Science at Tufts: Information for Students

guildsman
Mon, 30 Mar 2009 20:02:15 +0000

With regards to the research comparisons to other liberal arts colleges:

Tufts generally, but not always has a larger research program than other liberal arts schools. Since we do have graduate students in nearly every single laboratory setting, there is a strong focus on producing and publishing research. So Professors in the Biology Department do get published in journals like Science and Nature. Also there are a lot of major research programs that may often be more advanced than at smaller schools. Like I said before, because of the strong undergraduate focus, professors are usually very accomodating in taking in and training undergraduates. What’s important is that faculty prefer a commitment from students because training takes a long time and usually you can’t get substantial research done in a single semester - so faculty become invested in students.

I also want to point out that though smaller liberal arts schools may have smaller faculty sizes and less research opportunities (at times), they still produce excellent scientists. In fact, smaller liberal arts colleges have a propensity for producing students who go on to do graduate work in their fields. In high school I was lucky enough to work in a major protein laboratory with a Postdoctoral researcher who graduated from Swarthmore (so she clearly had no problem in her later career).

It really depends on a school by school basis what you’re looking for and all of the other factors that go into college selection. But Tufts certainly offers a lot of undergraduate support and focus for its science students. A good way to think about Tufts is as a middleground between a larger research university and a small liberal arts college, with a bit more tilt towards the larger research university.