Science at Tufts: Information for Students

guildsman
Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:30:39 +0000

Responses to the last several posts:

Biology Courses: The biology department at Tufts is a general department without sub-concentrations like at other schools. What this means is that a biology major must take the introductory sequence and genetics, but also a course in cellular biology, organismal biology, and populations biology (3 different courses). As for human related courses in the biology department alone (courses that either deal exclusively with or have a large human oriented component): General Physiology I and II, Human Genetics, Immunology, Biochemistry and Cellular Metabolism, Endocrinology, Neurobiology. This is not counting the dozens of different psychology, community health (a particularly unique program at Tufts - I urge interested prehealth students to learn more about it: The Community Health Program - Homepage) , and nutrition classes available.

Studying Abroad: I have several friends who are science majors studying abroad in places from Oxford to Germany. In Oxford they are required to take a full year sequence of science classes so there’s no problem with fulfilling science requirements for a major. You need to plan accordingly (also for Oxford you need a high GPA - Above 3.7 I believe), but study abroad is very doable. I decided not to go abroad this year simply because of the huge amount of opportunities that there are on campus alone, but at times I do regret missing the experience.

Biology 13 and 14: These courses are (1) Known to be difficult (2) Not like AP Biology (3) Cover the necessary material for the biology major and medical school. Even if you are not a science major, but taking Biology 13, 14, and perhaps genetics you will be well prepared. However, like I said these courses are challenging because they require you to apply the material and not just memorize it and repeat it. An example of this is learning about the technique of gel electrophoresis, western blots, and proteins and then being shown a gel and given a scenario and then drawing conclusions. The courses force students to think critically.

Comparison to other Schools: Speaking from personal experience (I’ve watched hours of the introductory biology UC Berkeley lectures), the Tufts science classes are on par with the courses offered at that school. I would say fairly confidently that the courses cover material on an equivalent enough level with other schools, though there is a great deal of variability. At ANY institution your courses will depend on your professors. I want to point out something that people seem to forget. Just because a school has 15 Noble Prize Winners does not mean that: 1. They actually teach courses. 2. They’re any good at teaching. 3. They take undergraduates into their labs. 4. They’re even associated with the undergraduate campus. At Tufts there is a very strong focus on undergraduate education compared to larger schools.

Graduate Schools: I think we have fairly good acceptance rates into graduate schools. A fellow undergraduate student was admitted into a variety of PhD Ivy League programs recently and decided to go to MIT. For medical school we have an excellent adviser and Tufts students do end up getting into Harvard Medical School (if that is your goal…) and many other great schools.

Tufts may not have the same money to do equivalent research to be “better” than much larger programs. It is illogical to compare departments in this way (the Columbia Biology department has much more money than we do). At the same time Tufts Medical School rates 6th for the impact of its research in the country (check wikipedia).

Hope this helps. Looking forward to more questions.