Unlike the University of Texas or UCLA, Tufts is not exactly known for its attractive student body. In fact, in a March 2005 letter to the editor in Boston University's Daily Free Press, BU student John Kresser wrote, "Saying that Tufts has attractive students is like saying that the Green Line is reliable or Boston University has a fair Guest Policy - these statements are simply not true."
But at Tufts, students give a different story. The Daily's nonscientific sex poll, which was conducted last week in five public locations on campus, asked 157 Jumbos to rate the "hotness" of male Jumbos as a whole and female Jumbos as a whole, and then to rate their own individual hotness, all on a scale of one to 10, with one as "ice cold" and 10 as "smoking hot."
The students who answered were less flattering about other students, but less than modest about themselves.
According to the results, respondents consistently rated Jumbos of their own gender as hotter than those of the opposite sex. Males rated male Jumbos at 6.4 and females at 5.6, while females rated other females at 6.4 and males at 4.9.
At the same time, respondents of both genders rated themselves the highest: the average female rated herself at 7.3, and the average male rated himself at 7.6. That means that the average male respondent saw himself as hotter than the average male, and the average female saw herself as hotter than the average female. It also means that the genders had a difference of opinion about which sex is hotter.
Sophomore John Mazella said he thinks the results say something about how students think, at least on the male side.
"Everyone likes to say 'there are no hot chicks around here' to make up for the fact that they can't get any girls," he said. "And obviously people want to think they're hot themselves."
Sophomore Susan Lee, on the other hand, said it's clear which gender is the most attractive.
"[My roommates and I] were having a conversation about this last night," Lee said with a laugh. "We agreed that the girls here are more attractive than the guys. I think that's why girls rated themselves as hotter than guys - we're more attractive."
"The guys exaggerate," she added.
Out of all grades and genders, freshman males rated themselves the highest at 8.0, while freshman females rated themselves at 6.8. Among seniors, the trend had reversed: females rated themselves at 7.8 while males rated themselves at 7.3.
Female freshmen also had the lowest difference between the way the rated themselves and the way they rated female Jumbos as a whole: less than .5 on the hotness scale.
Sophomore Udy Onyeador said she could account for her own high hotness rating when she took the survey.
"I gave myself a really high rating as far as hotness, just because I was kind of like 'but what is hot? You're only as hot as you think you are,'" she said. "You rate yourself higher [than others] because you know within yourself how you feel ... When you look at other people, you make generalizations."
-by Matt Skibinski
