston is (it's only 20 minutes away, and most of that is spent with your butt sitting on a train- stop complaining). The lack of social life seems to come up a lot, though I have never found this to be the case. I have always found something to do and somewhere to go, and it's suprising that such a lack of imagination or self-motivation comes from a group of supposed self-starters.

That said, not everyone is whiney or spoiled, and everyone I know seems to have found their own niche at the school and made lasting friendships.

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