Natalie's experience is a great example of how sometimes things work out differently than you expect, but they do work out in the end! She is a junior at Tufts, studying Physics in the School of Engineering. She offers some great advice about staying open-minded during the college process and she is continuing to make Visitation proud with her success! If you would like to contact Natalie, please ask your College Counselor for her contact information.Why I chose Tufts: I actually had my heart set on my first choice (Brown) where I applied ED. After getting deferred to regular decision I scrambled to put together applications to most of the other schools I had visited, purely as backups. I got waitlisted from the regular decision pool and eventually rejected and had to pick among my other 6 schools. I chose Tufts as the least of 6 evils.
What I like about Tufts: I can't express how glad I am that I ended up at Tufts! It is such a cool place. It's perfect in terms of size and location: about 5,000 undergrads makes it big enough that you don't know everyone's business, but small enough that we really have a tightnit community. You almost always see at least a few people you know walking across campus. We also have a defined campus, again adding to that community feel, but the metro (T up here) stop is 5-10 min away, and a 20 min trip gets you into the heart of Boston.
The best thing about Tufts, though, is the people. We have a reputation as an ivy backup school, which is actually awesome. Everyone here is extremely intelligent, so there's aways stimulating conversation and great ideas, but they don't have that cutthroat competitiveness you get at other schools. They aren't quite so grade-hungry and are always willing to work together on homework or studying. The people here also tend to be a little different. Maybe it's because Tufts loves diversity, but we really get people of all sorts, which is so refreshing after Visitation. All of my friends are weird, in the best way possible.
College is better than high school because: I live anywhere from 0 min to 10 min away from all of my friends. I don't have to drive anywhere from 30min to an hour and a half just to hang out with someone. I can walk down the hallway and hang out for five minutes. It makes seeing your friends during the week (or really any time) sooo easy.
But I miss ___________ about Visi... Marshmallow Roast. My favorite Visi tradition. Tufts has lots of cool traditions too, like painting the cannon and NQR (look it up, it's kind of ridiculous and awesome), but we don't have quite the history of Visitation. I don't think many people can say that their high school is older than their college.
Classes I am taking next semester: I'm doing a Physics major in the School of Engineering, so don't be scared by these classes. We also have lots of cool and interesting liberal arts classes too.
Experimental Modern Physics
Relativity and Cosmology
Stellar and Galactic Astronomy
Fluid Mechanics
West African Dance (took this last Spring, so fun and intense!)
Favorite place on campus: The library roof. It was just redone about a year or two ago, and is a great hangout spot on campus. It is known as having one of the best views of Boston of anywhere in the area, overlooking the city skyline. It has a winding garden with trees and plants in a raised flowerbed, so there is seating all along the edge. Very beautiful.
Stuff to do off campus: Davis Square is 5-10 min away from campus (where the T stop is located). It's a very young/hip place so it's lots of fun. Some must dos: Dave's Fresh Pasta (delicious delicious sandwiches and pasta), Diva Bistro(Indian food- awesome breakfast/lunch all-you-can-eat buffet), J.P. Licks (popular Boston ice cream shop), Somerville Theater (cheap theater, always showing a couple new movies, a couple independent films, has live shows, and just other cool events, like the Rocky Horror Picture Show at Halloween time)
What do you wear to class? I like to try to look nice around campus because I've never been allowed to wear real clothes to school (private school K-12), but if I wake up and don't feel like it, there's no pressure. Sometimes I literally wear what I slept in to my first class, especially when I have an early class like my 8:30am class last year.
Best and worst thing about having boys around: Boys are awesome! It is so fun having them around, living on your hallway, in your classes. Last spring I actually had my first class ever where I was the only girl (but that's because I do physics, a very male-dominated field). They are so much chiller and have a million times less drama than girls. I guess one drawback would be that they aren't very clean, but you can't room with a boy and we always have separate bathrooms, so that's not much of an issue.
Anything else you think the girls should know or we should have asked: College is amazing. You will probably be happy anywhere you go, so try not to stress too much. Really try to check out as many schools as you can..I think Visi girls tend to get tied down looking at all the same schools as everyone else. Don't be afraid to look at some schools a little off the beaten path. A big name isn't everything. Take this opportunity to do what you want to do with your life.
Natalie would love to answer your questions about life at Tufts. Ask your college counselor for her email if you would like to get in touch!
Published by KMH
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