"This is what we get for $30,000 a year?!"
So begins the tired refrain I have heard too many times during my four years here. Tufts students have convinced themselves that they are being cheated by the school, that the administration is holding back, and that they aren't getting enough in exchange for their investment. However, students who hold this opinion are simply looking for their returns in the wrong places.
The reason that Tufts' dorms may not look as luxurious as the dorms at other schools, or why the athletic facilities may not seem so impressive, is simple: Tufts just doesn't have enough money. Tufts has amazingly managed to vault itself into the upper echelon of American universities in spite of an alumni giving rate and endowment that, though slowly improving, still pale in comparison to those of many of our competitors.
Tufts administrators chase nickels and dimes around the budget, attempting to make the most out of the little money they have to work with. What many Tufts students fail to realize though is that $30,000 a year times 4,500 students is still not very much money when it comes to funding a major university and trying to compete with the best schools in the nation.
Those students who quip that they will not donate money to Tufts because Tufts did not spend any money on them are being both unfair and immature. There is no secret slush fund, no hidden stockpile of money - Tufts spends all it has. Because past students have left with that attitude, there isn't nearly as much as administrators and students want.
After graduation, we can choose to leave future students to contend with the same difficulties of the past, or we can decide that we want Tuftonians of the future to have more than previous generations. As it is now, in spite of our lack of funding and consequent high tuition, Tufts remains a bargain for those students with the right priorities.
Too many students seem to think that all of Tufts' positives are commonplace, while all of our negatives exist only here. They harp on our weaknesses, while taking our strengths for granted, never once stopping to think that perhaps the grass isn't greener on the other side.
What truly sets Tufts apart is very difficult to put into words, though I will try. It is the tenor, the atmosphere - something so basic and so fundamental to our community that it usually goes unnoticed. It is intangible, a strength that cannot be seen in a new dorm or fresh coat of paint, a strength that cannot be bought by even the largest endowment.
There are numerous aspects of Tufts that contribute to its tenor, the first being its size. Tufts is one of only ten or 12 schools in the country with approximately 4,500 undergraduates - not a fact to be taken lightly. The unique size of the undergraduate population allows us to support a wide selection of courses, a major concert for Spring Fling, 150 or so student organizations, and much more, while at the same time fitting most of the administration into one building.
Professors teach classes and keep regular office hours, and anybody can make an appointment to see the president, but even as a second semester senior, I am still meeting classmates for the first time. Tufts' size allows it to be varied without ever being overwhelming.
A friend of mine who attends Yale took a course with Professor Harold Bloom, one of the world's leading biblical scholars. However, when he wanted to meet with Bloom, he had to make a day trip to Yale over Christmas break, because it was the only time Bloom was available. This is a problem few students have ever experienced at Tufts. The contact that Tufts students are able to have with administrators and professors may exist at some small colleges, and not enough students here appreciate that.
Still, though, I feel that the tenor of Tufts means much more than its unique size. It also has to do with the students, both the way they approach academics, and the way they relate to each other.
Last year, some friends and I went out to Boston College for a change of pace on a Saturday night. I was amazed by the dorms at BC - each one looked newer than the next, and they all made Haskell Hall look like a shanty town. But when we tried to enter parties, we were not allowed in because there was someone at the door each time who asked bluntly, "Who do you know?" Since we didn't know anybody throwing the party, we were not allowed in.
We left the BC campus in shock, unable to recall ever being treated in such a manner at Tufts. In this respect, Tufts students really need to give themselves a little more credit - we're a pretty cool bunch of people, and trust me, they aren't so cool everywhere else.
I give tours here, and I remember that the first time a parent asked me how much pressure and competition there is among students, I was taken aback. The idea of intense pressure and competition at Tufts seemed foreign to me, but at many other top schools, students are suffocated by an overbearing pressure to excel. Tufts students work very hard and want to do well, but come Friday night, they know how to put down their books and have a good time. Such a balance between academics and social life is rarely achieved at top universities.
While I hope that all of these examples help to illuminate what sets Tufts apart, I fear they still fall short. Perhaps in the end, there is no statistic or anecdote to fully explain what makes the Tufts community special - you just have to take a step back and look around. Tufts' greatest strength has been staring you in the face, surrounding you, ever since the moment you became a Jumbo, and don't ever make the mistake of thinking that it exists anywhere else.
It is true that Tufts is in some ways lacking, but our deficiencies are problems that can be fixed, especially if today's Tuftonians make better alumni than our predecessors. Community and tenor though, are much harder and take much longer to change.
So the next time you think that Tufts is ripping you off, think again. For $30,000 a year, you could be living in a beautiful dorm at a pretentious, pressure-filled school, where professors don't teach classes because they are on their book tours, deans are too busy and too important to know your name, and the food is terrible - it's called Harvard. For my money, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else but Tufts.
