Tufts VS Amherst (social scene)

Tufts2021
Mon, 25 Sep 2017 04:28:08 +0000

I’m a freshman at Tufts, and there is nothing I don’t love about the school! It’s funny, too, that I know several classmates who chose Tufts over Amherst (and Williams, Bowdoin, Middlebury and Ivies now that I think about it). The location is great; I find myself going into Boston most weekends and just enjoying the city, not to mention the plethora of college kids there. Everyone is so collaborative here, and there is a great amount of intermingling between athletes and non-athletes (I’m friends with students on the swimming team, football team, baseball team, basketball team, tennis team, ski team and more, despite myself not being an athlete). The size is perfect for me – I toured Amherst and found it to be way too small, so I didn’t end up applying there.

All my professors know me by name, and most of them actually ask their students to call them by their first name to create less of a dichotomy between the student-teacher relationship. My classes are all small, and even the intro classes are about the size of a regular high school class (my language and English classes being 12-14 kids).

About the Greek life thing – I don’t know where you’re hearing that from, but it is totally false. Only about 10-15% of the student body participates in Greek life, and it is not the central function for social life/events on campus. And don’t get me wrong… if you didn’t want to have anything to do with Greek life (which most students here evidently don’t, given the statistics), you will still find more than enough parties and social events to attend with friends.

And about the students here being privileged – that was actually a big concern of mine too, and it has yet to come back to my mind since starting here. Everyone is so humble and does not flaunt their money around, even if they have it. Everyone comes from such different backgrounds, heritages, cultures, etc. It is true that the kids here are, on average, much more affluent than at other schools, but by no means does it mean they’re ostentatious about it. I couldn’t even start to guess the socioeconomic statuses of my friends – they are all just amazing people with whom I love to spend time. Affluence of the students does not bring a divide to campus. If you are worried that being low income means being ostracized or cliques forming due to socioeconomic status, you could not be more wrong. On top of that, Tufts provides amazing aid (for the most part). Rumor is that Tufts is trying to eventually make tuition free (and not even too far in the future).

So far, sexual assault has not been a problem. Everyone here is very considerate of one another, and since Tufts is so PC, people make an effort – and make sure to – ask for affirmative consent before initiating in any sort of sexual activity. And everyone looks out for one another if they think something might not be quite right. Every freshman is also required to go to a detailed affirmative consent presentation at the beginning of each year. Tufts really makes an effort to address sexual assault and consent.

I’d just like to finish by saying the students at Tufts are some of the most amicable, passionate, creative, and intelligent individuals I have met thus far in my life. They strive every day to make Tufts a great place to be, and I can truly say I already feel at home. The vibe I get here is different from every other school I have visited/have friends at. When having conversations with other kids from schools nearby (Harvard, MIT, NEU, BU), I’ve found them to be much less engaging than the conversations I had when meeting kids at Tufts (and still continue to have). Tufts relies heavily on its supplements to bring in an already established class of brilliant, humorous, quirky kids, and I could not be happier with the choice I made to attend Tufts.

Hope this will help with your decision!! PM me if you have any other questions!