<p>Nelsoneas,</p>
<p>You questions deal with specific applicantions, so I invite you to e-mail me, as it isn’t appropriate to discuss particular candidacies on the board. There have been HUGE changes in our process in the last 5 years, and I would be delighted to talk you through our process and honestly address the concerns you raised. </p>
<p>Until then, I’ll move to the more general concerns. </p>
<p>We never EVER operate with a quota on the number of applicants we will accept from any national, ethnic, or geographic group. You can be assured that we do not look at applicants from Venezuela or any other area thinking, “Well, we’re only willing to accept 2 people from this place, so who’s it going to be?” Isabel, the admissions rep for South America, gets pretty excited about applicants from Latin America, and I know there isn’t a bias against those kids. A bright student, expecting to find an internationally oriented education where she/he can meet people from all around the world, then learn from those people (and then travel there) can look at Tufts and find something special.</p>
<p>As for the question about Hopkinton - I never know how to answer questions about how we think of particular schools. Of course, I’m aware of much of curricular options - like the new AP Environmental Science class - and the rigor of the environment - you can’t be a slouch at Hopkinton and expect to succeed. But it isn’t like we have a big list of Massachusetts schools and we shuffle them up and down in comparison with one another (like Stephen Colbert’s “On Notice” Board).</p>