Sunny. Packed. Fun. These few words describe the various aspects of the 2015 Spring College Tour hosted by SEEDS’ Guidance Department. With a full Coach bus, the Guidance team and 49 SEEDS scholars traveled from Newark, New Jersey in March to some of the U.S. best liberal arts colleges and universities in the New England region. The nine colleges and universities visited were Bates College, Boston College, Bowdoin College, Clark University, Connecticut College, Harvard University, Quinnipiac University, Tufts University, and Wheaton College.
Below, you can read a recap of some of the schools visited during the college tour.
TUFTS UNIVERSITY
Llarsania Galloza (Scholars ‘12, Asheville School ‘16)
Cold. Desolate. Quiet. No, I am not talking about Antarctica but Tufts University during Spring Break. The school is great but, unfortunately, we toured at an inconvenient time of the year, since the students were not on campus. Instead, the info session we attended was very useful painting a picture of what student life is like on campus. The University has 5,000 students with all 50 states represented, and students coming from 65 different countries. The University has a Liberal Arts school with an additional school in Engineering. It also offers additional programs in the arts and sciences and social science. Class sizes range from 20-25 students, but lectures can reach up to 400 students. The larger classes are broken down into smaller discussion groups that are no larger than 12 students. About half of the students study abroad during their time at Tufts; around 45% of juniors study abroad. Tufts even has a campus in France. There is an “early assurance” program to Tufts’ Graduate School and so during sophomore year, students can apply early to Tufts’ Medical, Dental or Veterinarian Schools. The University does not offer a pre-med program but students can still follow a pre-med track.