Tufts University (reviews)

Coming to Tufts was a vastly new experience for me in so many regards. Having grown up in the suburbs of London, I didn’t know what to expect from my Boston college. The first thing that struck me was the quality and dedication of my Professors. I had never before been in class with teachers who were so well-informed and passionate about their respective subjects. I was also astounded at how approachable and willing to help all of my professors were. One memory stands out to me in particular: my freshman year I took a History class with a very loveable and eccentric Professor. After our first class, he proceeded to hand out his email, phone number and even address! He encouraged us to message or call him at any time and said we could even come to his house. Immediately, this established a strong sense of community and togetherness between the faculty and the students and allowed me to be confident in the fact that I could, and should use my Professors as resources. Apart from this, I loved the Liberal Arts program that Tufts offered. I am someone who has many different academic interests and it has always been very hard for me to narrow them down into just one streamlined path. The Liberal Arts program allowed me to explore every single one of my interests! Even though I majored in International Relations, every semester I was able to take a plethora of courses outside of this major. As a result, I was interested and engaged and didn’t get bored or frustrated with my courses. Although our campus was very idyllic, some of the buildings required serious maintenance. Tufts is known for its Computer Science and Engineering schools. As a result of this, most investments and donations are used to develop those schools. Therefore, some of the buildings that I took classes in were very obviously lacking maintenance and this created a less comfortable learning environment. Apart from this, since the location of our campus is in the suburbs of Boston, there is no opportunity for nightlife or entertainment unless you were willing to travel to Boston. This meant that instead of going out, students would have to organise house parties in their dorms. However, because of the drinking age law, many of these would be quickly shut down. So, there were very few opportunities to socialise with peers after class hours. Overall, I had a brilliant four years at Tufts and would definitely recommend it as a University to a prospective student!

Pros：
– small sized classes (10-25 students per class)
– Approachable professors
– competency-based syllabus
– connection with Tufts Medical Center and Chinatown communities
Cons:
– The design of several fundamental PH courses are not as practical
– Teaching STATA as primary data analysis software and SAS as optional. Cross-registration is needed if you want to learn other software
– Research funding is not ideal