There's No Place Like Tufts

Through the gates and up the hill to Ballou Hall at Tufts University

The saying, “the more things change, the more they stay the same,” came to mind as we toured the Tufts University campus. We had an above-average reason for feeling that way, as we had both graduated as Jumbos more years ago than we will confirm or deny. 

We traveled to our alma mater from downtown Boston, which meant that the first thing we saw was the ginormous athletic complex: The Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center. Despite its newly controversial name, this is quite the upgrade from the venerable and historic Cousens Gymnasium, which thankfully still stands. Across the street is a healthy collection of football, baseball, soccer, lacrosse, track, and other fields. 

Right there at the corner stands the ultra-modern, mostly glass, Joyce Cummings Center. We later learned it is an interdisciplinary center that opened in 2021, well past our Tuftonian sell-by date. It mainly houses classrooms and meeting areas for the Computer Science, Economics, and Mathematics Departments. 

It is also home to certain programs from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy as well as the Derby Entrepreneurial Center. The architecture, layout, and amenities are meant to reflect a focus on collaboration, innovation, community, and sustainability. It is one of only three Tufts buildings named for a woman (Bush and Stratton dorms are the others). Joyce Cummings is the wife of real estate developer and philanthropist Bill Cummings. 

As we hung a right to get to the brand spanking new parking garage below the equally glistening Tufts admissions welcoming center (right next to a new dorm construction site), we passed the recently inaugurated MTBA stop, part of the Green line that connects the campus to downtown Boston, including Fenway Park and other neighborhoods. That would have been really nice back in the day.

We took the elevator up seven levels of parking to the welcome center at Dowling Hall, which is at ground level. The welcoming desk was dark and empty: understandable as there were no tours scheduled that day. A sign suggested we proceed to the admissions office. After we traversed a footbridge and followed a short path, everything suddenly looked familiar. Despite the many evident changes as we first approached Tufts, the main campus was eerily almost exactly as we remembered it. 

Of course, the Admissions Office is now where the bookstore used to be, although that change happened decades ago. The interior re-design was thoroughly New England collegiate and very comfortable. We couldn’t help but notice the many NCAA trophies lining a bookcase. Tufts is a D3 school, and a very successful one, particularly in soccer and lacrosse. 

We were soon joined by not one but two very warm and friendly admissions representatives: Associate Director Jack Griffith, who joined Tufts from Rice University recently, and counselor Kaitlyn Calnan. They were very generous with their time and patiently answered our many and often geeky questions that only college counselors would care about.

Both Jack and Kaitlyn became quite animated while talking about the relatively new Entrepreneurial minor at Tufts, which historically has not offered business classes of any kind. We don’t know, but if we had to guess, we’d hazard that a business major may not be far behind. 

That would be significant for Tufts, which in recent years has placed a heavy emphasis on STEM. This was evident not only in the prominence of the Joyce Cummings Center, but also in the bustling hive that is the Tsungming Tu Complex, which combines what used to be the Anderson and Robinson Halls, along with a major modern addition out back. 

That high energy contrasted sharply with the ghost town that is Braker Hall, where History, Philosophy, and other humanities hold forth (originally, Braker was built for a Business school that never transpired). Granted, we were there during the finals reading period and classes were out of session, but Braker looked almost exactly as staid and dusty as it did back in the late 1970s.

Interestingly, Jack mentioned that he’d like to see more applications from humanities students, which may suggest a pendulum swing back to the liberal arts for which Tufts was historically revered. 

Kaitlyn also noted a somewhat new initiative called the Center for Expanding Viewpoints in Higher Education. It is designed to bring a wider array of political, cultural, and ideological perspectives into campus discourse through classes, as well as events, reading groups, curriculum development, research projects, and public conversations.

It is an outgrowth of a popular course called “American Conservatism” taught by Eitan Hersh, a center-right political science professor who has made waves with his mission to build a better understanding of conservative thought on a largely progressive campus. 

The balance of our time at Tufts was a magical nostalgia tour through the vastly expanded albeit still familiar library, one of the wildly updated dining halls (the food was terrible when we were students, but it appears totally edible now), and the dorms where we lived and first met, which look pretty much the same (just like we do!). 

We grabbed a bite to eat at Mayer Campus Center, which didn’t exist back then but looks quite well lived-in now. We wondered how many of these impossibly young students had any idea that “Mayer” was Jean Mayer, who was the president of Tufts during our time there and is widely credited with putting the university on the elite path it has travelled ever since.

Often, when we ask students why they liked a particular school, they say something like, “Oh, I don’t know. It’s just the vibe.” That’s exactly how we both felt when we first toured campus all those years ago; it just felt like home. It’s great to know that it still does.

It’s Great to BU

A view from within Boston University’s Duan Family Center for Computing and Data Science

There’s cold, and then there’s wicked cold. That’s the only kind of cold on an early December morning while standing outside a locked door at Boston University’s modern, glassy, Leventhal Center, 45 minutes early for a 9:30 information session. They wouldn’t let us in. Why wouldn’t they let us in? We could see them inside, nice and warm. 

Oh, well. Maybe we could find a Starbucks or something. We pivoted and took a right, finding ourselves facing this amazing, gravity-defying architectural wonder that looked like the world's tallest game of Jenga. How else to describe it? Chunky clusters of the edifice were stacked and staggered – two, three, and four floors at a time – as it reached for the sky. 

Its doors were open, and it turned out to be the Duan Family Center for Computing and Data Science. Even if STEM is not your thing, this building would be reason enough to apply to BU. We never advanced beyond the soaring atrium of the ground level, but were instantly mesmerized by the kaleidoscopic staircase rising above, and impressed with the energy of its denizens, grabbing coffee, waiting for elevators, and catching up with one another, palpably eager for the day ahead. 

The day before, we had walked the main part of the Harvard campus. It’s always awe-inspiring and also a bit intimidating to be there; you can almost feel your IQ melting in the intellectual ooze within earshot. We didn’t enter any buildings, but couldn’t help but notice how old and fusty it looked. Sure, it may be state-of-the-art inside, but the Yard projected a storied past more than a tantalizing future. 

It was now 9:00, so we headed back to the Leventhal Center at BU, where the doors swung open wide, and the warmth was evident in more than just the room temperature. A sophomore named Nick greeted us with a giant smile as he checked us in on his iPad. 

He said he was from Georgia, and when we asked him what he liked about BU, he didn’t miss a beat. He said it was BU Hub, the university’s clever way of combining ostensibly disconnected subject areas, like philosophy and biology, for example. Even more important, it enables you to amortize your general education requirements across all four years. This mattered to Nick because it meant he could dive right into his public relations major as opposed to dispensing with all of his mandatory subjects first.  

We later learned that BU Hub is composed of hundreds of courses organized along various themes: Scientific & Social Inquiry, Communication, Diversity, Civic Engagement, and Global Citizenship. The overall approach is creative, such that if you are not a math type, you can fulfill your requirement by taking a philosophy course called “Puzzles and Paradoxes,” which focuses on critical thinking, logic, and life's big questions through analyzing absurd conclusions from basic beliefs (e.g., everyone is bald).

Nick also mentioned that he appreciated BU’s flexibility, which enabled him to switch his major easily from journalism to public relations, where the job market is stronger. This was echoed during our information session, during which Sofia, a junior, described her circuitous journey to become an English, Spanish, and Pre-Law major. BU prides itself on enabling students to switch majors as often as they like and still graduate within four years. 

The info session, by the way, was among the very best we’ve seen (and we’ve attended scores of them). It wasn’t the usual PowerPoint data dump that’s numbingly reminiscent of every other college, but rather an honest-to-goodness dialogue between Maddy, an admissions counselor, and Sofia, a student. The two of them sat before a jumbo screen displaying hero shots of the campus from every imaginable angle as they spoke extemporaneously to each other and to us.

It was outstanding – possibly the GOAT - and very different from the last time we had attended a BU information session, several years ago. Back then, we were jammed into a basement space, with an admissions counselor droning on behind a podium, with no visuals of any kind. At the time, the BU admissions rate was about 36%, compared to about 11% today. We’re not suggesting correlation or causation, but times certainly have changed at BU as they have at many other schools (Harvard excepted, perhaps :).

Another thing that really stood out: BU offers study abroad programs that guarantee an internship as part of the experience. Also, BU covers 100% of tuition for households earning less than $200K, and about 20% of each class are first-generation students. Fifty-nine percent of accepted students applied for early decision. If you submit your application by December 1st, you are automatically considered for financial aid. 

As we left the Leventhal, it was still brutally cold outside, but hey, that’s Boston in the wintertime, and it’s worth wearing a few extra layers for the vibe alone. There are college towns, and there are college towns … and then there is Boston, arguably the best of them all. Greater Boston is home to upwards of 75 colleges and perhaps as many as a quarter million undergraduates. BU or otherwise, it’s hard to imagine a more exhilarating college community than that.

It's a thing of BU-tee.

Indiana Rocks!

One of many limestone towers at Indiana University in Bloomington

Massive yet graceful limestone structures lined the boulevard to our right as we made our way to the admissions office at Indiana University. “Majestic” is a good word to begin describing the beautiful Bloomington campus, but only a beginning. “Rock solid” is another, and as it happens, this university is not only built of limestone but also on a bed of it. 

Spanning some 2,000 acres and having evolved over two centuries, the IU flagship today is home to almost 40,000 undergraduates, who are pursuing any combination of more than 200 majors. Indiana is one of the most popular choices among our students when deciding where to apply, in no small measure because of the elite Kelley School of Business.

That Bloomington is considered one of America’s best college towns certainly is a factor, too. Then there’s that Hoosier spirit: everybody was buzzing about the football team's 55-10 win over Maryland a few days earlier, bringing its record to 7-0. The team remained undefeated, finishing the season at a historic 13-0 overall, 9-0 in Big Ten play, ultimately winning the conference championship and its first-ever #1 ranking.  

We entered via the southwest, historic part of campus known as Old Crescent, which dates back to the school’s founding in the early 1800s. It’s all gothic, wooded, and relatively quiet. It’s pretty much everything one might hope to find on an archetypal college campus. It’s just the first of the five or six “neighborhoods” that make IU less overwhelming than three square miles of world-class academia has any right to be. 

As we headed north, we found the science and engineering buildings and the Kelley School. Toward the center is the Arboretum District, featuring open spaces, the Eskenazi Museum of Art, and two libraries. Then there’s the Riverwalk District, the Athletics Corridor, and the East and South Residential neighborhoods, essentially 'hoods within a 'hood. The dorms in the northwest are where freshmen cluster and can find their peeps. 

So, in other words, Indiana takes what could be an oppressive environment and breaks it down into a series of navigable pathways. When we met up with one of our former students, she said the “neighborhood” vibe made all the difference for her at IU, a kind of enzyme of assimilation. Another attraction was the ability to mix and match majors and minors across all 12 schools at Indiana, which she was exploring. She also said she loved the sculpture of a giant brain outside the psychology department, especially when it was illuminated at night. 

We had already heard the phrase “mix and match” at least a few times during the information session. Rafael, a senior admissions director, shared that 63% of undergrads double-majored. When he said that an accelerated Master's degree in some majors could be earned in five years, we thought we heard the packed room of prospective students and their parents shift in their seats. 

When he told us about the opportunity, for example, to cut your own path by combining studies in the Center for Underwater Science, which offers instruction in underwater science diving, with courses in anthropology, archeology, and marine science, we could almost feel the room change. Students are free to pitch any ideas they may have for combining and recombining fields of study. How cool is that?

Rafael did advise that if it’s the Kelley School of Business you want, you should apply for direct admission, where previously an acceptance was likely if you met certain GPA and other requirements, but now involves a more holistic review.  It is possible to be accepted post-admission, but it is by no means a sure thing. It is also an option to pursue business studies outside of Kelley in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Hodge Hall, the building in which Kelley is primarily located, bursts with the energy of thousands of budding entrepreneurs. Many of them were dressed up in dark business suits, although we were told it was because they were having their pictures taken. They looked like an impressive bunch, the future of American enterprise without a doubt. 

For all of its forward-leaning intensity, IU also cherishes its traditions, perhaps none more than the chimes that emanate from its Bell Tower, which dates back to 1942 and is intended to link the school’s 19th-century origins to its present and its future.

Short bell sequences ring between classes, much like a clock tower at an older European university. On certain occasions, the bells might play “Indiana, Our Indiana,” or the national anthem. In many ways, they are meant to create a sense of belonging while on campus, and an indelible memory beyond that.

We left Indiana University as we found it, past those imposing yet inviting limestone towers, now to our left. Limestone, as you probably already know, is formed from marine life and carries with it the history of ancient seas. The Great Pyramid of Giza and medieval cathedrals were built of limestone.

You might say limestone is essential to modern civilization, and it is deeply intertwined with Earth’s climate and history. As foundations go, it’s pretty solid, metaphorically and otherwise. 

It is the kind of stone that builds.