For the first time, Tufts Summer Study is offering select rising high school seniors a chance to live in South Hall this summer.
Eligible students must be between 16- and 18-years-old and be taking at least one Tufts Summer Session course for academic credit, according to the Tufts Summer School session website.
While the pre-college summer study program has existed at Tufts since the early 1980s, the opportunity for these students to live at Tufts is new, according to Director of Tufts Summer Study Sean Recroft.
"We sense a change in this market, with more pre-college students expecting summer residential learning opportunities," Recroft told the Daily in an email. "Our residential program will be attractive to secondary school students looking for an early college experience."
Recroft expects that around 100 pre-college students will enroll in Tufts' summer program this year. The program will provide residential accommodations to 20 of those students, according to Recroft.
"We expect to grow this population significantly in future summers," he said.
The summer study program as a whole offers academic and enrichment courses to qualified high school students, according to Recroft.
"Applicants are looking to gain an edge in the competitive college selection process, while earning academic credit that can be transferred later," he said.
Students will take specialty courses, such as bioinformatics, medicine, composition and leadership, or summer courses offered by departments in the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering, such as Introduction to Philosophy, Principles of Finance and Introduction to International Relations. These courses can help students to later figure out their majors or career options, Recroft said.
Students will also have the opportunity to attend college preparatory workshops, according to a Tufts Summer Session pamphlet.
To maintain a safe and healthy environment for the students, residential assistants (RAs) will live in South Hall with the high school seniors and a proctor will supervise the overall conduct in the dorm, according to the Tufts Summer Study website. Students will reside in double-occupancy rooms on a mixed-gender floor from June 30 to Aug. 9.
Tufts Summer Study will also partner with Tufts Conferences and Event Services to staff their residential program, according to Molly Schwartz, a student employee at Tufts Summer Study.
"We will hire a number of students for many positions this summer, including this one," explained Adam Cotton, director of Conferences and Event Services. "We're in the middle of the interview and applicant process right now."
There will be between four and six RAs supervising South Hall, according to Cotton. The RAs will report directly to the proctor, and South Hall's residential proctor will report up to senior staff in Conferences and Event Services, he said.
There will also be front desk staff to secure the entrance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, according to the summer study website. There will also be a curfew.
South Hall was chosen as the residential option for these high school seniors because it has been used for similar programs previously, Cotton said.
"It's really our main dorm during the summer, and it made sense with such a small group in this pilot program to have them in a dedicated summer housing place," Cotton said.
Pre-college students in the program will have access to all Tufts facilities and will have a meal plan at Dewick-MacPhie Dining Hall, according to the Tufts Summer Study website. All of these are included in the comprehensive tuition and fee costs that range from $6,625 to $6,800, depending on the student's choice of course registration, according to the Tufts Summer Study website.
Although its applicants are limited to rising high school seniors, the Tufts pre-college summer program is separate from Tufts admissions. The two departments do not coordinate for this program, according to Cotton.
"The program isn't marketed to give any benefit in the admissions process," Cotton said.
Regardless, many Tufts Summer Study students end up considering applying to Tufts - or schools similar to Tufts. But the Tufts pre-college program makes no claims that participation in the program will improve one's chances for admission, Recroft said.
