Tufts University Top Questions

Tufts' student body is very interesting, and some rivalries do occur. The Tufts Democrats and the Tufts Republicans can bang heads, and the Free Thought Society, Tufts' Atheist Club, often gets into arguments with some religious groups. Racism and prejudice do occur- but the media and the students themselves dwell on these events because they're so rare. In general, Tufts students really are incredibly accepting and open of each other. My friends are all different races, religions, and sexual orientations. I have some incredibly wealthy friends, and some kids who have to scrape the bottom of the barrel just to come to Tufts, and we get along just fine. Tufts has high percentages of liberals, whites, homosexuals, Jews and pre-med students.

About a quarter total nerds, a quarter athletes, and the other half pretty normal kids who like to go out. Certain frats tend to interact with athletes, while others interact with the other kids who like to go out.

The students really are weird! Most are from NY and New England.

Tufts students are from EVERYWHERE and all have very unique and compelling stories. For instance within my group of friends, I am from Texas, I have a friend that grew up in Japan and then moved to California, I have two friends from Chicago, and a friend from Washington D.C. We are from all over the place! Tufts is also an extremely accepting an open campus. There are many LGBT students, and I have never experienced or seen any discrimination or hatred toward anyone. It is also a very racially and religiously diverse campus. There are countless events and clubs that integrate all of these students and spreads awareness about each culture. Another thing that you should expect if you come to Tufts, is everyone is very politically on top of things. No matter what major, engineering, political science, or philosophy, everyone has an opinion, and everyone wants their opinions heard. Tufts is a very politically active campus, and finding ways to get involved is incredibly easy.

I live 40 minutes away from tufts. I think it speaks volumes that my two best friends are from California, and the other weekend I brought 2 friends home for the day. One is from the Bahamas and the other is from North Carolina. Tufts is definitely a liberal school. I'de say that about 80{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of my friends are supporting Obama for President. There is certainly a lot of political involvement and everyone is aware and speak often at dinner about politics and what is going on in the world. the biggest emphasis however is on community service. It seems that everyone is involved, because they understand how lucky they are and they want to see others succeed like they have.

Most students are scrubs during the weak and wear sweats to class. Different types of students interact, depending of various factors such as: what kinds of classes you take, where you live freshman year, etc. Athletes tend to only hang out with other athletes. Tufts students come from all over the country, and even all over the world; tufts has a large international student population. Most Tufts students come from wealthy families.

Tufts students are awesome, just watch out for the party scene people and the occassional hipster. Actually the hipsters aren't that scary, just don't call them a hipster. And, Tufts has jocks. Some of the jocks here are just like high school - they can be kinda mean. And beware of the ultimate frisbee team, they're kinda mean and exclusive.

there are a lot of jewish students at school. i feel like i've gotten to know jewish culture over the extent of this year.

Liberal, although not as politically active/aware as I had hoped. There are undoubtedly pockets, and everyone is lulled into thinking that they need to come off as an "active citizen." Much like the newest indie band for the twenty-something, young professional crowd, there is always the latest "social consciousness" fad to worry about supporting on Tufts' campus. A few months ago it was doing away with bottled water. That has faded as quickly as it materialized, and now the latest obsession is campaigning to get our janitors equal rights. I appreciate the work each group does more than most Tufts students; I'm less inclined to scoff at each new project than I am to scorn those who participate haphazardly in each one--sporting the newly bought Nalgene in March and the "Support our Janitors!" pin in April.

(Refer to my "big picture" answer for some of the basics) Tufts is a very liberal campus--we joke that there are 3 Republicans on campus. Kids are fairly aware politically, and definitely very opinionated. Perhaps because of this liberal environment, there is a really active LGBT community, and they are completely accepted on campus. Racial and ethnic diversity is lacking a little bit, and kids tend to self-segregate. The international kids hang out together, black kids hang out together, Latino kids hang out together, etc. That's sometimes frustrating, but it's not an intentional hostile segregration; it's more that kids gravitate to kids like them. If you're really motivated to have a diverse group of friends, it's pretty easy to get involved in other cultural communities, but you do have to make an initial effort. A lot of kids come from middle upperclass backgrounds and some (unfortunately) have a somewhat entitled attitude. Because Tufts is so expensive, there are not many kids from working class families; those kids often have a different experience because they have to work a lot more (through work-study or off-campus jobs) during college than their friends.