<p>Google Maps just gave me 14 minutes from Tufts to Downtown Crossing using routes that lolabelle and kofi000 would not bother with.</p>
<p>I’ll grant you that if I had a meeting in Boston, I’d give myself more than 10 minutes to get there. But the point, as lolabelle says, is that Tufts is a lot closer to Boston than the OP thought.</p>